Group work

10-6-04
Andy and I were discussing our “tools and rules” project and had also briefly discussed the Clark articles the day before. Andy was able to articulate what had been rumbling in my head. H e said, “If the tools (media) are not supposed to affect/enhance learning, then we shouldn’t be concentrating on the tools first. We should figure out what we want to do, and then figure out what tools help us do it.” I’m sure that is what Dr. O has always intended for us to do, but it is very easy to just go straight to the tools without really considering the learner and learning process.

So what do we want to do?
We are looking at Sense of Community and Student Satisfaction and Self-Efficacy.
Sense of community can be defined as a feeling of belonging/membership in the classroom community and the ability to trust fellow members with your ideas and questions. Members work together toward similar goals.
Student Satisfaction encompasses a lot of things, including sense of community and the interaction of students and faculty.
Self-Efficacy in this case relates to a class member’s feelings about how well they can accomplish a task (whether it be technically related or in terms of succeeding in the course). A member with low self-efficacy is less likely to participate and is less likely to be a satisfied member of the community.

So I guess the main things we want to do is:
Sense of community: help create a sense of trust/membership by encouraging meaningful interaction
Self-efficacy: help new/inexperienced students to “get over” their “nervousness” and trust those who may have more experience. Ie: peer tutoring or other answers for technical questions, perhaps a cyber “café” where students can meet one another and find peers with whom they have a common background.