Building Community

[Angela]

Establishing a new online community is an exciting venture. We've been happy and comfortable watching activity begin to bubble up in small but meaningful ways here and eager for this to evolve as a true community that isn't really led by any one person. This is a learning experience for all of us. Discovering how to engage purposefully with one another is a big part of that learning.

Sometimes, when we are new to engaging in online spaces, we aren't sure what the expectations are or how to participate in ways that will be appreciated. If you are a participant in this space, please take some time each week to visit, read what others are up to, and engage them in conversation. This shows tremendous support for the entire community, and it goes a long way toward building relationships. At first, this might feel uncomfortable. It takes a bit of courage to reach out in any new environment, to be sure. But I know that if all of us can make this small effort, we'll find ourselves personally rewarded as our network here begins to grow and our relationships begin to deepen a bit.

The purpose of our community is to work TOGETHER to make a difference. We've all been doing great things on our own for some time now. Jenny, Mike, and I are really excited to see what can happen once conversation and collaboration begins to happen here. I hope you will help us realize that vision!

Teachers, we hope you will see your students' membership here as a ripe opportunity to begin learning about social networking etiquette. We know that everyone within this space can serve as great examples of this as well. If you would like more information or support resources for your classroom relevant to social networking etiquette, just let me know. I'm happy to share what I have found and created!

[Angela]

Hi Heath! I heard great things about your Skype with Jenny and Mike, and I know from experience how rewarding it can be for the kids to get connected beyond their buildings and classrooms.

I use ning with a group of middle and high school students, and I also participate in a few. I'm attaching some of the tips that students generated collaboratively, based on their experiences with social networking. I hope this helps! This is a work in progress : ))Welcome to Our Party.doc

[Heath McCabe]

Hello Angela

Thank you for the prompt to visit the site. While I have not yet asked my students to visit or join WT2MD, I have shown them the ning in class in the context of our own introduction to service learning. We were lucky enough to speak with Mike and Jenny via Skype and the boys got a buzz out of having their community service effort recognised by 'complete strangers'.

I would be keen to learn more about the social networking etiquette you have shared with your students. I teach in the middle years (12-14 yo) which is around the time that boys begin to really get into online communication (I know the trend is for this age to be dropping by the day!)