Learning Design Plan for 3/25/04

Learning Design Plan for Unit 3

APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY, STEPS 3 & 4

INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

UNIT TIMEFRAME: 3/20 – 3/31/04

Synchronous Session #3 – 3/25/04, 10 – 11:30 AM PST

OUTCOMES/WORK PRODUCTS

By the conclusion of this unit (which began after the 3/19 synchronous session, and goes through 3/31 – just before the next synchronous session), we would expect that the individual institutional team participant would be able to:

Continue to practice new methodologies for consultation and communication with others, in particular using Appreciative Inquiry as a social process methodology. Participants will be able to

Associate the core principles with the 5 “D’s” or generic processes.
Practice Steps 3 and 4 of the AI process (Share the stories of exceptionally positive moments and identify life-giving forces/themes; and create shared images of a preferred future)

Identify the elements that define communities of practice (audience, purpose, domain, activities, community activities and operations) as a framework for organizing and planning for your institutional team projects.
Experiment with and formulate an initial response to two potential approaches for reflecting upon community purpose (and discover and share others).
Connect definition of community purpose and assessment as integrated elements in planning for community design and development for a culture of inquiry and evidence.
Begin refining VCOP reflection tool(s) for general and individual institutional team uses.

PRE-MEETING PREPARATIONS

Assignment 1: On your own, finish your interview summary, and post it in the Discussions area under "Facilitating Innovative ID"/"The Interviews and Summaries" - you will find more instructions there, and the word form to fill out and attach to your discussion post is attached to this message.

Assignment 2 - Individually respond to Joan Getman‘s e-mail about whether we‘ve guessed right about your teams. (If you‘ve misplaced it, her e-mail address is jmf4@cornell.edu, and we‘ll shortly post the list of teams and team members in the Resource Center that we‘ll be correcting and updating as we hear back from you.

Assignment 3 - As a team - set up a separate meeting with your team before 3/25/04, and pick a liaison for that team to post a team introduction under Introductions/Team Introductions in the Discussion session.
(Those of you on Team 1 or Team 2 – not having an institutional team - were contacted with alternate instructions).

Assignment 4 - As a team - discuss the AI interviews you did today, maybe practice doing an interview with your team members, and talk about any common emerging themes. We‘ll be picking that up during our next conference call, as well as setting up the framework for further work on your team projects by your team. (But we need you to do Assignment 3 in order to do that.)

DAY OF 3/25/04 – SYNCHRONOUS SESSION 3

1.0 9:45 – 10 AM PST GETTING ORGANIZED

ARE YOU READY? Make sure you have . . .

dialed into the audiobridge (1-877-944-2300, confirmation code 99202#)
Logged into the Bridging Community (http://www.conferences.icohere.com/bridging)
Opened the scheduled Meeting Place for this synchronous session, Synchronous Session 3 Meeting Room, in the Bridging Community
Clicked on Introductions link in this Meeting Place – checked out the list of resources you will need during this session, and downloaded all of them – see list in box below.
In particular, make sure you have downloaded the Powerpoint presentation for this session (“Powerpoint-Unit3-03/25/04”) and have opened it – we will *not* be using HorizonLive so you will need to download the Powerpoint presentation and follow along on your own.
Note that another resource is this document, the learning plan for this unit of the focus session (“Learning-Activities-Plan-Unit3-03-25-04”), which you can print and follow along with as we go through the synchronous session.
Collected any previously downloaded resources that you might want to refer to during the session.

RESOURCES NEEDED FOR SYNCHRONOUS SESSION

AI-Roadmap (pdf file in Resource Center/2004 Online Workshop (Spring)/Resources for 3/19/04)

Learning-Activities-Plan-Unit3-03-25-04(this document)*

Powerpoint-Unit3-03-25-04*

Small-Group-Breakouts-03-25-04*

VCOP-outcomes-reflection-tool*

Community-LCP-Guide*

*Look for documents to download under “Introductions” in the Meeting Place for this synchronous session. Note that all starred resources are also available under: Resource Center/2004 Online Workshop (Spring)/Resources for 3/25

NOTE: We will not be using HorizonLive during this synchronous session, so you will need to download the Powerpoint presentation (Powerpoint-Unit3-03-25-04), start the presentation and follow along on your own.

