Online Collaborative Learning

Joining a professional organisation can be a valuable strategy for teachers who want to improve their subject knowledge when professional development programmes are not easily available. Since the 1980s when computers were first used in schools and higher education, teachers and academics have set up professional organisations that deal specifically with different aspects of using edtech in teaching and learning. Four of those organisations, The MirandaNet Fellowship, Technology, Pedagogy and Education Association (TPEA), Naace and MESHGuides, met at the 2022 ICET conference (https://www.icet4u.org/upcoming_world_assembly.php) in a symposium to share ideas about how to improve collaborative learning online. The members of these organisations found they could build on the theories that had been developing over time. Braided Learning, Communal Constructivism, MirandaMods and Liminal Learning were the terms that they shared in order to create a MESHGuide that would help busy teachers pick up the main ideas. They also experimented with more visual ways of communicating these ideas in a MESHGuide Snapshot and a collaborative concept map. (You can find all these resources below).

 

Across the world other teachers and academics have been sharing similar ideas under the term, Rhizomatic Learning. This metaphor using the roots of a plant to explain how the collaboration works visually when we work together online.

Imagine how delighted the symposium members were when they were invited to contribute a chapter of a book about Rhizomatic Learning with authors from all over the world. Here are the details of the chapter

Everyone is an expert: rhizomatic learning in professional learning contexts

Cuthell J, S.Hall, H. Osman, C. Preston, S.Younie MirandaNet Fellowship (2022 In press)In collaboration with: Mike Blamires, Marilyn Leask, Richard Procter (MESHGuides) Nadya French, Gavin Hawkins, Laurence Boulter (Naace) Jon Audain, Chris Shelton, Helen Caldwell (TPEA) in Rhizome Metaphor: Legacy of Deleuze and Guattari in Education and Learning, Editor M.Khine, Springer

If you would like to read a draft of the chapter to quote in a study please get in touch with Professor Christina Preston who can offer you a draft.christina@mirandanet.ac.uk