Invitations   Goals/Participants  Definitions/Issues Tools/Media
Principles/Structure  Practices/Techniques  Implications/Next Steps

BCCOOC Experimental/Exploratory Online Series
Began March 2, 2004 
You can begin participating at any time and
enjoy as many (or few) sessions as you like
Series Description
Rationale and Invitation to Participate

Why "Building Community and Connections Online and On Campus"? (BCCOOC)
- A Response to Old Needs, New Challenges and New Options
- Problems of Cognitive Dissonance

NOTE:  If you would prefer, you can see/hear slideshows covering the same topics as this text document:
Audio-Narrated Slideshow (approx. 14 minutes)
Slides Only (No Audio)

Fundamental Questions
- Want Meaningful Connections

During the first years (mid 1990s) of launching hundreds of TLT Roundtables, we frequently asked a pair of Fundamental Questions of diverse groups within hundreds of different colleges and universities:

What do you most want to gain? For yourself? For your colleagues? For your institution?

What do you most cherish and want not to lose? For yourself? For your colleagues? For your institution?

The one dominant theme in all the answers, among all the discussions, was, "We don't want to lose our opportunities to connect meaningfully and deeply with students." 

I believe that students and teachers are still the heart of education.  The most important arteries are the  most meaningful connections among them - with their peers, with each other, and with ideas.   Information technology can be used to clog or block those arteries.  But it can also be used to accelerate the flow, to link parts that were never connected at all before, to bring nourishment more rapidly to more distant organs, and revitalize those that had begun to atrophy or suffocate. 

We have some wonderful new tools with which we can address the old goals reflected in the answers to our Fundamental questions.  We also have new needs and new hopes impelling us toward a new kind of goal.

The Goal (for BCCOOC)
Enable more people to take fuller advantage of online and on site resources for building and sustaining community, connections, engagement, ....

Conflicting, Tiring Impressions
I keep hearing from SOME of my friends and colleagues about active, effective, exciting online communities (sets of resources available through a commonly accessed area on the  Web).  But I also keep hearing from SOME of my other friends and colleagues about their frustration when trying to develop, support, or extend collaboration (or other elements of "community") online.  And from SOME about how tired they are from resisting attempts to eviscerate education - to treat it solely as a glorified postal system, a delivery system for information.

Conflicting Pressures and Opportunities
TOWARD Building Community and Connections Online and On Campus

      More people want/need community, connection, engagement, and collaboration;

      More new technology applications offer attractive options online for enabling and supporting these same goals.

      [And more...]

AGAINST Building Community and Connections Online and On Campus

      More people have less time and are more preoccupied and overwhelmed;

      New technology options arrive too fast for most people;

      Too little opportunity and support for most people to develop community-related leadership or participation skills;

      More pressure to think of education only as a delivery system for information.

      [And more...]

I've been trying to understand how these conflicting pressures fit together, and how we can respond usefully.  I'm ready to offer some informed guesses.

Hypotheses

      Small % of people are naturally predisposed to like and have relevant equipment and skills AND “have time for” online communities.  Either as leaders or as participants.

      Small % of people are self-directed, self-disciplined, independent learners [many of these are called “scholars”]

      Very small % of people are able, solely on their own initiative, to be self-sustaining active participants in "online communities" - especially teaching/learning "communities."

      Most people need more structure and support, and many want or need at least some face-to-face meetings [if possible] in order to participate most effectively in communities or courses.

      Enabling more people to take fuller advantage of resources offered by online “communities” requires lowering many “thresholds” – removing real and perceived obstacles.

      Enabling MORE learners to be MORE self-sufficient does  NOT require enabling them to be COMPLETELY self-sufficient.

Saying that we want to help "Build Community and Connections Online and On Campus" is just the shortest way of saying that I want to work with others to enable more people to take fuller advantage of the tools and resources that are now being used effectively and enthusiastically by a tiny minority - by those who are facile with technology, who have good access to technology, and who are good self-directed, self-sustaining learners.

No Excuse
The nature and features of online communities are changing very fast, so no one can be certain of knowing how to structure and sustain the kinds of online communities that will be most commonly and usefully available in the near future.  However, this is no excuse for not trying! 

Why Bother? 
Because education is NOT solely a delivery system for information.  It is hard to resist thinking so, especially in tough financial times, especially when new information technology applications appear to convert live presentations ever more completely into digital formats.  Libraries have long provided excellent services for delivering information;  those services have admirably supported - but not replaced - many valuable kinds of education.

Because we cannot ignore or permit others to deny learners' needs for:

      personalized interaction with each other and with teachers,

      participation in groups, and

      engagement with the subjects they study.

Because of the potentially great benefits from enabling and supporting more people to use online options to build community, connections, and engagement - especially at this time of increasing globalization, fragile international relations, and too-temporary local communities. 

Therefore, we've developed and are offering a new initiative focused on Building Community and Connections Online and On Campus (BCCOOC). 

