Thoughts on Social Capital, Online Communities, and Web 2.0

When I first read the information from World Bank, the term “social capital” was new to me and after struggling with trying to determine the meaning from the context, I ‘googled’ it. (As a teaching librarian instead of ignoring Google and hoping it will go away, I prefer to embrace it in positive ways). There are of course many definitions available, but the one I like best came from Earth Economics (web): Social capital is the underpinning and core fabric of social communities. Left intact, social capital has a stream of benefits, including safety and security, friendship and community, a sense of civic identity, etc. Although the term was new to me, the idea certainly was not.
I’ve been part of online communities, in one form or another for 15 years: mIRC chatrooms, listservs, and bulletins boards. In each setting a community develops along with behaviors, language, customs, and friendships. I’ve seen people benefit from practical advice and a safe place to vent. I’ve witnessed the progression of these groups through Tuckman’s Stages (although again, I did not know what they were). So I was not at all surprised last year when I overheard a group of colleagues in our own OTTP program talking with a sense of community about their online group: the assignments, fellow students, and events within the online community.
Now that I’m aware of the concept, I can see many ways to apply it to my courses. It’s like those funny moments when you hear a word you have never hear before, and the next day you hear it again and the next day, again. It’s not that the word wasn’t being said, it’s just that you finally noticed it. I’m convinced that many elements of Web 2.0 (blogs, wikis and social networking) need to be incorporated into online classes. Williams, whose article was written in 2004, stated that a review of scholarly journals found on 30 articles about blogs in education. Today, six years later, I did the same search and found only 60, so the concept isn’t yet finding its way into the professional publications. Perhaps the author is correct; the instructors who know the value of Web 2.0 are out using it, not submitting articles on it for publication. (I did find some good stuff, though)

College instructors have the unenviable tasks of teaching without ever having to take an education class. I am a librarian, and 3 semesters into my academic career I was thrust into teaching a 1 unit course. Immediately, I began to do research on how to teach and discovered I couldn’t be a talking head (although I certainly had many of those while I was in college). I needed to appeal to all of the different style of learning that my students held. So, I developed a style that includes lectures, audio-visuals and hands-on. Now, as I enter the online teaching environment, I found that the Circle of Learning described in the Khalsa site (developed by Chang and Sampson) to be the equivalent of that first strategy I used in my f2f classes. Collaborative and Concurrent Learning as well as self study and lectures all need to be incorporated into the online class.

As the ‘lead” for a 22 unit library technology program that is now 100% online, I can see that we (the teaching team) have an even greater opportunity to build up the social capital within our program, due to the extended contact we have with our students. Although it is not an official cohort style program, the students that start the program in the fall will more than likely be together for four semesters as they work through the program.

What I am learning (in addition to lots of new words) is how to actually use it and of course that hands on experience of actually using Web 2.0 in an online community while experiencing the development of social capital.

In closing, I want to share the blog I enjoy the most. It is David Silver’s blog, “Silver in sf”. Mr. Silver is an associate professor of media studies at the University of San Francisco, and I heard Mr. Silver speak (to a bunch of librarians) about three years ago on how he uses blogs to bring this generation of students out of their very egocentric world. He described one assignment in which he asks them to write about their favorite part of campus. Next, they have to write about their favorite part of San Francisco and then favorite part of the Bay Area. He requires them to post photos, so they must actually get out a go there. The increased awareness he sees in the students is phenomenal. He also sees a tremendous improvement in their writing, as they take pride in publishing on their blog a polished piece. When visiting the blog today, I see he is requiring his students to tweet part of the assignment as well. Oh, and the assignment his week is to bake bread and bring it to share. Breaking bread….one of the earliest ways known to develop social capital.