The Internet: A Land To Settle Rather Than An Ocean To Surf
And A New "Place" For School Reform through Community Development
Margaret Riel
InterLearn
If it once took the whole village to raise a child, then can we expect a succession of
isolated teachers to give students all the skills they need to productive members of
society? Schools at present are more likely to exist on the outskirts rather than in the
heart of communities. A "school" community is not rich enough to represent the
skills and abilities of the "whole" village or villages of today.
In fact, very few of us live our lives in a place that we would characterize as a
"village." Diverse economic and social patterns fragment our geographic
communities and it is often technology that drives us apart. Many see the electronic
"global village" as an overused clich of techno-romantics who promote technology
as the modern solution to all problems, the source of linear progress towards a better
world. These skeptics view electronic communities as a misguided and perhaps even
dangerous escape from the problems of the "real" world-- a silicon snake oil.
Computers, they argue, can only led to further alienation. The possibility remains,
however, that the landscape of the Internet will provide different common spaces that will
challenge us to reexamine the way we relate to one another.
In this paper, I want to bring the metaphorical talk about the Internet to the
forefront and invite you think about cyberspace as physical place, as unsettled terrain
that can provide the foundation for community building of very different kinds of
villages. However, I do not want to equate the Internet location with the concept of
village or community any more than a I would describe a valley as a village. I think that
the Internet is best thought of as place, which is far more than a highway. It is a
destination, a place where we can create new social designs. A community is a social
construction among people who share common goals, values and practices.
Conceptions of the Internet
What are common conceptions of the Internet? At this point in time, I suspect that most
people are focused on the rich resources to be brought back from the Internet. They see
information age explorers, hunters, and miners return from cyberspace with bits of
information to broker in a knowledge economy. The Internet Web is a rich mine or a vast
wilderness to be exploited. These stories of great wealth create a sense of
urgency--without connections to the Internet, you will miss the information gold rush of
the 21st century.
These returning explorers bring back many different visions of what is possible in this
new frontier. Most talk of the freely available valuable resources, but I think it is
important to see past the resources to the land, to the social spaces. Conceptualizing the
Internet as physical land on which you can build is very different from thinking about it
as a web of resources, or superhighway to information, or waves to surf. The Internet is
place without physical boundaries. A place where people can go to meet people with similar
interests, to build new settlements, to share knowledge through teaching and learning, and
to form communities around common practices. It is made possible by a move to digital
information.
The digital age is changing the nature of our communication tools. One does not need to
look past the daily newspaper to see descriptions of how household and business tools--the
computer, television, phone, printer, fax, satellite dish and entertainment systems just
to mention a few--are soon to be combined and transformed with highly competitive delivery
services offered by phone, satellite, cable and computer networking companies. But it is
the conceptual integration, not as widely discussed, that is the focus of this paper.
Different forms of computer interaction--time-independent conversations, computer
simulations, role playing fantasy games, and virtual reality--are being linked with
communication tools such as email, text, audio & visual conferencing, and hypermedia
communication in global contexts. This integration makes possible synchronous and
asynchronous multi-person communication combined with collaboration. Role differentiation,
issues of power, control and status are all aspects of the exchange. While some see
computers as tele-democracies with increased sense of participation for all, this naive
characterization ignores issue of access to the technology, the acquisition of the
intellectual skills to use the technology and the social design of online environments.
But the central thesis of this paper is that the integration provides for new forms of
interaction very different from reading a text, or watching a video or taking to a group.
It is an evolving social construction. It is this blend of projected reality with
communication that makes it possible to create a sense of shared place with the potential
for different forms of social exchanges. This integration will have a profound effect on
all aspects of our life from artistic expression to institutional practices encompassing,
from our work to our play.
Currently on the Internet, students can interact with exhibits in a
A few brief descriptions will illustrate the notion of Internet as place, as virtual
social contexts.
