Literature+Review


 * Literature Review**

The following is meant as an evolving resource to aid the implementation of the Virtual Learning Community Project. This literature review has been prepared to provide an overview of relevant research on virtual learning communities with the purposes of a) helping Dr. Amy Ryan and her colleagues more effectively plan and organize upcoming focus groups and team meetings, b) to provide context and background information for members of the Virtual Learning Community Team, and c) to expose Virtual Learning Community Team members to a variety of literature that can be discussed in more detail during team meetings. In order to achieve these goals, this review will deviate in form and content from a traditional, journal-published literature review. In particular, the review will be organized under subheadings that correspond to planned discussion topics for team meetings. The literature review will also include topics that will not be highlighted in our discussions due to time constraints. Most importantly, this document will be available as a static, hard copy and as a wiki. Since the substance of the wiki document will change as priorities evolve and objectives shift, large sections of the document cannot be completed at this time. The Wiki format is being used to encourage participation; in particular, so team members can respond to articles cited in the literature review as well as add new references to the review. All recommended readings will be available via Blackboard along with an annotated bibliography. You can also find more detailed summaries of the most important articles under the //Article Summaries// link on the sidebar of this wiki. **Definitions, Theory and Intent** How we choose to define a virtual learning community (VLC) will signal the direction of our thinking and the intentions of our project. The literature provides a vast array of terminology meant to signal the powerful potential energy located at the confluence of the internet and education research. Engaging in a semantic battle over the relative strengths of terminology such as //virtual community, online learning community, social learning network, online self-organized social system, and personal learning environment// is less important than crafting a definition to affix to our chosen term. Luckily, we have already selected virtual learning community as our collocation; now we must formulate a definition.

Below is a sample of terminology and their respective definitions as found in the literature. As there is no discernible agreement in the educational community about what terms are appropriate or how to best define each term, there is no need to feel beholden to any single definition. Riel and Polin (2004) noted that each term has evolved “out of a different research tradition thus highlighting different aspects of collaborative work and group structure” (Riel and Polin, p. 16); however, the scant amount of research in the field (Hur J.W. and Brush T.A, 2008, p. 300) makes it difficult to trace an “evolution.” · **Online learning community**:

a) …a developed activity system in which a group of learners, unified by a common cause and empowered by a supportive virtual environment, engage in collaborative learning within an atmosphere of trust and commitment (Ke, F., & Hoadley, C., 2009, p. 489).

b) …a learning atmosphere, a context providing a supportive system from which sustainable learning processes are gained through a dialogue and collaborative construction of knowledge by acquiring, generating, analyzing, and structuring information (Carlen & Jobring, 2005, p. 273).

c) We believe that there are two components, however, that are not included in these lists that distinguish the online learning community from an online community, such as a listserv or online group, where people meet due to a common interest. Engaging in collaborative learning differentiates the online learning community and lends it its power in the learning process (Pallof, R. & Pratt, K., 2007, p. 6). · **Virtual Learning Community:**

Virtual learning communities are learning communities that are computer-mediated by interconnected computers. Communication characteristics of virtual learning communities include: asynchronous and synchronous communication, high interactivity, and multiway communication (Luppicini, R. 2007, p. 327).

· **Online Self-Organizing Social Systems (OSOSS):**

An online self-organizing social system exists when: a large number of people engage in a large number of direct or indirect interactions via the network, these interactions help individuals accomplish things they have reason to value, no central authority provides extrinsic incentives for participation in the system, no central authority regulates or controls the interactions. (Wiley, D. 2007 p. 291). · **Online Communities of Practice**:

a) …a persistent, sustained social network of individuals, who share and develop an overlapping knowledge base, set of beliefs, values, history, and experiences focused on a common practice and/or mutual enterprise (Barab S., et all., 2004, p. 55).

b) …groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis (Wenger, E., McDermott, R. & Snyder, W., 2002, p. 4).

· **Social Network Sites**:

a) We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. …we chose not to employ the term “networking” for two reasons: emphasis and scope. “Networking” emphasizes relationship initiation, often between strangers. While networking is possible on these sites, it is not the primary practice on many of them (Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B., 2007, p. 211).

b) Social networking sites are the latest online communication tool that allows users to create a public or semi-public profile, create and view their own as well as other users’ online social networks, and interact with people in their networks (Subrahmanyam, K., Reich, S. M., Waechter, N., & Espinoza, G., 2008 p. 420). · **Personal Learning Landscape:**

A Personal Learning Landscape promotes learner-centered expression through personal web publishing, while facilitating the formation of peer-to-peer learning communities in which knowledge sharing, conversation, and reflection can take place (Campbell, A., Ammann, R., & Dieu, B., 2005, p. 1).

There are a number of ways to organize or group these definitions. Such groupings help reveal the most salient commonalities and differences among the definitions. Beginning with commonalities and differences may also provide a foundation from which deductive reasoning can be used to locate the theoretical thinking and assumptions buoying each definition.

One way to organize these definitions is along two useful axes: facilitator control and defined purpose. The facilitator control axis measures the amount of leverage the site or project creators and administrators hold over operations, content, rules and access. The defined purpose axis measures the specificity of a site’s mission statement (there does not need to be an actual mission statement to promote a highly defined mission). It is important to note that these axes interact with each other. For example, some scholars have hypothesized that e-learning programs have often failed to achieve their mission due to high levels of administrative controls, i.e. the programs were not allowed to organically mature (Johnson, M. & Liber, O. 2008; Selwyn & Neil, 2009). As we begin to define our own set of goals (broad: improve student outcomes, narrow: create a user-generated library for lesson plans) designers should continually revisit the amount of power they plan to hold over the site’s operation (Drexler, W., Baralt, A., & Dawson, K. 2008).

It may also be useful to organize these definitions in terms of their references to technology and web applications. A common criticism of distance education is that online classes have attempted to merely replicate a face-to-face class experience (Harlen, W. & Doubler, S., 2007, p. 475). However, other scholars have cautioned e-learning developers against prefiguring technological tools over more traditional content and pedagogy. An online community will be inherently different from an offline community. What definitions take into account these important departures while recognizing the necessary similarities between the two communities?

We can further differentiate these definitions by the presence or absence of the word “community.” Many scholars have commented on the ubiquity of the term “community” in recent educational discussions (Barab, S., Kling, R. & Gray, J. 2004, p. 3; Riel & Polin, 2007, p. 17). Does community, as a concept, share certain features across the above list of terminology? As communities become defined by something other than tactile, face-to-face interactions, the challenge of explaining what exactly constitutes community becomes more daunting (Grossman, p2). Does terminology such as //Online Self-Organizing Social System// simply avoid the use of the word community, while implying its presence? Or is there truly a difference between those definitions that omit the word community and those that include it? VLC designers must avoid relying on a simplified understanding of community and should examine their own assumptions concerning what constitutes a community. For starters, it may be useful to consider that not all communities are functional.