The full title of this book is Ten Strategies for Building Community with Technology: A handbook forinstructional designers and program developers. When I saw that title, myfirst impression was that this is about using social media in instructionaldesign. I was almost totally wrong.
Ten Strategies isaimed at helping instructional designers understand how to make learning atechnology-enhanced communal experience. Social media may be involved, but thatis really not what the book is about. It is important to remember that, and tokeep in mind that this is not a cookbook full of recipes. I will admit to beingmore than a little bewildered when I took my first fast skim through its 196pages, but once I understood the aim of the authors, it made a lot more sense.
Is this the book for you?
In the introduction, the authors state that, “This book isintended for educators who see themselves as architects of learning experiencesin courses that are in whole or in part intended for technology-supported andonline learning environments.” In a later section, they expand on that a bit,when in the course of explaining “How to Use This Book” they provide tips for“teachers, university students, learning leaders, and home schoolers.”Personally I think many (not all) home schoolers just might be overwhelmed bythe content, but that audience definition works. The authors furthercharacterize the book as “a shopping mall of ideas.” It’s a bit more like theMall of America or some other mega-mall than your neighborhood strip mall, so you must comeprepared to spend quite a bit of time figuring out what’s there and sorting outyour strategy for using what you find.
The big picture
The authors are looking at instruction and learning througha very specific lens, and it is likely going to be a new one for many readers. Theyexplain what this is in the very first paragraph, which I am going to quote inits entirety:
The essential idea of this book is thatlearning requires community and learners need to experience community in orderto learn. Community in courses does not happen by accident, particularly incourses and programs designed with technology to either deliver or supportlearning. When learners feel that they are in and part of a real andtransformative community, it is because their instructors have consciouslydesigned the learning conditions and environment to ensure that studentsexperience that sense of community. This “big idea” is supported by a secondaryone, that thinking is socially constructed; knowledge is a social construction.To intentionally design conditions in a course so learners form a community inwhich to think and know is therefore important. And this is equally true incourses and programs that are supported by technology.
So the entire book is built around this philosophy ofteaching. Some readers will embrace this philosophy, others will not:“community” is essentially dialectical, “a word whose essence is rightrelationships.” It is sustained by particular attributes and not others. If youforget this frame of reference, if you attempt to apply the content of the bookas a set of recipes or rigid formulations, the designs that result will verylikely fail.
The philosophy is the basis for the book and for thepresentation within it of 10 models for online-course design and teaching.
The 10 models
The authors say, “We address one question asked by teacherswho teach using technology (including online environment): ‘How can I buildcommunity among my learners?’ This book provides 10 possible answers, in theform of 10 models for teachers to use to build community.”
The authors chose a set of models that are commonly used ininstruction, and most, if not all, of these will be familiar to readers interms of methodology if not by name. They are:
- Transmission/Direct Instruction
- Nurturing
- Guided Discovery
- Projects
- Insight-generating
- Training
- Shared Praxis
- Apprenticeship
- Case Study
- Inquiry
These models are useful for instruction applied across avery broad range of instructional goals and learner competencies, from manualskills to problem-solving and beyond.
In the introduction, the authors provide one more keystatement (and I apologize for quoting again at length, but this is importantfor readers here to understand):
One important idea for course designers—oftenneglected in face-to-face learning environments—is that the more cognitivelyactive a learner is before, during, and closely following a teaching activity,the more likely it is that the learner will gain some form of understandingfrom the activity, provided other conditions that support learning … are inplace. Despite the common criticism of online courses that they are no morethan an expensive and elaborate system of brokering in abstractions, strategicand intentional course designers can build courses in which learners arecognitively active.
“Cognitively active.” The ever-elusive “engaged.” How doesthe book provide for designing content that does this, that builds community,and that achieves instructional goals in order to support valued outcomes ineducation or in business?
Organization and structure
The contents of TenStrategies are ordered and organized in a way that is both logical andhelpful, and that accommodates the different backgrounds that readers willlikely have (remember the audience definition above). The approach will, Ibelieve, facilitate understanding and application of the ideas presented.
There are four sections in the book, followed by fiveappendices that fill in any gaps that readers may have in their knowledge ofterms, instructional design principles, and theory, and the 10 models.
- Section 1: Description of the 10 models proposedfor designing courses—the methodologies and the theoretical constructsundergirding the book
- Section 2: Case studies and examples—thesepresent the strategies associated with each model
- Section 3: Design suggestions—these focus on thetactics, or how the models can be applied
- Section 4: Questions to guide design—this is anextensive FAQ (frequently asked questions)
The authors do an excellent job in each section, where theyprovide suggestions for reading the section. I was grateful for their help morethan once.
In order to keep this review short, I am only going todescribe the way that one of the sections works, Section 2. Section 2, as I’veindicated, is written at the strategic level. It consists of case studies andexamples. There are 10 of these case studies, one for each of the 10 models.Each case study is organized in the same way:
- Scenario—helps connect the familiar (teachingexamples) with new ideas
- Background—theory and examples of common use;for transmission/direct instruction, for example, common strategies includelecture, printed materials, projected images, whiteboards, and so on
- Keywords—definitions and explanations of termsthat may be new to a reader, such as “appreciative inquiry” or “self-efficacy”
- Indicators of success
- How best applied—“best practices”
- Challenges to using this approach
- Opportunities to enhance the effectiveness ofthe model
- Purpose of the model
- Goals of the model
- Alternatives to the model
- Assessment
The other sections are organized and presented in similarfashion. I think this approach will be very effective for most readers.
Summary
Some of the content of TenStrategies will be a “stretch” for some readers, but if the philosophy ofteaching (community as the basis for learning) is one you find worth exploring,I think you will benefit from study and application of the ideas presented.
Overall, this is a book about the development andapplication of strategy, rather than a tactical guidebook. You will want tospend time with it, you will want to provide your copy to colleagues to spendtime with, and you will want to spend time in dialogue with those colleagues towork out how to apply what you have read.
In any event, it would be worthwhile to read Ten Strategies and to understand that,over time, more and more of the employees you will be training will be veryfamiliar with this approach to learning. They will be products of instructionthat employed it, and they may very well have no experience or patience withwhat many instructional designers today think of as “conventional” or“traditional” teaching methods. As the song says, the times they area-changing, and this is one of the changes.