"Electronic field
trips" to remote areas are designed by a number of different groups (see Jason's expeditions, Turner Adventure learning, and MECC's Interactive
Explorer for examples.)
I will use the Live from Antarctica,
students across the world were invited to join a research team and travel to Antarctica.
An integrated use of live broadcasts, online environments, and classroom activities helped
students experience the day to day preparations and work that is a part of a scientific
adventure. Personal biographies, live dialog between students and researchers over
broadcast television and Internet partnerships and activities helped the student share in
doing science at the South Pole, dry valleys or on the ice shelf. In a demonstration of
what is possible, students sitting in their classroom in Hawaii were able to direct an
underwater robot with their classroom computers and live television to examine the ocean
floor. They were able to converse with a diver while he was under the ice and water 6000
miles away! Students were virtually there, in a real educational context and without the
need for wet suits.
But not all virtual spaces will be extensions of the real world. The sacred lands of
Native Americans that no longer exist in reality can be reconstructed in a virtual
context. Tribal leaders can take their children dislocated from one another to virtually
constructed sacred places. Here they can learn the values that are central to their
people. They can take part in tribal ceremonies that connect them across time and space to
their past and forge new links to a collective future. This is a social construction that
has value to a nation. (While this does not currently reside on the internet, there are
many Native Americans working to create community with current web technology.)
A commerical service called ImagiNation(TM) creates an electronic neighborhood in
cyberspace. In a primitive way, children design online images of themselves and provide
self-assessments of game playing skills. ImagiNation(TM) is a social world, a place where
children "see" each other and "invite" others to play games with them.
Using computers linked by phone lines they can look for other kids to join them in board
games like stratego and chess and action games like football or simulated air battles.
Through play and talk they come to know peers from a wide range of backgrounds and
experiences.
Finally there are number of text-based worlds--multi-user domains (MUDs) and Micromuse is one such world and it has an
educational design. It is a city in a universe that combines science with fiction. You
enter the world and can travel to a communication center, homes, science labs, museums or
coffee houses. With some background in science you can be part of the team that blasts off
on space crafts to study the universe. At present the collaborative construction of these
worlds are text-based but this is soon to change as computer language systems like JAVA
change the way we interact on networked computers.
It is only a matter of time before we will be able to project our travel through the
corridors of the Internet, not as gophers, but as people looking, talking, and designing
with those we encounter in these remote and reconstructed places.
Social Constructions
There will always be a sense of adventure and excitement associated with
frontiers--they are wild and free. We can design these "places," within
technical and social constraints, in ways that allow us to experiment with social reality.
Freedom from time and space does not automatically lead to rewarding patterns of social
discourse. Online communities face the same issues of freedom of speech vs. censorship, of
security and control, of private and public spaces, of inclusion and exclusion, of unity
and diversity, that exist in all social organizations. It takes intense and continual
social negotiation to find the best balance between absolute freedom for citizens and
collective control. There are net-based peace and freedom coalitions and government
agencies that are actively debating issues of freedom and privacy, as the new rules or
regulations for community security are designed. It takes a deep understanding of possible
social worlds and reflection on how problems have been dealt with in many different pasts
to understand and craft new conventions that fit a new world. People will find it
necessary to weigh the benefits and costs of different social systems to find a way to
create communities in the electronic frontier. Being a part of the process defines
citizenship. And it is potentially open to learners of all ages.
The physical dimensions of a landscape offer distinct possibilities and establishes
constraints to human interaction, but they do not constitute a village or community.
Community building is a human, social activity. Villages are social entities not physical
ones. So if we want to involve the whole village in the education of our children, we will
need more much more than the land of the Internet--the physical spaces. We will need the
social connections and constructions that form villages. Forming villages is social not
technical engineering.
