There are five readings for this block of the course: two concerned with the nature of educational community online, and then a further three concerning digital ethnography. Brought together, these articles and book chapters offer a thought-provoking and accessible introduction to the subject of educational community online, while also supporting the mini-ethnography that you will be undertaking.
Core reading
Bell, F., Mackness, J., and Funes, M. (2016). Participant association and emergent curriculum in a MOOC: can the community be the curriculum? Research in Learning Technology, 24 (1) DOI:10.3402/rlt.v24.29927
Taking the example of a particular kind of Massive Open Online Community (MOOC), Bell et al. explore the idea of community as a curriculum. Particularly relevant to our conversations in this block of the EDC course is the discussion of participant perceptions of community.
Kear, K., Chetwynd, F. and Jefferis, H. (2014). Social presence in online learning communities: The role of personal profiles. Research in learning technology, 22, 1-15. DOI:10.3402/rlt.v22.19710
In this nicely accessible article, Kear et al. consider the significance of ‘social presence’ within online educational communities. After a useful introductory section where they talk about online communication and presence, they move on to consider how the use of student profiles and photographs might help to support learning communities.
Witteborn, S. (2019). Digital Diaspora: Social Alliances Beyond the Ethnonational Bond. The Handbook of Diasporas, Media, and Culture, 179-192. DOI:10.1002/9781119236771.ch12
An interesting chapter on how diaspora communities are defined and theorised, and what role the digital has in maintaining these geographically disparate communities. ‘The digital is regarded as a resistant space in which diasporic members carve out their connectivities to create a safe sphere for collective action in face of a marginalizing receiving society.’ The chapter goes on to identify some of the digital practices that allow for participation in these digital diasporic communities.
Secondary reading
Dawson, S. (2010). ‘Seeing’ the learning community: An exploration of the development of a resource for monitoring online student networking (2010). British journal of educational technology. 41(5), 736-752. https://doi-org.ezproxy.is.ed.ac.uk/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2009.00970.x.
This article is included to make the point that that there are different ways of investigating community online, beyond the ethnographic approach we are taking in this block. Dawson used Social Network Analysis (SNA) to examine how academic performance was a factor in the way that students sought to establish their own online learner networks.
Heyd, T. & Honkanen, M. (2015). From Naija to Chitown: The New African Diaspora and digital representations of place. Discourse, context & media. 914–923.
This article provides an interesting methodological perspective on a broader African diasporic community, loosely referred to as the New African Diaspora (NAD), noting the re-emergence of discourse about place in community members, particularly prevalent in diasporic web forums and social media. ‘Through the rise of social media and mobile devices, the notion of place and (urban) space is emerging in the analysis of digital discourse’ and is suggested as a core community characteristic.