Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
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Distance Education and Community Learning Networks linked by a Library of CultureHumans are relational beings with their modeled behavior as practical examples of cultural routines that they hear, see, read, and assemble on their own from communal pieces of information to answer the needs of their everyday lives (Bandura, & Jeffrey, 1973). Yet few researchers have looked at the differing synthesis of culture and generally assume that others share similar ideas/values that lead to particular events and worldviews (Lillard, p.5 1998). Informational and cultural contact zones can be created to support CLNs, universities, and individuals in a variety of roles to encourage their interactions so they might design, and challenge the fundamentals of these programs and seek to better cooperation amongst the public itself (Tremmel, 2000). By increasing communication and collaboration of educational systems throughout the community will begin to raise the standard of living for all people (Bohn, & Schmidt, 2008). This will begin to draw people out from the digital divide and increase the access of technology and information available to all people with the community. Utilizing CLNs to support and further education will allow an interconnected web of assessments, standards, and cooperative efforts that has the potential of increasing democracy by empowering people from their communities.
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Evaluating the development of a community of e-learning researchers: from short-term funding to sustainabilityThis paper reports an evaluation of a special interest group created to support e-learning researchers. The study aimed to examine the ways in which short term funding is used to support the development of a community and the sustainability challenges facing this emerging community of practice when initial funding ceased. The iterative, formative evaluation process drew on statistics of community membership and use of the online community space, and surveys responses. The challenges faced were found to be similar to those common to any community of practice, i.e., the determination of domain, the identity of the community and the processes of communication within and across community boundaries. Wenger's communities of practice model was shown to be useful in diagnosing key tensions between the individual and the collective, between expert and novice researchers and between the core membership and the periphery of the community. The implications are discussed for the creation of project funded communities.
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Community-based learning: A model for higher education and community partnershipsThis paper presents a model of community-based learning partnerships, developed at the University of Brighton, for consideration by Higher Education as a means to securing effective community informatics engagement. The absence of funding and time to pursue research proposals required me to be creative in continuing collaboration with our community partners of funded research projects. It is suggested here that the academic curriculum together with the resources and goodwill of a UK university can support both the formal requirements of HE student learning and the more informal learning needs of community practice through the development of community media/informatics learning partnerships. This is the first in a series of papers to be written that share the story of community-based learning experiences at the University of Brighton. Our purpose is to engage in meaningful community Informatics/media research and practice partnerships with a view to contributing to knowledge whilst affecting social change. A number of preliminary community informatics/media partnership activities are introduced through the joint lenses of community empowerment and community development. The significance of community voice and community learning in facilitating and enabling active citizenship and empowered communities through community informatics practices is also explored.