Rick West

I like blogging, and I think it can be a useful thing for educators,
professionals, and students. However, I must admit I got a few chuckles
from this WikiHow article on “How to Dissuade Yourself from Becoming a Blogger.”

Enjoy!

technorati tags:blogs, blog, blogging

Blogged with Flock

I’m currently enrolled in a Communities as a Metaphor for Learning class, and as part of the class I need to select a book to read on the subject. We are already reading one of Etienne Wenger’s books on Communities of Practice, so I’d like to get the perspective of somebody besides Wenger for this other book. Here are a few that I am considering:

Collaborating Online: Learning Together in Community (Jossey-Bass Guides to Online Teaching and Learning) (Paperback)

by Rena M. Palloff, Keith Pratt, 27 bucks

Renninger, K.A., Shumar, W., Pea, R., Brown, J.S. (2002). Building Virtual Communities:
Learning and Change in Cyberspace (Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive
and Computational Perspectives) (Paperback)

McConnell,  (2006). E-learning groups and communities of practice

Engaging the Online Learner: Activities and Resources for Creative Instruction (Online Teaching and Learning Series (OTL))

by Rita-Marie Conrad and J. Ana Donaldson

(Paperback - Jan 7, 2004)

So here are a few questions:

1. Does anyone know Dr. McConnell and can guess whether his book is good? It’d be nice, since I need to do a book review, to do it on a recently published book so I could then publish it in a journal of book reviews. But conversely, this book is so new that nobody else has reviewed it either and I don’t know if it’d be worthwhile to read!
2. Any suggestions or ideas on books that anyone would recommend? I am interested in learning communities as applied not only to online environments but also classroom environments. I’d like to find a book that discusses how to research learning communities, how to identify and classify them, and how to observe participation in them. Any ideas?

technorati tags:online, distance, education, communities, learning, practice, Cops, community, book

Blogged with Flock

In case you are one of my friends who recently received a Christmas card and followed the link I included to this place, yes, this is the right place. I know it don’t look like much yet … I’m still setting up shop. But this will be hopefully where I will do all my thinking and reflecting and talking about the work I do from now on.