Community Building in a Blended Learning Environment

Building Inclusion

The first phase of the community-building experience is dedicated to building a foundation of inclusion. Where each individual shares pieces of themselves, allowing the group to get to know them. In placing an emphasis on sharing personal narratives, the goal is to create a sense of trust and safety, allowing each student's identity to be acknolwedge, to be valued and feel open to learning at their best. (Lundy, 2020).

The activities in this section are designed for groups and classes at the beginning of their journey in building community. The focus is on learning faces and names, personal interests, family background and establish a safe, inclusive learning environment in the physical classroom and in online spaces.

In her conversation with Robert Cavalier (2003), Brenda Laurel highlights that the framework for how we engage with technology is conceptually backwards. She says, "We've usually thought of computers as environments for humans. But when you turn that around and see the human as the environment for the computer, all of the HCI (Human Computer Interaction) principles that I believe in come into focus." (2003). With this perspective in mind, activities in community building and classroom design need to be framed around the students in the room, not the students conforming to the physical environment of the classroom. The provided activities aim to allow students to view the classroom community and environment as 'their' space and place to grow and learn.

Name Stories

Face - to - Face

Every name — like every student — has a story and students are invited to share the story of their own name.

Prompts:

What does you name mean?

How and why did your parents choose to give you the name?

Were you named after someone?

As an educator, I often share my name story as well. Teachers are a part of the learning and sharing community.

Adapted from Gould Lundy, K., and Swartz, L.

Virtual Community Museum

Online - Asynchronous

A virtual museum allows students to create their own slide (representing their personal curated exhibit of themselves) to educate their classmates and teacher about who they are and what is important to them. This is bringing the notion of the 'time capsule' into the virtual space and allowing the community to acknowdelge and appreciate each student's individual identity.

A sample copy of the collaborative document is availble here.

From From Tomlin, J., & Galay, L.

Who's and High 5's?

Online - Synchronous

This activity promotes learning names/faces, familiarity with camera/angles and the online classroom, using 'Gallery View' in video conference by asking the students questions about their classmates.

Prompt: I'll say a name, you point to the student where they are on your screen.

Prompt: High Five the person below you on the screen.

Prompt: High Five the person on your left.

Prompt: High Five the person on you right.

Prompt: High Five the person above you.

Adapted from Stetson, S.

Feel LIke, Look LIke, Sound Like

Face to Face

Ask students to imagine that the room they are in is completely empty, nothing on the walls, no furniture around. In groups of 2 or 3, ask the students to design their ideal classroom. How would it feel? How would it look? How would it sound?

These designs can be share as a group and used to enhance the classroom environment to meet the students communal, developmental and educational needs.

Adapted from Gould Lundy, K., and Swarts, L.

Classroom Norms - Collaboration Document

Classroom Norms Online

Online - Asynchronous

Student will work collaboratively to identify etiquette for an online learning environement.

Prompt: What do you need to be successful, supported and safe in the online learning environment?

Students will group responses into larger categories that will form normative behavior expectations for the online learning environment.

A sample copy of the collaborative document is availble here.

From Tomlin, J., & Galay, L.

Human Bingo

Online - Synchronous

In a synchronous environment, Human Bingo is a way to break the ice with a familiar game-style. Get to know more about the students in the classroom in active and interactive way.

At first glance this is a game about superficialities, however, this activity can be a bridge for students to recognize themselves within the group and bring forth opportunities for further sharing and connection.

From Tomlin, J., & Galay, L.

References:

Cavalier, R. (2003, May 30). Interactions in Education: A Conversation with Brenda Laurel. Campus Technology. Retrieved from https://campustechnology.com/Articles/2003/05/Interactions-in-Education-A-Conversation-with-Brenda-Laurel.aspx

Gould Lundy, K. (2020). Teaching Fairly in an Unfair World, 2nd Ed. Pembroke Publishers.

Gould Lundy, K., and Swartz, L. (2011). Creating Caring Classrooms. Pembroke Publishers.

Stetson, Shawn. (2020, July 13) [Lecture Notes on Building Community in Virtual Classrooms. AdventureWorks! Associates Inc., Toronto Catholic District School Board.

Tomlin, J., & Galay, L. (2020) Experiential Learning: Community Building in a Virtual Classroom. Ontario Council for Technology Education. Retrieved fro http://www.octe.ca/en/resources/resource-folder/building-community

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