Connecting to Communities

Why Faculty Focus?

Faculty Focus seemed a great choice of professional community. It is a website full of great articles related to teaching strategies in higher education. I have been on their mailing list for over a year now and receive their electronic newsletter each week. I am always compelled to read the articles and very often find myself reflecting on the ideas shared.

The topics range from classroom management advice to strategies to promote improved learner performance. The articles are authored by industry professionals and are very relevant to practices.

In the past, I have used information to fuel dialogue for a"Lunch and Learn" professional development forum for our faculty. While the Facebook group has not been as active, this exercise has left me with the desire to resurrect "Lunch and Learn" as a community of practice.

Communities of Practice - Honorable Mentions

My Chosen Community of Practice

Challenges in My Community of Practice

Connecting to the Community

Connecting the the ideas and information on the website did not present any challenges, I did find articles related to English language learning extremely limited. There were some earlier articles related to culture, however commenting was closed. Not to be deterred, I responded to articles and left comments hoping to inspire some dialogue. I also responded to comments already posted, in hopes of garnering feedback and did manage to spark at least one conversation!! I will continue to monitor the articles to see if there is a reply. Always the optimist, although I managed to spark just one connection, I still feel as though I gained from the experience. I will discuss lessons learned later in my blog.

Here are some of the articles that peaked my interest and the comments I shared.

One of My Personal Favourites

Having spent time browsing through the Faculty Focus website, I do recognize that there were some limiting factors and I chose to highlight them because these factors would have some influence over my decision to participate in a community.

Level of Engagement

Clearly I would have hoped for more interaction with my chosen community. That unfortunately did not happen. In hindsight, I would migrate my comments over to their Twitter account which seems to have much more interaction. I did in fact today post a brief reply to the article related to professionalism. Twitter does not afford much language to reply, however it does teach one to be very succinct.

Premium Membership versus Free Membership

While perusing through articles, I became somewhat frustrated with the limited access I had. For a number of the posts, I was met with the following notice "This is a Faculty Focus Premium Article". The cost to gain access to the "premium site" is $99 USD per annum and may well be worth the money. On the premium site, subscribers have access to other articles, webinars and podcasts that likely add value to the community experience.

Limited Information Related to my Specific Practice

I did have expectations that I would be more successful in finding information related to English language learners or learning. While I was able to source a couple of articles related to culture in the classroom, they were a little dated and commenting was closed. I was satisfied that many of the articles still spoke to my teaching practice in broader terms and that other forums that I currently participate in served to address the English language instruction.

What I Have Learned from My Community of Practice

I have to admit, I had high hopes for a little more conversation! While that did not happen, I know that even in generating my responses to the articles, I have still learned.

Seek Out Other Opportunities to Engage

My journey to seek out one community of practice for the purposes of this assignment has actually led me to join several other communities. I have some of them listed below as an honourable mentions. I've spent time perusing and reading at each of these sites and am much more active in seeking out opportunities to connect. George Couros is particularly engaging. His posts are positive and very inspiring.

Even in Reading and Thinking About, There is Engagement

While my efforts yielded one reply. It was exciting to have someone reach out and connect to my ideas.

I talk a lot about my PME courses with my faculty and friends. During one particular conversation (with my colleague Julie), I brought up a Tweet from George Couros that was related to student empowerment. I showed the Tweet to her and we spent the next twenty minutes talking about student empowerment and what it means to truly

engage our students. Knowing that my connections

were meant to be focused on concepts related to

curriculum, I talked about the different sources of

curriculum and pondered how using learners as a

source impacted their level of engagement.

We had this great dialogue related to our EAP

curriculum and how knowledge as a source most

certainly played a role in our curriculum development,

but that we also use our learners as a source of

knowledge. Clearly, when students have some owner-

ship in the learning they are much more apt to be engaged in their learning. Perhaps not a planned, online community of practice connection but (to me) still a valuable opportunity to share.

Sharing and Reigniting Old Passions

I will be returning to work on Monday (post strike) and while I've a long road of academic recover ahead, reading and posting in these different communities has left me with the desire to resurrect our "Lunch and Learn" series at the college. Once we are back into a productive academic rhythm, I plan to invite faculty to once again begin to share in our own little community of practice once a month.

Shift in Thinking

I need to also acknowledge a change in mindset. I have always been very intimidated by individuals who write and post in educational forums. I never feel as though anything I have to say could possibly measure up to the "scholarly" nature of their ideas. While I enjoy reading the articles, I always think....what could I possibly add? I have become more confident in my ability to contribute to the dialogue and will continue to try and build my voice a little more in communities of practice.

Goals to Follow Up

I have set a goal (for myself) to generate and article for Faculty Focus. I've mentioned earlier that there has been little recent discussion related to English language learning and/or learners in the classroom. I would like to close that gap.