2. 10 – 10:15 AM PST START UP, ANNOUNCEMENTS, CHECK-IN

2.1 Question of the Day (check in)

Check in, and in the Meeting Place for this synchronous session, please post a sentence or two that describes any new connections you’ve made with people through this workshop.

2.2 Communication Protocols Review/Technology/Resources for this Session

[Review verbally, post in Meeting Place, and provide in Learning Plan document]

· Reminders about:

o Put phone on mute

o Don’t put phone on hold if musak is played

o Auto scroll reminder

o Abbreviations and misspellings are OK

o Use short responses for QM

o Refer to message number when responding to a post

o Remember to say “brb” if you have to briefly attend to something else while you are in a quick meeting, and say “bye” before leaving a quick meeting (and close the window when you are leaving for good so you don’t leave your “ghost”)

o Remember to log out of the Bridging Community when you are ready to leave.

o Where to go for help –

On-Line: Tourist Info/Help

At bottom of screen – Click Here to Initiate Quick meeting with Help Support Staff

On the phone: 1-877-944-2300, confirmation code 99200#

(Phone and help staffed by Darren Cambridge)

Quick Tip for Today – Search Feature in Discussions (News announcement)

· Technology in play today

o Audiobridge (1-877-944-2300, confirmation code 99202#)

o Meeting Place for entire group

§ Click on Introductions for resources needed – NOTE: by popular demand, we are *not* using HorizonLive, so you will need to download the Powerpoint presentation for this session, and follow along on your own machine

o During breakouts – we’ll be using separate Meeting Places for 4 small groups (see “Small-Group-Breakouts-03-25-04” for how divided into groups by timezones, but generally Group 1 is West Coast folks, Group 2 is middle America, Group 3 is for East Coast folks, and Group 4 is for the lost and confused – in other words, anyone who is a newcomer to the community or who has missed the last synchronous session)

2.3 News & Announcements

AI Lite posting (see News/Bridging Herald)

AI Discussion

3.0 10:15 – 10:45 AM APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY LITE - STEPS 3 & 4

Are you ready? Make sure you have . . .

Make sure you have

· dialed into the audiobridge (1-877-944-2300, confirmation code 99202#)

· downloaded the Powerpoint presentation for Unit 3 (Powerpoint-Unit3-03/25/04), and started up the presentation in a separate window so you can follow along yourself – we will *not* be using HorizonLive (Jean will say, “next slide”)

· opened the Meeting Place for this synchronous session in another window in the Bridging Community

· downloaded the Small-Group-Breakouts-03-25-04 document so you know which small group you will be working with during the breakout session

3.1 Presentation by Jean Kreis (15 minutes)

Review the AI-Roadmap, p. 5 (we’ve briefly explored steps 1, 2 and part of 3

Step 1 – Choose the positive as the focus of inquiry

Step 2 – Inquire into exceptionally positive moments (interviews); and

Step 3 – Share the stories (postings in the Discussion)

Discuss and model steps 3 & 4 - look for life-giving forces/themes in the stories (rest of step 3), begin to create a shared image of the preferred future (step 4).

Context: In the Bridging Community context, the purpose of using Appreciate Inquiry is three-fold. First, we want to gather powerful, positive stories, and find the lessons in our strengths so that we can do further activities based on those strengths. Second, AI can be a compelling and engaging social process methodology for getting to know each other. Third, AI may be a helpful methodology for your institutional teams to use for your own projects, and this is a “lite” introduction to it, that we will build on later for subsequent community activities after the workshop is completed, for those who wish to pursue this further.

3.2 BREAKOUT #1 - Small Group Discussion (15 minutes)

A Taste of AI Theme Identification

3.2.1 Break out into small groups (we’ll be using 4 facilitated meeting places set up for several institutional teams at once – see “Small-Group-Breakouts-03-25-04”).

Note to late-comers – generally, Group 1 is West Coast folks, Group 2 is middle America, Group 3 is for East Coast folks, and Group 4 is for the lost and confused.

Small group activity: Discuss emerging themes and work toward consensus about the top 2. Facilitator homework assignment (by 3/36/04 - facilitator will review transcript, and will report in later on the small group’s behalf in Discussion/Facilitating Innovative ID/Themes.

and others are welcome to make additions, respond to other posts, etc. in this discussion topic).

