Page 123 - Educational Technology A Primer for the 21st Century

7.3 Building and Managing Learning Communities and Groups 113
• How old are the students?
• What materials are available for students to use?
• How comprehensive are these materials?

After the group size is determined, different methods can be applied. Dreyer and
Harder (2009) proposed four methods to build groups in classroom settings.

• Randomly
• According to scores
• According to interest
• According to feelings.

When students are grouped, there is often a situation where someone is not
included; the teacher needs to persuade the group to accept those students not
already included in the group. Therefore, the task of grouping is often done by the
teacher. Whichever grouping method used, students should be given a chance to
change to another group. If students have the opportunity to participate in the
selection of partners, their acceptance of learning with their partners will also
increase. Thus, the freedom to change partners will play a positive role in pro-
moting student participation.
After the team has been identified, the role of each team member in accom-
plishing the task needs to be clarified. Through this clear division of labor, the team
can work together to enhance their confidence. In addition, the role of team
members can vary depending on the task.

7.3.3 Building and Managing Communities

Learning communities provide necessary support for social learning. Learners
interact with others in learning community and group to form social relationships.
However, the establishment and management of a learning community need time
and effort and follow the group development law. Essential elements for estab-
lishing prosperous learning communities are informality, familiarity, honesty,
openness, heart, passion, dialogue, rapport, empathy, trust, authenticity, disclosure,
humor, and diverse opinions (Chapman, Ramondt, & Smiley, 2005). According to
the five stages to build a projected course by Waltonen-Moore et al. (2006), we
propose the four stages of building and managing learning community:

1. Introductions—This step is a getting-to-know-you phase. Some methods, such
as self-introduction and ice-breaking tasks, can be used to create an initial and
emotional connection with others in the community.
2. Involved within the group—This step is a deeper understanding of group as a
part of group. Some methods, such as making group rules and clarifying task
division, can be used to make a deeper connection between individuals and the
group.