This initiative will begin with a series of events and services that will continue to develop within a simple conceptual framework.  It will identify and disseminate “Low-Threshold” technology applications and related activities, so that MANY people can participate comfortably and make incremental - but significant - progress in building community and connections.  It will identify and offer professional development and related resources about specific topics that will enable at least SOME people to make even greater progress. 

We will listen closely to requests for topics, formats, schedules, .... Especially from those who are willing to help organize and lead.  We will not be afraid to raise and address useful, important questions we cannot answer (yet, ever)!

The Goal
Enable more people to take fuller advantage of online and on site resources for building and sustaining community, connections, engagement, ....

How We Will Work
I want to work with people who can articulate the characteristics of the personal relationships and the quality and dimensions of communication among teachers and learners that matter deeply to many of us.  I want to work with people who can identify tools, techniques, and principles that help teachers and learners achieve and sustain these relationships and these kinds of communication.  I want to work with people who can help each other and others to find, develop, adopt, use, assess, adapt, and share resources for teaching and learning that “build community and connections online and on campus.” 

I want to make the way we organize and run our BCCOOC Series and related activities reflect the same goals, values, and developing resources that are guiding us and bringing us together:   

      Spirit of experimentation

      Capacity to develop thoughtful assessments

      Commitment to reveal how we work and share new lore

      Tolerance for trial and error

      Intolerance for ways of using technology that undermine community, connections, ...

      Lifelong professional development for all of us

For more about the conceptual framework and the first online events for BCCOOC, see:
www.tltgroup.org/bccooc.htm

Invitations
I hope you will join us in the BCCOOC Series!  For registration information, see:
<<http://www.tltgroup.org/BCCOOCNavPage.htm>>

We are also looking for host sites for some of the weekly online events.  For more info about hosting, see:
<<www.tltgroup.org/bccooc.htm>>

We welcome your suggestions about potential presenters, related topics, related resources, ...For questions about hosting or to make a suggestion, contact Sally Gilbert at 301 270 8312 or <<sallygilbert@tltgroup.org>
 

Help identify the important holes in the emerging "curriculum" for this series- and help fill them in!
This is your invitation to participate in a new TLT Group “stone soup” series - Building Community and Connections Online and On Campus. 

Most educational institutions and most teachers need to improve the use of new tools and old to develop different kinds of “communities” and enhance connections among faculty and students.   I’m inviting you because I believe you have something important to contribute.  [Several colleagues have already helped by commenting on previous drafts on this topic or suggesting how their own work addresses key issues in this area.]

“Stone soup” refers to the fable in which a stranger arrives in a village and claims to have a magic stone that produces wonderful soup.  Of course, he explains, the magic stone requires a cauldron, fire, vegetables, water, … in order to work most effectively.  Together the villagers are able to supply all the requirements, and a wonderful soup results – with the stranger’s stone helping from the bottom of the cauldron.  The entire village, and the stranger, enjoy the resulting soup. 

There are several versions and interpretations of this story, but I hope you recognize the lesson that we can build something together much more fulfilling than we can separately.  That is what I am inviting you to do.

I welcome your questions and your suggestions about clarifying and improving any aspect of this new effort!

Means and Model

We will use this program both to learn and to show how to Build Community and Connections Online and On Campus - among leaders and participants.  It will become both a means for building community among the TLT Group's key subscriber representatives (contacts), and a model for doing so.

Steven W. Gilbert, President, The TLT Group

For Whom?
People ready to contribute as well as learn

• Academic Support Professionals (Faculty Development, Library, Instructional Design, IT Support, ...)

• Faculty members, staff, and administrators who ALSO have some responsibility for helping faculty and students to improve teaching and learning

• Anyone interested in examining and clarifying the nature and functional possibilities of communities in an academic context

• Anyone committed to building community and connections online and on campus!

Dates & Topics
We welcome invitations for the dates where a host campus is not listed yet!
Each online event begins at 3:00PM Eastern unless otherwise indicated.

Click here for full list!

SAMPLE Invitation to <date> Face-to-Face Event
and Online Activities Occurring Before/During It
EXAMPLE: 
The first on site event will be <date> hosted by <college/university> near <city>.  There will be at least one online event before <date> and we will announce that very shortly.  For more information, for the online registration form, and the latest working draft, see:
<<http://www.tltgroup.org/communityonlineoncampus.htm>>

I hope that you will be able to be with us on <date> in person, but we will also be offering  one session that day (3:00pm Eastern) in which those who cannot be with us on site can participate via telecommunications.  If your schedule does not permit you to participate at all on <date>, you will be able to join us and contribute in other ways at other times.

We are requesting a registration fee of $XXX ($YYY from those who are not affiliated with an institutional subscriber to the TLT Group) from all participants to help cover basic operating costs.  If the fee seems inappropriate or is inconvenient for you, but you are prepared to make a commitment to active participation, please let me know and we will try to accommodate your situation, since I understand that many institutions are cutting travel and professional development budgets severely.  ["Active participation" means that you would, at least, offer a question, criticism, suggestion or relevant reference, each month or two.  More would be welcome.]

Steven W. Gilbert, President, The TLT Group

Schedule for <Date> 

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