Heather+Bell

Facilitating a Blended Learning Community toc

=Thesis=

[|Facilitating a blended learning community fiinal 4th May.docx]

In 2008 I was involved in an INSTEP research project. A group of Napier-based Massey inservice teacher educators (ISTE) wanted to use online social networking tools to better support their teachers, so I used this group of to find out how to use a blended approach to support the professional learning of these ISTE. My thesis was called **"Facilitating a blended learning community: A collaborative approach to professional learning."** The Isteam wiki is the online platform used for this INSTEP project. The other research platform used was our planned monthly face to face meetings, although that didn't preclude the casual 'over the photocopier' type meetings (we all work in the same office although rarely at the same time).

Our research questions
The ISTE involved in this research were trying to answer the question of ** "What can we do to strengthen teacher learning through using online professional learning communities?" **To support them, I inverstigated the best way to support the development of adviser competence and knowledge (about their question) through using a blended learning environment. **"How can I make the best use of a blended learning community to** **facilitate** **adviser professional learning?"** Make sense?

Each of the ISTE team had a wiki for their teachers and used these wikis to develop our understanding of best practice. I tested and developed my ideas out on this ISTEAM research wiki. In our monthly face to face meetings we talked about what was happening on the ISTEAM wiki and on our own teacher wikis, and through this discussion we were able to identify patterns and trends, and suggest our next steps.

=Outcomes= There were two key outcomes from this research: ISTE developed a set of strategies to build levels of teacher confidence and engagement in their online teacher communities. I developed a set of strategies that showed how the blend of face to face and online environments can be best used to support adviser professional development, by identifying and taking advantage of the particular strengths of each environment.
 * ===Strategies.===
 * ===Facilitating a blended learning environment.===