Assignment 1 / Part 1

Learning Community:  Lonely Planet Thorn Tree Travel Forum http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/login.jspa

1. View on the nature of an e-learning community

In our face-to-face meeting and on the Ning community, I, along with other classmates have identified what a community is (http://utsemt.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=2007882%3ATopic%3A949). I believe that a community is a group of people with a common interest and objective.  An e-learning community would then be a group of people sharing their common interest via the web. An e-learning community can also be defined as a form of collective intelligence (The Horizon Report, 2008). This is because knowledge is embedded within the community and there are opportunities for learning – to supply and consume knowledge that is gathered and recorded.

In addition to this, Bandura‘s Theory (Cornford, 1999) explains ways to identify that learning is taking place by providing a comprehensive structure outlined in his model of ‘Observational Learning’: motivation of its members for creating and maintaining the community, modelling behaviours acceptable in the community, retention of information and activity in providing feedback. With e-learning communities, this is done via the internet as a medium.

The nature of an e-learning community is also reflected by the tools used for the construction and distribution of knowledge. These tools can include wikis, social networks, video grassroots, collaboration webs, data mash-ups and virtual worlds (The Horizon Report, 2007; The Horizon Report 2008).

2. Description and focus of selected community

The Thorn Free Travel Forum is a platform where people can learn about travel destinations and get first hand advice.  Its purpose is for people to get connected and exchange ideas about travel, share stories, make recommendations, get inspiration on travel locations and generally provide suggestions and ideas.  Some examples of the type of communication include:

-          Asking people for ideas on local restaurants in a particular city

-          Looking for/providing local train or bus timetables

-          Asking general questions like which cities should I visit in a particular country

-          Information on accommodation

-          Feedback on tours and sight-seeing options

It is segmented into branches - these branches being general destinations. I will be contributing and learning from the Western Europe branch, as this is where my experience lies.

 3. Recognition of the Lonely Planet’s The Thorn Tree Forum as an e-learning community

The Thorn Tree Travel Forum is recognised as being an e-learning community because people come together to share their knowledge and assist one-and-other while having a common interest – in this case travel.

Seely Brown explains how understanding is socially constructed in these communities or ‘learning ecologies’ as he calls them (Seely Brown, J. 2008) which therefore clarifies why such niche communities are successful using the web as a medium for learning. The web, as described by Seely Brown (1999) fosters discovery-based experimental learning and enables its participants to combine cognitive and social processes to provide effective and meaningful learning to take place.

 4. Why might it be of value to your experiences in this subject?

This is definitely of value to me as my husband and I were overseas last year on a travel expedition around Europe, so I feel I can provide feedback and exchange my tips and suggestions with others out there. Furthermore, we are off again this year and I would like to learn more about the places we are going to be travelling to.

I feel that this type of an environment is ideal for learning more about travel destinations – it is much better than picking up a book (which can also be costly)and learning about other people’s knowledge second hand. By becoming part of a community I can gather and provide first hand information and experiences that are real-world and relevant.

In addition, so far in this subject we have learnt about social learning, the psychology of adult learning and up-coming and prevailing technologies used in society today.  By joining and contributing to an e-learning community such as this, I am able to synthesize the information learnt and apply it to real life.

Furthermore, Seely Brown ( 1999) explains that the web is a medium which provides multiple forms of intelligence (ie including text, video, interactive aspects) and therefore is the most effective way of learning.

 5. Expectations as a learner/participant in this community.

Because of my previous travel experiences I expect to be able to provide appropriate information to others out there who are seeking it – information in the form of experiences, maps, references, photos and even videos.

I expect to be assisting people and answering any queries I can and proving constructive feedback and advice, and I also expect the same in return from the other members of the community.

I also anticipate learning more about the different tools used to interact with community members via the technological means of the internet.

To analyse the identified behaviours of adults as identified in social psychology of adult education such as Social Comparison Theory, Social Judgement Theory, learning through Self Disclosure, Feedback and Self-Monitoring (Saunders, S. 1999) and seeing how these theories are applied in real life by the community members in order to achieve learning.

 References

Cornford, I.R (1999) ‘Social Learning’, in James Athanasou (ed.), Adult Education Psychology, Sydney Social Press, Katoomba, pp 73-80

Saunders, S (1999) ‘Social Psychology of Adult Learning’, in James Athanasou (ed.), Adult Education Psychology, Sydney Social Press, Katoomba, pp 26-71Seely Brown, J. & Adler, Richard P. 2008, Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0, Educause Review, January/February
http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/MindsonFireOpenEducationt/45823

Seely Brown, J. & Duguid, O. 1999, Learning, Working and playing in the digital age.
Transcript from a conference on Higher Education of the American Association for Higher Education.
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_edu/seelybrown/seelybrown.html

The Horizon Report (2007) http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2007_Horizon_Report.pdf

The Horizon Report (2008) http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2008-Horizon-Report.pdf