Online Learning Communities:
Promoting Collaboration,
Inspiring Creativity,
and Giving Students a Voice
Ashley VanValkenburgh (Miss V)
Battle Creek Central High School
9th Grade English
What Piqued My Interest
• Computer literacy is a requisite in today’s world
• They are used to: downloaded music, phones in their
pockets, libraries on their laptops, hypertext, and instant
messaging.
• Young adults “have been networked most or all of their
lives” (Prensky 2001).
• “Students have an uncanny ability to outpace faculty ability
to master technology. …methods of electronic
communication have supplanted more mundane methods
of communication” (Custin and Barkacs 2010).
• Therefore, “…the world of writing is a mural, not a
snapshot” (Romano 2007)
Research Questions
• What can an online learning community (in the
form of a class website/blog) add to a
classroom?
• What are the benefits and drawbacks to such an
endeavor?
• Can student learning be enhanced? Can
teachers effectively measure student progress
and understanding?
My Classroom Make-Up
• Primary Mentor Teacher: Cortney Coats
• Honors English 9
• Why target this group?
– Curriculum involves various pieces of literature
– Supplementing the text with online activities and
aiming to increase students’ understanding of the
material
What Some Studies Have Found
• “…by completing the required readings and then
posting discussion questions and reflections on topics
of interest to which their classmates can respond-essentially beginning the conversation prior to the class
session--students become more engaged in the course
material” (Davi, Frydenberg, & Gulati 2007)
• Blogs are “personal in nature and a part of a
community and… blogs make the Internet more
‘human scale’” (Trammel & Ferdig 2004)
What is Edmodo?
• “Provides teachers and students with a secure
place to connect and collaborate, share content
and educational applications, and access
homework, grades, class discussions and
notifications”
• Its goal? “To help educators harness the power
of social media to customize the classroom for
each and every learner”
Integration of Technology
• “Laptop carts” as a resource
• Posting writing prompts each week relating to the novel
being read
– Example: Do you think the Friar and Nurse are acting like
responsible adults? Are they moral characters? Analyze the
motivations of both the Nurse and the Friar in their
attempts to help the young lovers and discuss the rightness
(or wrongness) of their decisions.
• Making expectations clear and providing students with a
detailed rubric
– “No abbreviations or text-like words. Complete sentences
and formal language are a must.”
– Inappropriate comments, personal attacks, and the like are
prohibited!
Excellent/Exemplary
Good
Minimal
Non-Existent
Use of
examples and
textual
support
I express a thorough
knowledge of the
material by discussing
specific examples,
giving textual evidence,
and offering
I express some
knowledge of the
material by using
an example or
incorporating a
quote from the
reading
I express a
vague/general
knowledge of the
material but fail to
provide
substantive details,
examples, quotes,
etc.
I have not been
keeping up with
the reading (and
this can be seen in
my posts)
Strong,
professional
voice
My opinion/viewpoint
is clear and expressed
in a tactful manner
My
opinion/viewpoint
is somewhat clear
and is usually
expressed tactfully
My
opinion/viewpoint
can barely be
determined by
readers and/or I
was lacking tact
My
opinion/viewpoint
is lacking
completely and/or
I attacked another
participant
verbally
I have met the
class requirement
in posting three
times this week.
I have only posted
once or twice this
week on the class
blog.
I did not post at all
on the class blog.
Participation I have gone above and
beyond the
requirements and have
posted more than three
times this week!
What Happened
1)
PARTICIPATION FROM OTHERWISE QUIET STUDENTS (GIVING
STUDENTS A VOICE)
S.A. : I look forward to going to college so that I can become an obstetrician. I
want to live in a nice house NOT in Battle Creek!! I want to travel and do
everything I possbily can before I have children. These things will make
my life better becuase I will make alot of money and I will have a place to
live and not be homeless on the street like others, and I just love to
travel!!! Similarly, Napoleon allows Moses to tell these stories of
Sugarcandy mountain because he wants to give the animals something to
look forward to in the future. The animals were working for little of
nothing and were not very motivated. These stories gives the animals a
purpose to work, a purpose to stay motivated. Napoleon knows that this is
the only way to keep the animals working for him.