Design Issues for Creating Global Villages
It is not the case that if you build a space they will come. This truth is often
discovered by those who think that transporting people to a common electronic location
will result in intense and rewarding exchanges. If you involve people in building their
own spaces, there is a better chance that they will stay but it will depend on the
structure of the group. Even building together is not enough of a bond to create a
community. An example might make this point more clear. As a university student I was part
of a group that petitioned the university administration for a student meeting space. We
were given an unused building that required serious repair. We spend months redesigning
the space, painting, repairing, and furnishing, often spending our own resources. When it
was completed we had our physical space, but we had no group purpose beyond designing the
meeting space and a vague desire for community. The group dissolved shortly after the
meeting space was finished.
Building physical space should not be confused with building community. A list serve, a
conference or a web page, in and of itself, does not define community even if it is
designed by a group of people working together, it is but a new dimension of physical
space. It is the interactions and partnerships among and between the people who gather in
these places that define a community. And these interactions will come to be perceived as
"real" in the same way that we see talking on phones or listening to a
president's adress on television is real. These experiences do not replace face to face
contacts, any more than phone conversation replace meetings. They provide another form of
social exchange that augment relationships and have real consequences.
There are many experts in building community in many different sectors of our social
world. My personal experience and observations come from building online learning
communities--Learning Circles--for well over a decade to promote learning and teaching in
both students and teachers. I can see in this activity the seeds for large scale
educational innovation. I think we may once again believe that it takes a whole village to
raise a child, in fact, it takes many whole villages to give students the skills they will
need to exist in a global economy.
The following four observations on the design of online communities are offered as a
way of fostering dialogue on creating online communities. These communities don't form by
having collections of people arrive in a place. They take social engineering and students
and teachers can have active roles in building learning communities.
Communities of Practice: Online Learning Communities
1) Balance between Unity of Purpose and Diversity of Experiences
Communities of practice are people who share a collection of ideas, an activity, or a
task. People are eager to find others with whom they share a passionate concern. Still,
the value of community is more than affirmation, it involves a search for different ideas,
new strategies or practices that might help members re-think their own ways. Successful
communities building identify people who share an interest in a task or activity
but approach it from different perspectives or with diverse experiences. In
designing vibrant communities, unity of purpose needs to be balanced with rich diversity
of experiences. This often necessitates communication across groups with different
linguistic registers or conceptual ways of speaking, with different linguistic and
cultural patterns or with different regional values. Learning how to respect and learn
from differences is one of life's important lessons.
2) Size Of Group Is Related To The Purpose To Be Accomplished
The size of a community online has to be closely related to the task to be
accomplished. Some tasks can best be accomplished in small work groups and other
activities require large scale organizations. Community development often calls for small
groups embedded in a larger organization. Similarly in networking scaling up can mean
creating thousands of groups of 10 rather than one group with thousands of participants.
The size of a community online has to be closely related to the task to be
accomplished. Some tasks can best be accomplished in small work groups and other
activities require large scale organizations. Community development often calls for small
groups embedded in a larger organization. Similarly in networking scaling up can mean
creating thousands of groups of 10 rather than one group with thousands of participants.
The opportunities and obligations for participation are very different in a small
group. There can be a shift from representational to participatory democracy. All
participants can take an active and vocal role in "valuing" the exchange of
information, ideas and plans.
Many successful efforts at designing online communities have found a way to balance
small group affiliation with a larger sense of community (Classroom Clusters in National
Geographic Kids Network, Learning Circles on the AT&T Learning Network, project-based
conferences on I*EARN, serve as example). These online communities parallel the
organization of groups like the Boy and Girl Scouts of America or the International Red
Cross. In these national and international groups, there are troops or chapters that set
their own goals and tasks but remain connected to those who work in other locations as
part of a community with shared goals and values.
Size and structure of the online community are critical to long term success. Without
careful planning, community growth leads to group fragmentation and failure.
3) Balance Between Defined Structure And Participant Creativity
For people to work in concert with one there needs to be some form of orchestration.
However, some of the most exciting new developments in music have evolved from the
creative process of Learning Circle Teacher's Guide.
