Assignment 1 / Part 2

Learning Community: Lonely Planet Thorn Tree Travel Forum 

Description of the Community

This is an on-line community who collaborate to share their travel experiences. E-Learning communities are groups of people bonded together entirely through technology. The Thorn Tree Travel Forum never assembles physically - the interaction and learning begins, and is carried out entirely through technology. It is a virtual platform for the community members’ collective intelligence to be shared and to aid and support all members - people from around the world to provide advice, share stories, gets tips and hints and contribute ideas on travel destinations (http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/human_resources/77866 ). Being a member of this community means you can:

1. Provide suggestions to others seeking advice
2. Making an inquiry and creating a thread

In order for the community (or ‘tree’) to be organised in an orderly fashion, it is divided into segments:

1. The Departure Lounge
2. The Lobby
3. News Stand
4. Tree House
5. Sell, Swap and Meet Up

The segments are then divided into ‘branches’. With regards to the ‘Departure Lounge’ a different location from around the world is allocated to a branch. They include: Africa, Western Europe, South-East Asia, the Americas – Mexico and the Middle East to name a few. These branches are then made up of threads that people create and contribute to. The community also provides you with the opportunity to subscribe to the thread via RSS feed so you are kept up-to-date on the information that you are seeking, or the thread you are watching and contributing to.

In addition to this, the Thorn Tree travel forum also provides a community news section, traveller videos, popular destination forums, an on-line shop, booking services

Description of the learning events and activities

The learning events and activities range from sharing ideas on travel itineraries, to asking people what the best way is to get from one city to another. Even providing community members with local bus/train/ferry timetables and the best places to eat without getting ripped-off as a tourist are regular events taking place on Thorn Tree.

Moreover, even though the community’s main focus is on travel destinations, it goes beyond this to also provide useful information for different kinds of travellers, such as: hints and tips for older travellers, gay and lesbian travellers and travelling with kids. Useful information on responsible travel and even tips on learning local languages are also activities that community members participate in.

Analysis of role as learner/participant

Participation on Thorn Tree was very easy and rewarding. Posting questions and contributing to threads allowed me to easily share my unique experiences, insights and advice, while enabling other members to do the same. Creating a feed from this to my Netvibes proved to be useful, as I had the threads I was participating on directly streamed through to me.

Using this type of technology connected community members who had varying levels of experience with regards to travel. These connections that were made and the information that was shared created valuable learning opportunities. Bradshaw et. al. (2002) believe that for e-learning communities to be exploited to the full, they should not simply be used to deliver content, but also to enable deeper understanding derived from truly participative engagement.  

Therefore the benefits of community participation not only include creating helpful learning opportunities for others, and gaining them yourself, but also involve the increased motivation to learn – in other words, it is addictive! The process of discussion also increases retention and transfer of learning, particularly when learners must reflect upon what they know and then articulate it to others, which is what the Thorn Tree enables people to do. 

Analysis of the community as a vehicle for learning

I believe the Thorn Tree Travel Forum is a community that perpetually provides its members with learning opportunities. A key aspect of networked e-learning is that learners work collaboratively and collectively, taking ownership and responsibility for their own learning and to some extent, for that of others. McConnell (2006) argues that the relationships of the community members, and the act of learning collaboratively and collectively within a learning community, are beneficial to participants. For example, by encouraging the sharing of experiences and knowledge within a supportive environment, learners are actively participating in the community and providing learning experiences for their fellow community members. Furthermore, McConnell claims that learning within such a community is enhanced through the collaboration with others who have similar objectives. 

In addition to the above, the learning within this e-learning community is learner-focused. This means that it is recognised that the community members bring prior knowledge, attitudes and skills to the environment to be shared. The community member is seen as being actively and meaningfully engaged in their own learning, which is surrounded by a socially interactive environment. Communities such as Thorn Tree therefore increase the opportunities for its members to learn from each other. (Albon et. al., 2002)  
 

Interpretation of experiences

I honestly found the experience of being part of this e-learning community enlightening. It is the first time I have been part of such a population and have found the experiences of other people very valuable to me and my up-coming holiday.

I wish I had known about this last year, before my husband and I went on our European trip. Even though I did research our destinations, the methods were more traditional – searching the web for informative websites and even buying books. Searching the web proved to be time consuming, as trawling through the thousands of websites to find an appropriate and useful one meant investing a lot of time. Similarly, spending hours looking though books and buying ones thought to be useful was a costly exercise, as they don’t come cheap.

However, being part of such a learning community meant that all I had to do was go to the appropriate branch of the tree, and either read through people’s experiences and gather ideas and useful tools, or even pose questions myself for people to come back to me with the needed first-hand information.  In addition to this, it actually became quite addictive, as I found I would browse other branches not applicable to my travels just so I could gather ideas about other destinations. I also used this forum to gain tips of travelling safely and responsibly from other people and their first-hand experiences.

Overall, the experience was time efficient and educational, and I will continue to be part of this community long after this assignment.

References 

Albon, R. and Trinidad, S. (2002) Building Learning Communities Through Technology. Curtin University of Technology , viewed 2^nd May 2008. http://lifelonglearning.cqu.edu.au/2002/papers/Albon_Trinidad.pdf

Bradshaw, P. et. al. (2002) Online Communities - Vehicles For Professional Learning? Ultralab, Anglia Polytechnic University, viewed 2^nd May 2008. http://www.iw2.co.uk/work/bera2002/bptbera2002.pdf

 Bransford, J., Brown, A., & Cocking, R. (1999). Technology to support learning. Howpeople learn: Brain, mind, experience and school. National Research Council. Viewed 29^th April 2008. http://books.nap.edu/html/howpeople1/ch9.html 

Fullerton, K. (2001) E-learning Communities: The business case, viewed 29^th April 2008. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/human_resources/77866 

iCohere: Creating Collaborative Communities , viewed 1^st May 2008. http://www.icohere.com/CollaborativeLearning.htm 

McConnell, D. (2006) E-learning groups and communities. Maidenhead, Open University Press and The Society for Research into Higher Education