• M.R. - I agree with you when you say that if they dont have anything to
look forward to they will not be motivated, and then not much work will
get done around the farm if they think they are doing it for nothing.
• G.J. - I absolutely agree because if the animals dont have anything to look
forward to then there would be no reason for them to keep on going.
What Happened
2) STUDENTS ENCOURAGING AS WELL AS CHALLENGING ONE
ANOTHER & STUDENTS ENGAGING IN PEER MENTORING
(COLLABORATION)
S.S. : What will Romeo and Juliet do after they get married? Are they going to
run away, keep their marriage a secret, tell the parents, what are they
planning to do? what is the best choice for these two love birds?
• J.W. - I think romeo and juliet will tell their parents that they are married
and see how it goes over with them if it is a bad reaction then i think they
will leave and live a better life without the parents
• G.J. - I think that Romeo and Juliet will keep their marriage a secret. But I
believe that their marriage won’t stay a secret. I think that the friar will tell
their parents because he thinks that it isn’t a good idea to be married in
secret. I believe the best thing to do right now is to just lay low and not
make it obvious that they are married.
What Happened
3) BEING ABLE TO ANSWER STUDENTS QUESTIONS OUTSIDE THE
CLASSROOM TO AID IN COMPREHENSION OF THE TEXT
G.J.: Do you think that Juliet is going to go through with the whole marriage
thing with Paris? Will the father change his mind about having Juliet marry
Paris?
• Me - It's definite a tough decision for her... I do not think that Lord Capulet
will change his mind. He seems very adamant about the marriage and is
stern when he says, "She'll be ruled by me" (paraphrasing). It will be
interesting to see what Juliet does next... What plan is she concocting? Will
she avoid the marriage? Will she pretend to love him, marry him, and then
run away at the first opportunity? We shall see....
• Me - Wow.... I just saw that in the first line of that response, there is a typeo! Way to set a good example, Miss V!
• G.J. - Hahaha I know right :)
Further Issues/Implications
• Funding and resources (or lack thereof)
• “Technology doesn’t make our work any tidier”
(Kajder 2007)
• Requires intense supervision, explicit
guidelines, planning of alternative assignments,
and willingness to work outside the classroom
(but don’t most aspects of teaching?)
Where To Go From Here…
• Encouraging more student dialogue, giving
students more freedom to choose topics and ask
questions
– “It’s as if our instincts lead us to take what we’ve done
in the past and reproduce the process using different
tools to create the same product” (Kajder 2007)
• Developing more alternatives for students with
physical handicaps, learning disabilities, and other
special needs
• Changing my method of evaluation/grading
– Certain number of responses per students per week
may lead to student dissatisfaction (Custin & Barkacs
2010)
A Thank You To…
All faculty members in the
Fritz Shurmur Center for Teacher Development
Michael Roessler
Suellyn Henke
Jason Moritz
Guy Cox
Mary Weicht
Mentor Teachers
Cortney Coats
Susan Jordan
Friends and Family!
Sources of Information
Coats, C., Personal communication, January-March 2012.
Custin, R., & Barkacs, L. (2010). “Developing sustainable learning
communities through blogging.” Journal of Instructional
Pedagogies, 4.
Davi, A., Frydenberg, M., & Gulati, G.J. (2007). “Blogging across the
disciplines: Integrating technology to enhance liberal learning.”
Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 3.
Kajder, S.B. (2007). Unleashing potential with emerging technologies.
In K. Beers, R. Probst, & L. Rief (Eds.), Adolescent Literacy (213229). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Prensky, Marc. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the
Horizon. MCB University Press, 9, (5).
Trammel, K.D., & Ferdig, R.E. (2004). Pedagogical implications of
classroom blogging. Academic Exchange Quarterly.
Questions, Comments,
Suggestions?