Purpose: Practice exploring themes from the stories, looking for patterns, and choosing the most important, in preparation for institutional team assignment for step 4 (will be doing this as a homework assignment for institutional teams). Facilitators model consensus building (most important themes are not chosen through a voting process, but through a negotiating, synthesizing process).

Homework Assignment, Part 1: This will be Part 1 of your homework assignment due 3/31/04 – meet later in your institutional team, explore themes, find the patterns and arrive at consensus about the three most important themes, and then work together on creating a shared image of the preferred future to create an image collage. Have your team liaison post the top three themes that your separate team discussion came up with, with the image collage attached, in Discussion/Facilitating Innovative ID/Themes.

Homework Assignment, Part 2: This will be Part 2 of your homework assignment due 3/31/04 – as individuals, take a look at the posts in the Discussion/Facilitating Innovative ID/Themes and make additions, comments, responses as they occur to you. (note that each small group facilitator is responsible for reviewing transcript of small group breakout #1 during Synchronous Session 3, and summarizing the results in this Discussion area by 3/26/04, so you will have a mixture of postings from the small group breakouts, and postings reporting institutional teams’ results as well.

4.0 10:45 – 11:20 AM

COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE – Creating a Culture of Inquiry & Evidence

Are you ready? Make sure you have . . .

Make sure you still have:

· dialed into the audiobridge (1-877-944-2300, confirmation code 99202#)

· the Powerpoint presentation open in a separate window so you can follow along yourself – we will *not* be using HorizonLive (Vicki will say, “next slide”)

· left the Small Group Meeting Place open, but moved back to the Meeting Place for this synchronous session (open in another window in the Bridging Community)

· downloaded the “VCOP-outcomes-reflection-tool,” and the “Community-LCP-Guide” so you can reference them during the presentation and following discussion.

4.1 Presentation by Vicki Suter (15 minutes)

4.1.1 Definition of the term, “Community of Practice”

4.1.2 Framework for planning COP projects – explore a series of questions around the following 6 elements of community (for this session will concentrate on #1)

Culture of Inquiry & Evidence: How are we to understand initially (and refine our understanding over time) the community’s intended audience, domain, purpose, goals and outcomes? What is the assessment infrastructure and language of inquiry and evidence that the community and its stakeholders will use to understand and document success in achieving the purpose, meeting the goals, responding to needs, and making decisions about future actions?
Audience: Who is this community for? What is the specific audience that this community is going to serve? What is the range in heterogeneity that this community can likely successfully support?
Domain: Given the intended audience, what are the key issues with which community members will commonly engage, and what is the nature of the knowledge that the community will steward?
Purpose, Goals & Outcomes: Given the intended audience and domain, what is this community’s primary purpose? What are the benefits of this community for its stakeholders (what is the purpose of the community from the point of view of the individual community member, their institution, the community itself, and the community’s sponsor)? What specific needs will the community be organized to meet?
Modes of Operation: How will community members connect on an ongoing basis to accomplish the community’s primary purpose (how will presence and connectedness be facilitated)? What kinds of activities will generate energy and begin to build the community? What are the external resources that will help the community during its initial development, and how will members gain access? How will community members be organized into subgroups?
Community Culture: What sort of image does the community want to project, given its audience, domain, purpose, and modes of operation? What are the meaningful metaphors to use with its audience. What is the tone of interactions and activities that facilitators want to model? How will community identify be formed, shared, and refined over time? How will newcomers be enculturated in the community culture?

4.1.3 Two possible perspectives for focusing your thinking about purpose of a community of practice, and inoculating for a culture of inquiry and evidence:

4.1.3.1 COP as a professional development environment to transform practice

· Transformative Assessment process

· Understand purpose of project/community/activity

· Define desired outcomes (nature of transformation)

· Articulate relationships (conceptual framework that describes the relationships between outcomes, activities, technologies)

· Recognize key questions to ask in relation to desired outcomes – the context is the conceptual framework

· Identify key indicators that help in the exploration of the key questions

· Choose methodologies for collecting and evaluating the data for the key indicators

· VCOP Outcomes Reflection Tool – for looking at a COP as a professional development environment to transform practice

4.1.3.2 COP as a learning environment for its members

· Works from the assumption that learning is the basis for transformation of practice (individual, institutional, and collective), and that therefore, community of practice design elements and activities that support learning can facilitate transformation

· "Community of Practice Learner-Centered Principles/Practices Guide" for reflecting on community learning

· Uses the same set of Deeper Learning Principles the NLII has been using successfully for observation tools for looking at how CMS, e-portfolios, learning objects, and other technologies relate to deeper learning – principles developed by NLII 2002 Fellows (Carmean/Haefner); observation tools developed by NLII 2003 Fellow (McGee)

4.2 PAUSE – 5 minutes - Opportunity for reflection, review of observation/reflection tools, notes to oneself, Blog & Wiki & just catching up

4.3 11:05 – 11:20 AM BREAKOUT # 2 – Facilitated Small Group Discussion – Culture of Inquiry & Evidence for Communities of Practice

Are you ready? Make sure you have . . .

