Developing a Community of Inquiry

Through cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence, an interactive environment of the community of inquiry can be established for the new generation. As Peggy A. Ertmer, and Timothy J. Newby state in the Article Update: Behaviorism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism: Connecting “Yesterday’s” Theories to Today’s Contexts, “…over the last 20 years that have affected the learning process---tools have changed, learners have changed, and, as a consequence, teaching methods have also changed.”(pg. 69) The role of designers and teachers is to implement these strategies of cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence combined with technology in supporting student learning since the digital native “thinks and learns differently than previous generations”. (pg.65 Ertmer & Newby) By understanding these strategies, a higher-order of thinking can be facilitated.

There are many strategies for developing a cognitive presence with active learning to support knowledge construction; it “…is the ability of learners to construct knowledge together.” (pg. 168 Stavredes) Paul McCartney called our world in the song “Live and Let Die”, as an “ever-changing world which we live in” which it is. Thus, to participate in this dynamic world, we need to utilize technology and our knowledge and skills by encouraging critical thinking and discussion into an interactive environment, a community of inquiry. “Critical thinking involves the ability to imagine and explore alternatives to the current way of thinking.” (pg. 109 Stavredes) By utilizing reflective and problem-based learning, cognitive presence can be established.

Reflective learning can relate the objectives and goals reflecting them on real-world practices. One can reflect on where they have been to where they want to go, applying their experiences to better fulfill their goals. Students analyze and organize information and relate it to a problem. Reflecting on a problem can provide a real-world understanding of an issue. Many believe journaling is a good reflective tool. “The arrival of blogging software made the blog one of the easiest methods to accomplish this sort of reflective journal, allowing quick and easy updates and the addition of multimedia.” (pg. 196 Ko & Rossen)

Problem-based learning is important for creating an environment of active learning. These critical thinking skills and knowledge lets the learners “control their own learning, and improve motivation by using authentic tasks that are applicable in the real world.” (pg. 130 Stavredes) Problem-based learning is a constructivism approach. “Problem-based learning focuses learning around a real-world problem, question, issue, case, or project. It requires learner’s to actively use knowledge in the content domain in tasks that require them to solve, resolve, and interpret as they engage in learning activities.” (pg. 118, Stavredes)

The collaboration of ideas, thoughts, and experiences from learners comes from a discussion question one that poses a question or issue of interest. “Kehrwald (2008) defines social presence as “an individual’s ability to demonstrate her state of being in a virtual environment and so signal her availability for interpersonal transactions.” (pg. 132 Stavredes) This interaction is to establish a social presence to engage in critical thinking and has been found to have a positive impact on motivation. By having “opinions in discussion, by taking a position, building arguments, using evidence or experience to support their arguments, and presenting a case for why their line of reasoning should be followed.” (pg.135, Stavredes) Trust is an important factor that helps learners feel comfortable with sharing their thoughts. But, as our cultural diversity comes more apparent and the differences or unknown moral and ethic differences are more apparent, the entity of trusting is going to be harder to come by.

Peer reviews are also an excellent learning strategy for sharing of knowledge, perspectives, and beliefs. Socrates believed that we should question ideas to determine when to believe them. In regard to teaching a social presence, we should come “…from a social constructivist perspective critical to learning because it provides an opportunity to negotiate meaning and construct knowledge.” (pg. 167 Stavredes) This collaboration of constructivism can be driven through communication, but cultural differences also need to be brought out and discussed so understanding and trust can occur.

Communication can be through a variety of synchronous (occurs at the same time) and asynchronous (occurs at different times) communication tools. The LMS Management system is a great place for synchronous and asynchronous communication. Moreover, “Synchronous tools like chat rooms and whiteboards are particularly appropriate for your class if your students live in the same time zone or are logging on from campus locations.” (pg. 158 Ko & Rossen) Other forms of synchronous tools are IM’s, SMS texting, Skype, Adobe Connect, and Blackboard Collaborate. Asynchronous tools can be blogs, wiki’s, Goggle applications, podcasting or vodcasting, social media such as Twitter or Facebook, and VoiceThread. A social presence utilizing communication in a variety of forms is important since, with the changes in technology, a cultural aspect world-wide has changed the learners themselves.

Interaction is important and a teaching presence is important to establishing a community of inquiry. An instructor-to-learner interaction helps engage learners and helps the students persist in their learning. The teacher is the facilitator, the guide, to help learners engage in their courses with assessments, and by supporting social and cognitive presence they can help develop students critical thinking skills. In other words, “Teaching presence is the design, facilitation, and direction of the social and cognitive processes for the purpose of realizing the relevant learning outcomes.” (Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 2001). Yet, the teaching presence today is evolving changing, and teachers need to evolve and change with the students and the technology that is driving the cultural changes of their world.

Communication should be supportive and “requires a blending of facilitation skills and direct instruction.” (pg. 153-154, Stavredes) The discussions should initially flow between learners. Teachers can keep the discussions going and propagating the development of cognitive skills through different outlooks and opinions. By defining ideas clearly, learners can create elaborate connections between multiple perspectives while accepting that there are alternative ways to look at issues. By teachers giving specific feedback, the feedback can demonstrate the objectives of the course and ways to improve performance, helping learners improve themselves and meet the goals of the course. In other words, it encourages self-evaluation of the criteria being taught.

Through the facilitation of learning activities, the four modes of teaching presence, realism, immersion, involvement, and suspension of disbelief, can support social and cognitive presence. These modes can make the boundaries between these real and virtual entities transparent. Realism reflects the real world. Immersion is an illusion of reality and is portrayed through simulation. Involvement is the interaction with peers via asynchronous and synchronous technologies, and suspension of disbelief is students creating their own reality in their own mind.

Intertwining technology into cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence can create deep thinking in students. Each presence effects the others making knowledge meaningful. Teaching knowledge to “…adaptive learners who are able to function well when optimal conditions do not exist, when situations are unpredictable and task demands change, when the problems are messy and ill-formed and the solutions depend on inventiveness, improvisation, discussion, and social negotiation.” (pg. 63 Ertmer & Newby) There is so many new software applications being created. Instruction tools such as, Padlet, Quizzlet, GoAnimate, RSS readers and feeds, mindmapping software such as bubblus, Mindmeister, and Mindomo,communication tools such as YouTube, Blogs, Twitter, Jing, and VoiceThread to name a few. We need to work on interactive tools; tools which the new wave of learners already utilize. Teaching and learning will never be the same. As we try to change in this ever-changing world we live in, instructional designers and teachers alike need to adapt by utilizing these technological tools for cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence to establish a community of inquiry.

References:

Ko, S., & Rossen, S. (2017). Teaching online; a practical guide. New York: Routledge.

Stavredes, T. (2011). Effective online teaching, training manual: foundations and strategies for student success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc. Publishing.

Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2008). Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism: Comparing Critical Features from an Instructional Design Perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 6(4), 50-72. doi:10.1111/j.1937-8327.1993.tb00605.x

Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Http://ljournal.ru/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/d-2016-154.pdf. (2016). doi:10.18411/d-2016-154