Monday, May 21, 2012

DLC- The More I Listen...The More I Wonder .. The More I Learn

As you know, I am currently taking master courses at UNI in Instructional Technology. This week we have read about Distributed Learning Communities (DLC) (Dede, C. (2004) 
Also this week, we have begun to experience them ourselves. It has been a major learning experience.
I was all prepared to write my reflection about DLCs and their place in learning and in our classroom, when I clicked over to check what my own DLC was discussing on our Discussion Board. What I read from my fellow cohort memberss--deepened my thinking, added questions to my understanding,and left me with things to think about further. Isn't this what a Distributed Learning Community does? Humm...

What is Distributed Learning Community?

Let's check out a summary of what DLC is and the characteristics you need for success. Ashley at Meeting the Needs of All Learners gives a great summary of Dede's ideas  here:

"Chris Deed states that 'the defining quality of a learning community is that their is a culture of learning in which everyone is involved in a collective effort of understanding.'  To be successful in this form of a learning community you must have 4 characteristics(Chris Deed):
1. Diversity of Expertise ~ each student must come to the community with a varied knowledge base, culture, and expertise
2. Shared Goal of Learning ~ this characteristic resonated the most with me, every student must want to learn and I feel that sometimes this concept is taken for granted or assumed.
3. Learning how to Learn ~ every student must come to the DLC with the ability and will to learn how to learn when presented with different formats or structures of learning
4. Sharing what is Learned ~ every student must share their learnings to create a collaborative environment

2 comments:

  1. I love this! You are building on our DLC and making new knowledge. You have synthesized these bloggers' insights.

    This discussion has made we start wondering. I even challenged my own comments over on our discussion board.

    Good job. Now I'll return to pondering.

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  2. Wow!!!

    What a wonderful synthesis of the DLC and what your classmates are saying about using this in their own lives.

    Andi, you sound as though you are someone who is looking for a change in how you learning and the opportunities you provide for others to learn.

    I look forward to learning from you over the next couple of years.

    Z

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