?In schools with strong norms for innovation and strong professional communities,
teachers find motivation, direction, and accountability for continuous learning and
development. They find among their colleagues sources of new ideas, intellectual
stimulation, and feedback essential to deepen learning and promote instructional
change. They also find encouragement and safety in challenging taken-for granted
assumptions, risk-taking, and experimenting with new ideas.?

I wonder if since Sun purposefully targets schools in less privileged areas, whether we might be setting ourselves up for extra challenges. Is it that these schools do NOT have strong norms for innovation or communities of practice as cited above?

still from the same article

key factors for success:
small class size (The Mathematics Learning Forums are limited to ten participants per forum).
structure - creating specified times for activities, reading, etc., and specified time for focussed, on-line discussion
facilitators who have prior classroom experience
scheduling
http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/Guidelines/MLF-Paper.html#Bulletin%20Board

More from the Mathematics Forums...
In order to meet the requirement for technical ease for this group of K-8 faculty, it could not be assumed that fast hook-ups were available, so the Forums were conducted as listservs which only required email functionality and could be accessed by dial-up. Archives of the discussions and materials were handled via WAIS database.

OGP suffered many technical difficulties throughout the beginning of this year. Various hardware and software problems made it impossible for some classes to get online, or get booted off with regularity. The request for using email was one of the suggestions from the online survey that we had techmentors complete.

In the Forums mentioned below, the role of the online facilitator was to "raise questions, guide discussion, and provide reflective commentary."

The OGP online community was really superfluous becuase the coaches for each of the four areas functioned as the facilitators for the techmentors and their work with the lesson plans. The techmentors did not have a need that was met by going online.

Forums were also grounded in the reality of the classroom context and had some kind of activity as a basis. Again, OGP online lacked this. There were a number of different Forums, each of which focused on a different topic. Topics included mathematical content, student learning, teaching strategies or assessment techniques. Forums were limited to 10 teachers each.

In the Mathematics Learning Forums organized by Bank Street College of Education and The Center for Children and Technology (CCT), they use video as a common experience for teachers involved in the forums. The use of the videotapes also provides a concrete experience from which the teachers can begin to reflect and converse in the forums. The forums also discuss articles and materials for in-class activities that are provided.

In OGP, there was no requirement for reflection on the part of the techmentors. Their deliverables were centered around the lesson plans, and what did not facilitate the plans was perceived as "extra".
http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/Guidelines/MLF-Paper.html

Williams, Michelle (1997). Professional associations: supporting teacher communities. Computers in New Zealand Schools. Volume 9, Number 2. In Print. accessed from
http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/williams/writing97/cinNZ.html

different models/definitions of Internet:
1. information source
2. communities - about the importance of connecting people. "It is difficult to portray what it feels like when you can help another teacher on another continent. It is wonderful to experience how excited students become about their writing and publishing when involved in projects with other students."

To build effective learning community, need several things:
1. environment where people feel safe to be honest
2. skilled facilitator
3. content of community should be related to classroom-related activities

Williams, Michelle (1997). Professional associations: supporting teacher communities. Computers in New Zealand Schools. Volume 9, Number 2. In Print. accessed from
http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/williams/writing97/cinNZ.html

jobs educators do
teach students
interpret curriculum
develop resources
counsel peers and students
perform non-teaching student-tasks, such as record keeping
complete administrative roles that make the workplace (a school) function effectively
participate in strategic planning role
contribute to systems management
conduct personnel training
contribute to advocacy roles
contribute to marketing roles

Skills behind the tasks
collecting, analyzing and organising information
communicating ideas and information
planning and organising activities
working with others and in teams
solving problems
understanding the culture in which people live and work, govern and care
managing projects
managing teams of people
practicing advocacy and marketing skills (Williams 1997b)
 
For teachers, participating in the community of practice is not only a right, but also a responsibility. It is part of the work ethic of being an educator and necessary to the survival of the craft. Systems and employers provide less and less resources for teachers. More and more, teachers are taking responsibility for their own professional growth. Consequently participation in the profession is now part of teachers? work.

from Building Online Professional Networks: Three Stages to Success by Suzanne Raineyhttp://www.onlinecommunityreport.com/features/rainey

first stage = one way communication
second stage = two-way interaction
the third stage is about actually getting the members to collaborate. strongly recommend holding off-line events that reinforce online activities and infrequently also host online events. don't do online events more often as resource-heavy.

From Building Online Communities, "the Guide - 3.1" Webcrossing, http://dev.webxharbor.com/Images/docs/Guide/pages/building.html

To determine what components your community should consist of, must know what it is you are trying to accomplish; what is your purpose?"

They suggest the use of metaphors to encourage the notion of community as well as provide organization, ie, WebX Harbor is organized like a small town and the folders in the community are labeled City Hall, Community Center, Institute of Technology. plus a location for "New in Town". they think use of metaphors makes the community unique and entices users to come back and visit.

from Teacher Professional Development & Online Learning Communities
by Greg Shultz & Alex Cuthbert

What Are The Challenges & Opportunities?
Typical teacher workshops tend to occur once, deal with decontextualized information, and often do not resonate with teacher?s perceived needs.
The most successful professional development activities are those that are extended over time and encourage development of teachers? learning communities.
(NRC, 2000)

We recently came up with four design considerations for people creating online learning communities (Cuthbert, Clark, and Linn, 2000):
(a) support the actual practices and daily tasks of the participants
(b) collect experiences and represent them in an accessible and equitable manner
(c) provide a framework to guide the learning process
(d) represent the identities of the community members

From pp. 227-228 of How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School (NRC, 2000):
-Internet-based communities of teachers exchange info/support for geographically-dispersed teachers
-WWW also enables widespread teacher communication, e.g. via websites of evaluated resources
-teacher communities of practice need environments that generate a "social glue", with
chances for planned interactions
-tools for joint review and annotation of education resources
-opportunities for online collaborative design activities