Bewarethegeek Goes Digital

The Nature of a Learning Community

A learning community is a community in which:

• common interests and cohesiveness bring people together to share knowledge and learn skills (Kilpatrick et. al, 2003, Downs, 2004).
• the interests, conversations and knowledge shared benefit the whole community (Kilpatrick et. al, 2003).
• knowledge is not only transferred between members, but new knowledge is generated (Kilpatrick et. al, 2003).
• social capital is built by way of established norms and values which facilitate trust and appropriate levels of disclosure between members (Kilpatrick, 2003), as well as appropriate ways of acting and placing value on what one is learning (Downs, 2004).
• the importance of social interactions with regard to constructing value, identity and learning is recognised (Kilpatrick et. al, 2003).
• group diversity is valued and contributes to the process of learning (Gokhale, 2005).
• most simply, learning occurs.

The synthesis of the above information has also been informed by informal conversations with colleagues online ongoing from March 7th, 2009.

The Nature and Focus of Tegan and Sara Fan Community

Tegan and Sara are a band comprising of twin sisters Tegan and Sara Quin. The fan community (to be referred to as .ca, as that is what its members refer to it as) is an online bulletin board of over 8000 members, running on the open source software phpBB. When compared to communities using social networking (such as facebook groups) the technology behind .ca is simplistic, with a range of different categories relating to the band, forum rules, general discussion and then other, with many sub categories existing within each of these.

While I feel, for new users, the focus of the community is the band, and the reason they joined .ca, this gives way to a very multi-focused environment when the user begins to explore all the other categories and conversation threads available.

How is this community a learning community?

My initial expectations of this community were based around the assumption that members were accessing it to learn more about the band. However from both my observations and participation on the .ca boards, I found that members of .ca are learning about so many different things that learning about the band seems to get lost in it all. For example, in the Video Games/Techie Geekdom category (which I am quite active in), the threads are usually of a tech support nature. Knowledge is shared and members sometimes collaborate to solve computer-related problems. The original poster of the question learns the answer and those who have helped solve it learn to work together and also see different possible solutions to the problem.

.ca is also a learning community with regard to the social aspect of learning. As Wenger (1999) says, “learning is fundamentally experiential and fundamentally social: it involves our own experience of participation and reification…” (p. 227). Having watched the interactions of members of the community, I discovered that they’re learning about things a lot deeper than about the band, they’re learning how to fit in within the norms and values of the community. They’re learning about themselves, especially with regard to sexuality (Tegan and Sara identify as lesbian and as such they have attracted a fan basis of this nature) and so in addition how to fit in within the homosexual community. They’re learning “how to be” (Seeley Brown and Alder, 2008) adults, music fans, internet users, gay and lesbian and more. They’re also learning how to define themselves and understand how others define them, which, according to Saunders (2003), is particularly important in the context of learning in social context.

Why is it of value to me in this subject?

Being able to participate in a community in which learning occurs but has not been set up for the direct purpose of learning (such as UTS Online) gives me an interesting perspective into learning communities, learning from social interactions and incidental learning. In addition, there are few communities in which the scope of acceptable conversation is so broad – on .ca they discuss everything from music to gay marriage to sex advice to politics, which makes the opportunities for learning extensive.

What do I expect as a learner/participant in this community?

• Inclusion in the community and respect of my views and opinions.
• To both give and receive assistance when required.
• That I will learn and then adhere to the community norms, values, and accepted behaviours.
• To learn from the viewpoints of others and have others learn from mine.
• To gain a new perspective into learning communities outside the scope of a learning community formed for the express purpose of learning.

References

• Downs, S. 2004, Learning in Communities, Australian Flexible Learning Community, viewed March 24, 2009 <http://community.flexiblelearning.net.au/GlobalPerspectives/content/article_5249.htm>

• Gokhale, A. 1995. Collaborative Learning Enhances Critical Thinking. Journal of Technology Education. Vol 7, No 1.

• Kilpatrick, S., Barratt, M., Jones, T. 2003, Defining learning communities, viewed March 24, 2009  <http://www.aare.edu.au/03pap/jon03441.pdf>

• Saunders, S. 2008, ‘Social Psychology of Adult Learning’, in Athanasou, J. (ed.), Adult Educational Psychology, edn 2, Sense Publishers, Rotterdam, ch.3.

• Seely Brown, J. & Adler, Richard P. 2008, Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0, Educause Review, January/February viewed March 24, 2009 <http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/MindsonFireOpenEducationt/45823>

• Wenger, E. 1999, Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity, Cambridge University Press, USA.