4) Reflection And Evaluation Of Work
One of the most important part of any community is the valuing of their work and
knowledge. The ideas and product must be in a format that can be shared, and others with
access to this work need to determine its value. Every educational activity should be
followed by a period of reflection. What did we learn? What do we think about what we
learned? And, perhaps most importantly, what does our community think of what we have
learned. Over the past decade, I have focused on involving students in "functional
learning environments" or authentic tasks. Most often these tasks involve a
publication phase. However, publishing implies an audience, a set of readers. A caution to
online enthusiasm about publishing is that putting work on the web is not necessarily the
same as publishing. Publishing implies a readership. The Internet could become a vast
public storage system for information, but this is something quite different from having
things published within a community of practice. The structure we evolve for
"value-ing" information indexes community. We need to remember that writing is
to an audience and there needs to be a relationship between writers and readers. They need
to each be concerned about the other.
Inviting The Village Into The Classroom; Taking Students Out Into The
Village
We send children to school to give them the opportunity to move beyond the constraints
of family and friends to open to them a vast range of possible futures. However the
classroom in today's society, by its very nature, is constraining. It isolates both
students and teachers from many experiences that will help them to understand the past,
develop skills for building a future, and to prepare for their role as citizens.
The best way to reform schools is to lessen the gap between the what is learned in
school and what is needed in society. This is much wider than a school-to-work argument.
It is not teaching students the skills of the workplace but rather teaching them how to
participate in working relationships with others.
In our present society, no teacher can ever know enough to close that
classroom door. A diploma or degree should be seen as an invitation to a community of
learners, not a certificate of acquired knowledge. Life-long learning has to start with
teachers. Past strategies of professional development, have taken the teacher out of the
classroom, "filled them up" with "new" knowledge or skills and
returning to the classroom with detailed recipes for filling students. Current models
follow exactly the same process with one exception, the message is not to isolate
student from society and not to passive "fill them up" with knowledge. To
convey that message, the methods of professional development will have to change.
Life-long learning needs different models of professional development. Teachers need to
be active and contributing members of communities of learners as a part of every school
day and from within the classroom setting. It is the use of technology to create
learning communities, a human intervention and not the technology itself, that may reform
education. Learning takes place in the space between and among people. We need to dissolve
and reconstruct the classroom in a connected world.
Active involvement of students in our communities has many positive benefits but is not
without negative ones. Students actively involved in partnerships in online communities of
intellectual practice will understand that knowledge is a social construction. They will
understand at a deeper level how information is transformed into knowledge. They will
understand that our social, political and economic institutions are of our construction,
not beyond us. Virtual rather than physical presence makes it possible for them to be safe
from the physical dangers in some working environments. However, there are many
intellectual and social dangers in taking students out into the World. Students will need
to learn different safety precautions. Collectively, we will have to take personal
responsibility of protecting children if we give them more access to the adult world.
Students and teachers need to learn from many different mentors. But the inverse is
also true. Community members need to reflect on what they value, what skills and abilities
they feel need to be part of the next generation. If public education involves the whole
village, we will be a different people. We would not blame teachers or schools for failing
to solve society's problems. We collectively will be responsible for what takes place in
schools. Schools will be a reflection of who we are as a people. All of us will be part of
a national or international dialog with students and their teachers about what we value.
In the information age, factual knowledge is plentiful. What is scarce is the
intellectual work of giving value to information, of transforming information into useful
knowledge systems. This is the work of communities. We need to help students understand
that communities work together to connect information into meaningful interpretetions.
Students need to be part of the process of evaluating information, not simple the passive
recipient of valued knowledge.
In the end I return to the beginning, if it takes a whole village to raise a child,
what are we collectively doing to prepare the next generation for their role in society?
The electronic world offers a new terrain, a space for collaboration, but creating
national and international community is the work of people, not wires, or interaction, not
information.
(This paper will appear in the 1996 Winter issue of ISTE SIG/Tel Technology in
Education (T.I.E.) Newsletter.)
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