629 Week #5 - Building an Online Community of Inquiry

​I’ve gotta start this post by saying that there is a distinct difference between a Community of Inquiry (CoI) and a Community of Practice (CoP).  The Bektashi article defines a CoI as “any group of individuals that have a commitment to address a shared issue, problem or interest through a method similar to scientific investigation” where as a Community of Practice (CoP), as defined by Wikipedia, is a group of people who "share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly."  The main focus of a CoP is to look at data about student achievement and seek out ways to improve student learning.  The main focus of a CoI as is articulated in the Bektashi article, is that “the most important thing is that this community produces knowledge.”  So, CoI and CoP are entirely different beasts.  That said, I believe that social, cognitive and teaching presence can be built and maintained in online and blended courses by 1) by including collaborative experiences that utilize the concepts of SLT (Social Learning Theory) and 2) by being careful to build learning experiences that scaffold and that meet the needs of 21st century learners and 3) by avoiding creating learning experiences that follow the old paradigm: cram, memorize, regurgitate and forget.  The elements of social, cognitive and teaching presence can be used to support disciplined and creative thinking by empowering students to be partners in their learning – to help chart the course of their learning journeys and not just knowledge dumpsters.  This is a key tenet of 21st century teaching and learning and are an inherent part of effective curriculum design.