Make sure you have:

· dialed into the audiobridge (1-877-944-2300, confirmation code 99202#)

· moved back to the Small Group Meeting Place you had open for the previous breakout

· downloaded the “VCOP-Outcomes-Reflection Tool,” and the “Learner-Centered Principles/Practices Guide” so you can reference them during the presentation and following discussion.

4.3.1 Break out into the small groups you had for Breakout Session #1, and discuss the following questions for the next 15 minutes:

Which of the two reflection/observation tools “speaks” to you for your community’s purpose?
Why is that?
Are there other tools, methods and instruments that you’ve used and would recommend to other institutional teams for setting the tone for a culture of inquiry and evidence?
Do you see any possibilities for an institutional team to use Appreciative Inquiry techniques to explore community purpose and culture?

NOTE: Facilitators will collect notes, harvest results, and post in Discussion/Communities of Practice/Culture of Evidence and Inquiry, by 3/26/04.

5.0 11:20 – 11:30 AM

WRAP-UP

5.1 What are we working on next?

5.1.1 We’ll be exploring the following questions:

· What do we need to understand about communities of practice (audience, purpose, domain, activities, community activities and operations) as we explore the role such communities could play in change at our institutions?

· What are the important existing technical infrastructures (e.g., existing knowledge management systems, student information systems), and how might the proposed community interact with these?

· How will the community fit within the existing organization culture and sub-cultures?

· What are the organizational implications of the community, and how will it be coordinated with potentially-related enterprises and programs?

· What do we need to understand about virtual communities of practice that we need to take into account as we explore these issues? How do the online and offline aspects of community interact?

· What are the functional requirements for the community-oriented software we will need to use?

5.1.2 Work on institutional COP/VCOP projects – nature depends on institutional status (have institutional team and project under way, have institutional team and general project planned, have institutional team but haven’t defined project yet, don’t yet have an institutional team)

Potential work products (Depending on the above) : COP Project Plan, COP Project Assessment Plan, COP Project Plan to Plan, Strengths Inventory using AI

5.2 Where/when do we meet next?

4/1/04, face-to-face meeting at AAHE (9 – noon for those who are attending the AAHE conference; regular synchronous online session 10 – 11:30 AM PST for those who are not)

5.3 What is our pre-meeting preparation for the next synchronous session?

5.3.1 Additional homework assignment – Parts 3 & 4 (also will be posted in the News)

Homework Assignment, Part 3: This will be Part 3 of your homework assignment due 3/31/04 – As individuals, read through postings in Discussion/Communities of Practice/Culture of Evidence and Inquiry. Add your own commentary, questions, or suggestions as they occur to you. (Facilitators will have collected notes from Small Group breakout session #2, harvested results, and posted these by 3/26 in this Discussion).

Homework Assignment, Part 4: This will be Part 4 of your homework assignment due 3/31/04 – as institutional teams, at your team meeting this week, pick one of the reflection tools (or devise your own) and use it to guide a discussion about your community of practice project – addressing the implications of embedding a mindset of inquiry and evidence in the community, and developing a first draft statement of the community’s audience, domain, purpose/goals/outcomes and how these would be tied back to the community’s culture of inquiry and evidence. Have the team liaison post the results of your meeting in the Discussion/Communities of Practice/Culture of Evidence and Inquiry.

5.3.2 Review Homework Assignments, Part 1 & 2, given previously (also posted in News)

5.5 Reminder: Someone is always available to help you, from M-F, from 9 AM to 4 PM EST. Starting Friday, 3/26/04, we’ll be hanging out in The Common meeting space – we encourage you to step in and say hello whenever you come online (you can always go to Tourist Info/Help if you want to initiate a separate Quick Meeting for help).