Employing Wikipedia for good not evil: innovative approaches to collaborative writing assessment

Wikipedia is an open educational resource that connects writers and editors to diverse discourse communities around the world. Unwarranted stigma is attached to the use of Wikipedia in higher education due to fears that students will not pursue rigorous research practices because of the easy access to information that Wikipedia facilitates. In studies referred to in this paper, undergraduate writing students are taught about the need to interrogate any information they find on Wikipedia just as they would other online source material. They are inducted into fact checking, editing and creating Wikipedia articles as a means to analyse source material critically and to advance their research, writing and digital literacy. Meanwhile, in a postgraduate course in magazine studies, instead of writing essays, students are promoting Australian magazines and print culture by writing Wikipedia entries about Antipodean magazines and their editors. These courses experiment with new approaches to formative and summative assessment; promote group research, collaborative and participatory writing, writing across networks and negotiating discourse communities; and challenge students’ perceptions about peer review and the legitimacy of Wikipedia.     

Reconceptualising fieldwork in a netnography of an online community of English language teachers

Netnography is an approach to studying online communities and cultures to arrive at an ethnographic understanding. Drawing on our own experiences and methodological choices in a netnography of a multi-site online community of practice of English language teachers, known as Webheads in Action, this article illustrates how ethnographic fieldwork practices change when carried out with communities that exist primarily online. Focusing on illustrative examples from our 10-month netnographic fieldwork data, we argue that concepts of ‘the field, participant observation, interviews, and researcher survival skills’ are experienced in fundamentally different ways in netnography as opposed to in-person ethnography, which calls for reconceptualisation of fieldwork practices in online communities because of the dynamics of online environments and the use of web-based technologies.     

基于网络实践共同体的非正式学习研究

网络环境下的非正式学习是当前终身学习社会的战略主题,网络实践共同体是其重要载体和组织形式,它是非正式学习的典型形式。它具有高效的信息分享、知识创造、平台稳定、资源重用等学习特征。非正式学习通常经历萌芽期、发展期、成熟期和管理期四个循环发展阶段。     

Cultural and organisational issues facing online learning communities of teachers

Collegial sharing and reflection about practice has been widely suggested as an effective form of teacher professional learning. Information and communications technology (ICT) has the potential to foster this professional learning through online community environments. Whilst the potential of self-sustaining online teacher communities to support professional learning through reflective sharing of practice is recognised, the journey to realising this potential is not straightforward. This paper identifies two key aspects of school culture that are acting as barriers on the journey—schools do not adequately value collegial reflective sharing of practice, and classroom teachers do not use online communications tools as an integral part of their professional practices. The paper suggests a framework for maximising participation in online teacher communities.     

A Student’s Guide to Strengthening an Online Community

Students usually have plenty of experience with online social technologies, but they lack understanding about how to use these tools and methods for course learning. This article is designed to help college students who are anxious about participating in an online learning community or do not know how to build one effectively. With ideas derived from research and practice, this guide has been written to inform online students about learning communities, the benefits they offer, and how students can assist in building a successful online community.     

An investigation of knowledge‐building activities in an online community of practice at Subaru of America

Current approaches to workplace learning emphasize designing communities of practice that are intended to support both formal and informal knowledge acquisition. This article presents the design and research of a knowledge‐based community of practice for Subaru, based on principles outlined by Scardamalia (2002) and Zhang, Scardamalia, Lamon, Messina, and Reeve (2007). The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which participants' interactions in the online community showed evidence of individual and collective knowledge building. We found evidence of knowledge building within online discussions in these areas: interactions around improvement of ideas, connection to workplace knowledge and practices, and building on or adopting the ideas of others. We also found significant gains in scores on an assessment of workplace customer service after participation in the online community of practice.     

Intersecting communities of practice in distance education: the program team and the online course community

This article is a case study that aimed at understanding the dynamics of two complementary communities involved in a distance education graduate program: one community of practice formed by the instructors and instructional developers, who designed and developed the program, and another created by the students and instructor in one of the online courses. The relationship between both communities and the evolution that occurred within the online course are analyzed. Emergent themes are discussed and recommendations are made for similar contexts and communities.     

Value creation in online communities for educators

The popularity and pervasiveness of online communities have led researchers and practitioners alike to closely examine the utility of online communities for supporting and facilitating professional learning. As economic constraints leave fewer resources available for professional development, educators in particular are examining the potential of online communities to enhance and extend traditional professional development opportunities. Leveraging the potential of online communities requires an in‐depth understanding of the value that members find through their participation. This study used Wenger, Trayner and de Laat's value creation framework to better understand cycles of value creation in online communities. Findings illuminate how members with varying perspectives and levels of expertise co‐construct new forms of meaning and understanding in ways that are individually and collectively valuable, and how they apply that knowledge to their professional practice. Additionally, the study offers insight into the ways in which actions of community leaders and a sponsoring organization support and facilitate value creation through different types of activities, tools and interactions.     

