anuary 5, 2009

This month's Skill Builder articles offer insight into the facilitator's role in the on-line learning environment. They are excerpts from A Facilitator's Guide to On-line Professional Development: Establishing Communities of Learning and Cultures of Thinking (Brooks Simoneau, C., & Bailey, G., in publication). This week's Skill Builder article addresses the facilitator's role in generating interactive dialogue in the on-line environment.

The desired outcome for on-line professional development is enhanced performance that ultimately benefits the end recipients: the teachers and the students. This requires an on-line professional development facilitator who has the knowledge, the skills, the strategies, and the attitude to address what constitutes true learning.

Interactive dialogue, a powerful learning tool, allows participants to deepen understanding, share commonalities, build trust, shape visions, make connections, and strengthen community. A major challenge for today's on-line facilitators involves creating a consistent level of interaction that fosters genuine learning and cultivates a community atmosphere. This delicate balance involves providing guidance and instruction while allowing individuals and teams to take an active role in their own learning. The challenges and opportunities lie in building rapport, developing trust, and establishing group norms and work protocols when working in an on-line environment, in contrast to a face-to-face setting (Knoll, 2001).

High-performing on-line learning networks create cultural norms that promote productive, supportive relationships that allow participants to reflect on current beliefs and practices in order to make skilled decisions that foster learning and growth. Learning within a community cultivates a commitment that energizes and sustains the improvement process. When all community members believe themselves to be learners and invest personally in the learning process, purposeful professional development occurs.

Ongoing professional development is driven by context-specific needs of educational organizations as they strive to raise academic achievement and enhance teacher practices and performance. When educational systems invest in honest dialogue about student work, candidly assess student and teacher needs, make changes based on data and research, and value individual and group contributions, these organizations become cultures of thinkers and communities of learners. The on-line professional development facilitator is the lynchpin in this vehicle to productive growth.

Application: Facilitating Inquiry

Interview one or more experienced on-line professional development facilitators. Ask them to reflect on their goals for their participants. Ask them about their most rewarding experiences. Inquire about their greatest challenges. Ask them to share their recommendations for success. Talk about your discoveries.
 

Brooks Simoneau, C., & Bailey, G. A Facilitator's Guide to On-line Professional Development: Establishing Communities of Learning and Cultures of Thinking (in publication). Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon.

Knoll, K. E. (2001). "Communication and Cohesiveness in Global Virtual Teams." Dissertation Abstracts International, 61(08), 4251B. (UMI No. 9983268).