|
ENT Gallery: Developing a Community of Practice
|
| Goals and Roles |
| |
 The participants began their collaboration with the overarching goal identified by Plimoth Plantation in their grant proposal: to create a prototype for an Online Learning Center. They began this work by focusing on the development of a curriculum module called Packing for America. The participants hoped to use their work in the online course to design this initial module while becoming familiar with the Teaching for Understanding(TfU) framework and the process of collaborating and learning online.
Though elements of the Packing for America concept were outlined in Plimoth's grant proposal to the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations (AVD), what this prototype would actually look like when designed using TfU was somewhat unclear. As a result, each group-museum educators, classroom teachers, and university educators-interpreted the "prototype" concept differently. Undetected, this lack of clarity and consensus proved detrimental to the development of their product. Upon reflection, many participants felt the process would have been easier if their goals had been clearly articulated and aligned, and an explicit process to achieve them had been put in place.
Participants said they might have paid more attention to their varied goals if their roles were more clearly identified. At the initial face-to-face meetings at Plimoth Plantation, it was clear that Plimoth was leading this project. During the first sessions of the online course this leadership was less visible as all of the participants embraced their roles as learners and collaborators. The group developed a dynamic collegial atmosphere as they reflected on their individual goals and their task ahead. However, as the group began to use the Collaborative Curriculum Design Tool (CCDT) to develop their product, problems of leadership and accountability arose. The WIDE World coach worked with the participants to try and keep their process on track, but the visionary, strategic and managerial leadership provided by Plimoth off-line was not replicated in the online environment. Without clear leadership or designated responsibilities to move the project forward, the group struggled to complete their design. Accountability and visible leadership are essential to collaborative development of a product in an online environment where the absence of both synchronous meetings and social presence can undermine momentum.
Onto:
|
|
