Team 4 chose “Teaching online or hoarding Frogs in a Wheelbarrow” as our learning event, an elearning course shared by Todd Pottle purposed to provide educators with tips for online teaching. We found that the elearning course was shared through a community created by the Ontario eLearning Consortium (OeLC). The OeLC supports members by providing a website that serves as a repertoire for shared resources such as Pottle’s elearning course and urges members to contribute knowledge, experiences, and resources within the community. This type of community aligns with the definition of a Community of Practice (CoP). According to Wenger (2011), who coined the term, CoPs take many shapes and forms but there are three common elements to all CoPs including domain, practice, and community. In our context, the domain is a shared interest in teaching and learning, the practice is shared between teaching and learning practitioners, and the community is cultivated through forum discussions and sharing of knowledge and resources. Team 4 will be exploring CoPs as a learning technology and will analyze the elearning resource shared by Pottle.
In a CoP, members contribute by sharing knowledge and resources, and I will be examining the issue of misinformation and control. With vast amounts of information readily available on the Internet this is an issue for digital learners to consider. Misinformation, disinformation, and fake news shared on the Internet and in our digital learning communities, whether intentional or not, is a reality. Learners must be able to critically evaluate sources and credibility. Mike Caulfield, developer of the SIFT (stop, investigate the source, find better coverage, trace original source) method of identifying misinformation, uses the term info-environmentalism, likening the presence of misinformation on the Internet to environmental pollution suggesting that it is up to us to clean it up. “Our information environment is dangerously polluted (Caulfield, 2017, para. 3)”. Caulfield posits that we are responsible for cleaning it up by contributing more quality content to the Internet through, Wikipedia, YouTube, blogs, etc.
I intend to explore the issue of misinformation management in our chosen learning technology, CoPs. In a CoP, members openly contribute by creating or sharing resources which can create potential for the spread of misinformation or “pollution” in the community. As learners in these digital spaces, we must be savvy consumers of knowledge and responsible contributors to prevent the spread of misinformation. Some CoPs have a lot of organizational control and some do not. What kind of control is required or acceptable in a CoP? Wenger (2011) suggests that for a CoP to be successful, there needs to be some organizational control however, too much control can be detrimental to the development of the community. It is my opinion that censorship within a CoP can be difficult without creating the potential for perpetuating bias, personal assumptions, and negating opposing viewpoints. My goal in further exploring this issue is to find insight into how a CoP can balance managing misinformation while cultivating participation and a healthy repertoire of shared resources that are inclusive of multiple perspectives.
As a learner and leader in digital learning communities, I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on the following questions:
- How are we personally responsible in our digital learning environments to mitigate the dissemination of misinformation?
- As a learner in open digital learning environments, do you feel that you are equipped to critically evaluate and identify misinformation?
- How should censorship be considered in CoPs and in your opinion does it open us up to limiting alternative points of view and falling into our own biases and assumptions?
References
Caulfield, M. (October 23, 2017). Info-Environmentalism: An Introduction https://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/10/info-environmentalism-an-introduction
Ontario eLearning Consortium (n.d.). eLearning at the Upper Canada District School Board, supported by the OeLC. Retrieved April 18, 2022, from https://www.oelc.ca/testimonial/
Wenger, E. (2011). Communities of practice: A brief introduction. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/11736
Wenger, E. (n.d.). Communities of Practice: Learning as a Social System. The Systems Thinker. https://thesystemsthinker.com/communities-of-practice-learning-as-a-social-system/
April 24, 2022 at 1:10 am
Melissa, you have a topic of great concern in education today, particularly with the amount of misinformation spreading across all types of social media. To what extent does this problem cross over into online CoPs? Finding that balance is a difficult challenge but an important line of research for your study. Caulfield’s work is a good point of entry.
April 30, 2022 at 10:50 am
Yes, thank you for suggesting Caulfield. I think that his work and strategies are effective tools that can be used to equip digital learners who are participating in digital learning communities where information is openly shared and there is a potential for the spread of misinformation. I am finding that to combat misinformation we should probably think less about trying to control content in digital learning environments and more about how we personally consume and contribute information.
I look forward to continuing my research in this area.
April 27, 2022 at 4:36 pm
Hi Melissa,
I’m really intrigued about your topic especially because of the Fake News phenomena we heard so much from the Trump era. Our team has selected TikTok as our technologies and we are also exploring the implications of TikTok as of privacy, ethics, licensing, terms of service, etc. It will be interesting to see how much of your research correlates with the outcomes of ours. I recalled, from our earlier course LRNT 521, the notion of critical assumption as “the literacy of trying to figure out what and who is trustworthy, who can trust to be an authority on something or another, (…), consult what they have written, their opinion about the subject” (Rheingold, 2010, p. 5). Rheingold suggested to start asking primary questions such as: who is the author, what other people say about the author? Who are the people who give opinions about the author? What are the author’s sources? Who is linked to the author?
This article on critical consumption in social media opened my eyes as of the information we are consuming on social media. Good luck with the exploration of your critical issue and I am certainly looking forward to read it!
Reference:
Rheingold, H. (2010). Attention, and other 21st-century social media literacies. Educause Review, 45(5), 14. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2010/10/attention-and-other-21stcentury-social-media-literacies
April 30, 2022 at 10:38 am
Hi Stephanie,
Yes, it is a huge topic. I agree that recent events have highlighted the prevalence of misinformation, disinformation, and fake news in social media. I really look forward to hearing more about your findings with TikTok.
Thank you for sharing that resource. I haven’t looked at that one for this project yet.
Melissa
April 30, 2022 at 8:57 am
Hi Melissa,
Like you I am looking at issues with misinformation specifically with a public health lens. One possible suggestion is to partner with community influencers who can assist with disseminating accurate information and “correct” misinformation while crafting messages specifically targeted to groups. I am wondering if that strategy could be incorporated into CoPs?
References
Merchant, R. M., South, E. C., & Lurie, N. (2021). Public health messaging in an era of social media. Jama, 325(3), 223-224.
April 30, 2022 at 10:42 am
Hi Gail,
Yes, misinformation is definitely an important issue when it comes to health, as we have seen. I look forward to seeing your presentation.
I think that the approach you mention aligns with Mike Caulfield’s approach to combatting misinformation by flooding the Internet and/or digital learning communities with quality contributions rather than trying to STOP it.
Reference
Caulfield, M. (October 23, 2017). Info-Environmentalism: An Introduction https://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/10/info-environmentalism-an-introduction