Did Passion Get Up and Go?

OK, so I have not been blogging for few days, but I really am losing my passion for blogging with so many other things to do and the end of the term approaching. I am ever so swamped with work, projects, and in the midst, have two out-of-town trips planned.

In addition, I am disillusioned with my choice of exemplar for the show and tell project--mostly because I was hoping that one of them (yes, I was checking out two communities at once--my usual back-up method) would work for this project. The most I can say is that after what I have found out about communities of practice and working communities, I have started to investigate other choices, while still trying to be involved in the ones I originally chose.

The reasons for my lack of passion with the RTI CoP on TA Communities are varied. First, the community aspect is very limited and access is extremely controlled with only limited interactivity. Second, the history of documents is sparce, and while the list of participants is large, the actual interaction through community discussion is non-existent (zero discussion, zero topics). Third, most of the activity takes place outside the RTI CoP using other technologies or through interacting with conference lecturers and small Q&A forums tied to the lecture--with no short-term or long-term projects or productive purpose--other than to reinforce the lecture of the moment. Although the information and online events are excellent when offered, I was looking for on-going, interactive, communal sharing of information, ideas, and resources on a more frequent and interactive basis. It would be fair to say that this community does not meet my expectations or desires or passions for interacting in a diverse, nationwide or worldwide community of practitioners, that can address issues inherent in RtI from multiple perspectives. I had hoped to find more peer-to-peer support rather than a top-down approach to presentation and dictated learning through presentation. So, my passion wains for interacting and working with this community....the opportunities are so constrained and limited. Ratz!

Of course, I had my back-up community, Disaboom.com,which I found interesting to begin with and was passionate about becoming involved for a variety of personal reasons. First, the site provides comprehensive opportunities to interact with the Disaboom community online through many web tools and interactive formats, such as topic oriented discussion groups, blogs, stories, news items, announcements, learning opportunities, groupings, individual profiles, as well as other affordances that support community building, sharing of knowledge, and expression of diverse beliefs and values. Second, my pursuit of special education teaching might find such a community useful to practice. Third, students with learning disabilities might find the site a supportive community that provides opportunities to interact with persons with a variety of disabling conditions and perspectives about living with those differences. Unfortunately, I was put-off early from true interaction with this site since a situation had developed on the site just prior to my membership that involved online flaming of a member by another member--and both members were booted-off the site. The chatter after that event gave the impression of some very mean spirited interaction, a very confrontive population, a socially conflicted community, but, a community. I just have been somewhat reluctant (actually resistent) to putting my own personal self, story, questions, and input out there. Instead, I find that my passion for interaction has gone PFFFFT!

So, what I have learned is that lurking awhile, exploring, and being on the periphery of a community can entice members to participate or deter member involvement--depending on the entry point and welcoming that a new member receives. The RtI group was extremely welcoming and attentive and without direct interaction with members, only opportunities for discourse with staff and experts in the field of practice, no conflict arose, but the follow-through, and community aspects of this group did not meet the criteria for an interactive community of practice. The Disaboom community, contrasted sharply with the RtI CoP, but had a number of drawbacks that were barriers to eliciting communication, knowledge sharing, and interactions from newbies, like myself.

Although my initial passion for the RtI CoP and the Disaboom community petered-out to a large degree, since my experiences with these communities, the course readings and discussions, and the excellence of presentations in the course, I am going to use my experiences with these two communities to promote my developing passion for excellence in online learning to guide the design and development of future online learning environments. In addition, I can include in my passion for learning and teaching the improvement of online learning through engagement and improved outcomes as an outgrowth of community interaction opportunities that are promote authenticity in future fields of practice.

All is not lost. Even difficult community or lack of community opportunities can be individually informative and succinctly transforming! Initial community difficulties can passionately propel a person into a search for a purposeful and productive community of practice.