Wikipedia Use in Research: Perceptions in Secondary Schools

Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that can be edited by users, is growing both in the number of content articles written as well as the number of registered users. Students rely on Wikipedia (Purcell et al., 2012) and Wikipedia, through tools, is enabling users to make better decisions regarding the information they find (Gray, 2013; Kyrios, 2013; Lamb & Johnson, 2013). However, are teachers and librarians in secondary schools learning to embrace the online encyclopedia? This exploratory study surveyed classroom teachers and librarians/library staff regarding their perceptions of the effects of Wikipedia use by students in research assignments, their perceptions of the need for school policy regarding the use of Wikipedia by students, and regarding their knowledge of the Page Assessment Guide designed to help users judge the reliability of the information on a page.     

New Model,New Strategies: Instructional design for building online wisdom communities

We discuss the development of an instructional design model, WisCom (Wisdom Communities), based on socio‐constructivist and sociocultural learning philosophies and distance education principles for the development of online wisdom communities, and the application and evaluation of the model in an online graduate course in the USA. The WisCom model aims to facilitate transformational learning by fostering the development of a wisdom community, knowledge innovation, and mentoring and learner support in an online learning environment, based on a “Cycle of Inquiry” module design, and a “Spiral of Inquiry” program design. Extending beyond current instructional design practice, WisCom provides both a new model for teaching that builds upon the inherent capacity of networked communication to support the growth and intellectual development of communities of practice, and a new model of learning where learners engage in the process of scholarly inquiry that supports individual and collective learning. Evaluation and research data support the WisCom model's ability to design a learning community engaged in the collaborative construction of knowledge.     

学习共同体研究热点知识图谱分析

为科学清晰地展现国内外学习共同体研究成果,以中国知网（CNKI）与科学引文数据库（WOS）为文献来源,运用 CiteSpace V 软件的关键词共现聚类分析、研究机构共现分析和关键词时区共现分析等方法绘制知识图谱。研究发现,国内外学习共同体研究前沿包括教师专业学习共同体、网络学习共同体以及实践共同体 3大主流方向。研究热点聚焦教师专业发展、项目教学、合作学习、情景学习、教学策略开发等理论。未来学习共同体将与深度学习、泛在学习、自组织等理论结合产生新的生长点,对教师专业发展和网络学习具有重要推动作用。     

保守百科——美国宗教人士对维基百科的回应

参考资料查询网站维基百科建立时间虽短，却屡受攻击，而现在它又添了一个敌人：福音派基督徒。由美国宗教活动家建立的这一网站旨在打击维基百科这一网络上最受欢迎的开放百科全书上的“自由偏见”。Conservapedia．com声称他们的网站为“越来越反基督教和反美”的维基百科提供了一个“急人所需的替代品”。保守人士说，由于维基百科全球志愿编辑团队固有的偏见，他们无法对维基百科上的文章做出改动。因此，他们选择“克隆”一个新网站，希望借此传播基督教价值观。“我曾尝试对维基百科进行编辑，但是却发现那些不公正的编辑控制着网站审查或更改事实来迎合他们自己的观点，”保守百科的创立者安迪·施拉夫利告诉《卫报》，“有一次，我据实的编辑在60秒之内就被删除了。”施拉夫利在保守百科上所列的批评言辞中解释了有多少文章经常使用英式英语而非美式英语的拼写并宣称维基百科“拒绝”给予基督教在文艺复兴时期的足够荣誉。“任何于进化论相悖的事实几乎都被立即审查，”他接着说。目前，保守百科的创立已经遭致了网络界的诸多嘲讽。     

Motivation,Empowerment, and Innovation: Teachers' Beliefs About How Participating in the Edmodo Math Subject Community Shapes Teaching and Learning

Educators around the world participate in virtual communities, social media sites, and online networks in order to gain support and ideas for improving their practice. Many researchers have explored how and why teachers participate in these online spaces; however, there is limited research on how participation might impact teaching and learning. This study was designed to examine how K–12 teachers' participation in the Edmodo math subject community, an informal online space for educators, shaped their learning and practice. Data were collected through an online survey of 150 participants and in-depth, follow-up interviews with 10 participants. Three themes emerged from the participants' responses: motivation, empowerment, and innovation. The participants were motivated to spend time learning how to improve their practice, they felt empowered to make changes to their practice, and they believed they were able to adopt innovative, student-centered practices. Implications and ideas for further research are discussed.     

