Because I very strongly believe in the power of online communities to assist individuals in their professional learning and professional development, in the survey I asked the following.
The fact that the survey respondents are largely already committed to one or more online communities probably influenced the result in this question - although I will give you more details of the text responses in my next post.
I think what we have to do is persuade others of the benefit of being part of an online community, show colleagues how membership brings benefits that far outweigh the time spent in them.
In an earlier post, I wrote about what I believe are some of the benefits of social networking for example. I also believe that for now the “lighter weight” communities such as email distribution lists continue to have a future simply because the technology they require is simpler, more easily accessible. But I also think that eventually they will disappear in the face of web 2.0 technologies such as Twitter, and online communities such as me.edu communities, where logged in participants can comment on RSS feeds and each other’s posts to the community.
If you were asked to talk for a minute or two about why you find online communities valuable, what would you say? What would your “elevator speech” be?
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Online communities keep you in touch with relevant information. People let others know what they need and others say what worked for them. It is part of an ongoing conversation. You can choose to post comments or just read them. For the community to work posts are appreciated. It is a way of building up your own knowledge which you can then pass on to others who may not be in the online community. When you need help you know who to ask. Email online communities are great because they come straight to you.
Online communities support me in problem-solving, push the boundaries of my thinking, and connect me to both ideas and resources. They provide the peer network I couldn’t possibly have in a primary school.
My online communities take me around the world, show me different ideas and perspectives, let me know that I am not alone, I’m not the first and I won’t be the last. They give me access to practical, accessible, just-tried-it-out discussions of new techniques, technologies and ideas. So many of my really successful activities have come from an idea I learned about online. It keeps me freshly excited every time I log on, and that translates to more enthusiasm from me in my classroom and more interest and engagement from my students.
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