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Learning Histories, Stepping Stones To The Future
When the Connecting the Campuses project was funded under the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office Fund for Instructional Improvement (FII), a series of Web-enhanced voice conferences resulted. These conferences, which used ordinary telephones for voice signals and used Web sites for visual materials needed during the conferences, illustrated the value of this hybrid technology in disseminating information systemwide. Building on the work of this project, the "System Think Tank" project, also funded by FII as a Board of Governors set-aside, continued the work of information dissemination to the system. However, this new project promised to explore other communication models. Noteworthy among the models were those devoted to building field-centered telecollaboration that possibly would create sustained change. In testing tele-collaboration models, the System Think Tank project focused on using web-enhanced voice conferences to build learning histories within the project’s development sphere of influence. Learning histories focus on what is already known by an organization and on what organizational work is producing new learning. To create dynamic histories, knowledge-base developers share their knowledge and learning with others who want to build upon what is already known and what is being learned. Focusing on telecollaborative development, rather than implementation or vision, the Think Tank chose the Telcommunication Model Applications Pilot Projects (TMAPP) as a source of content. By their very intent and design, these projects produced significant new learning. The System Think Tank, together with the Distance Education Unit (DEU) at the Chancellor’s Office, established a series of six telecollaborative TMAPP conferences to allow interaction between the original pilot project teams and the people in the field grappling with similar issues, concerns, or questions. Through pre-conference testing, Cristina Mora from the DEU worked with TMAPP teams in defining each conference’s content. Presenters quite naturally wanted to explain what they did during their projects. She guided directors to understand that the focus of conference content was to be less on what the projects did and more on what the people involved learned and what the directors felt should be done in the future to take the best advantage of the work already done. Guiding presenters to focus essentially on what they learned, either through success or failure of some project component, demanded significant coaching from Cristina. Over the course of six conferences, the presenters improved because they were able to learn from earlier presenters. Cristina improved her coaching of presenters, and the designed model improved as well. The conferences included a wide range of content topics: Online Student Services Center featured Cheryl Chapman and Rendell Drew of Coastline College and Rob Alworth and Jose Jibaja of Los Angeles CCD; Faculty Access to Computers and Technology featured Collie Tettelbach of Hartnell College; Statewide Delivery of Distance Education featured Joyce Arntson of Irvine Valley and Pat Fenton of West Valley Mission district; Online Curriculum and Instruction Resource Center featured Paul Butler-Nalin and Susan Sargent of Santa Barbara; Suppoting the Integration of Technology and Instruction for this new environment featured Ann Koda and Catherine Ayers of the @ONE project funded under the Telecommunications and Technology Infrastructure Project; and Universal Internet Access featured Rob Alworth of Los Angeles CCD. Also learning were the conference participants. Various topics drew different groups. In most cases, field participants attended because they wanted to avoid mistakes made by pilot projects and/or wanted to consult with directors about steps to take to build upon the project’s knowledge base. By the end of the six conferences, the Think Tank team learned how to conduct all steps related to these conferences, the DEU learned how to coach participants, and the field learned the extent of the learning history developed by the TMAPP projects. All of this learning shows the system’s potential for using the telecollaborative model to work toward the future. |
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