School Teachers' Continuous Professional Development in an Online Learning Community: lessons from a case study of an eTwinning Learning Event

A social revolution is occurring in the way information is shared, knowledge is generated and innovation takes place over the Internet and there is renewed interest in the social concept of ‘community’ to support online learning. This article describes action research conducted in the context of an eTwinning Learning Event (LE) that provides useful insights into how an online learning community can support the continuous professional development (CPD) of school teachers. Using the Community of Inquiry framework (Garrison et al., 2000), it offers empirical evidence of how cognitive, social and teaching aspects impact competence development. It suggests that online learning communities offer an appropriate environment for teachers' intellectual and emotional reflection, characterised by trust, mutual respect and shared values centred on improving pupils' learning. It also suggests that the educational experience within such a community is significantly influenced by the tutor's design and moderation of activities aimed at fostering critical thinking. The article concludes that online learning communities offer a valuable alternative to traditional teacher training by supporting teachers to learn in the context of their everyday practice, whilst collaborating and reflecting on their experience with peers across regions and countries. Concerning the wider use of social networking for learning, it suggests that educators still have a valuable role to play in ensuring that collaboration leads to an effective educational experience.     

How to Build a Better Online Community

There have been many attempts to design online communities of practices (CoPs) as social contexts in which teachers can work together for their professional development. In practice, however, the realization of such a community is far from what is promised in theory. One of the most significant reasons for online community failures is our general lack of understanding of the potential influences of teachers' of‐fline cultures. Thus, this study explores the interaction of online and offline teachers' cultures to better understand which offline cultural influences might affect teachers' participation in the Inquiry Learning Forum (ILF), an online community of practice hosted by the Center for Research on Learning and Technology (CRLT) at a mid‐western university. Using a qualitative case‐study approach, data were collected by conducting document analyses, holding online and face‐to‐face meetings, and conducting interviews with designers, researchers, and teachers. Weidentified seven cultural influences that negatively affected the teachers' rate of participation in the ILF: (1) lack of time, (2) their isolated working culture, (3) lack of reflection on their practices, (4) lack of technological support, (5) pressure from state‐mandated standards, (6) pre‐existing mistrust directed at the university, and (7) preferences for face‐to‐face interaction. These findings will inform future designers, so that they may continue to improve the utility of online CoPs for teachers' professional development.     

促进教师专业发展的网络学习共同体创建研究

已有的众多研究和实践均表明,网络学习共同体的有效建立和应用能够促进教师的专业发展.本文采用文献分析与实证检验方法,首先分析了教师专业发展和网络学习共同体之间的关系,以及网络学习共同体的成员、工具、主题、资源、活动等必备要素,并提炼出系统性地创建优秀网络学习共同体的实践策略,主要包括清晰界定共同体的主题和目的、建立共同体领导团队、建立共同体成员记录档案、界定共同体成员行为准则、组织策划周期性的学习活动等.最后,文章简要阐述了基于博客平台的网络学习共同体(天河部落)应用上述策略所取得的实践效果,并进行了总结.     

Adult learners and professional development: peer‐to‐peer learning in a networked community

This paper analyses how adult learners on a professional development course learn and develop through online dialogue. The research uses Wenger’s community of practice framework, and assesses whether the concept of ‘legitimate peripheral participation’ is useful in relation to this specific case study in which the students are practitioners and parents of individuals with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). The study focuses on peer‐to‐peer learning and analyses a sample of asynchronous online discussions from three separate online tutorial groups. The first part of the study combines quantitative analysis of distribution patterns, with qualitative discourse analysis that measures central concepts associated with communities of practice. The second part of the study addresses whether the concept of ‘legitimate peripheral participation’ is useful in this context. The contribution of one key individual in each group is analysed in order to provide a narrative about how that person communicates with the others, shares values and repertoires with them and gradually becomes a central member of the community. The data supports the notion that these forms of interaction and approaches to learning can favour the construction of knowledge and help to develop reflective skills and a sense of ‘togetherness’ in the group through sharing stories with one another, developing identity through the discussions and through this enabling the development of community. The findings indicate that the learners are provided with opportunities to consider the strengths and weaknesses of ideas from multiple perspectives and that key students play a role in enabling other students to move from a position of legitimate peripheral participation to becoming full members of the community.     

Online Communities of Practice: A Catalyst for Faculty Development

This article addresses the concept of communities of practice and how it has come of age for the professional development of professors as teachers. Thanks to current technological options, faculty developers can enhance the opportunity for the entire faculty to learn through the use of online communities. Designing a faculty development portal using community of practice concepts can be an effective means to jump-start, facilitate, develop, and sustain faculty involvement in academic communities.     

Peer mentoring in engineering: (un)shared experience of undergraduate peer mentors and mentees

In this qualitative study, we explored the experiences of 26 engineering student mentors and mentees in a peer mentoring program. We found that mentors and mentees exploited the mentoring program’s fluid structure and situated social relationships to enact a specific type of academic/professional goal and identity conducive to their entry to one of two communities of practice, the on-campus engineering program community and the community of professional engineers. The mentoring program functioned as a social space in which identities of these students converged and diverged, creating a subtle tension and self-reflection in relation to the two different communities of practice that they pursued.