5.0 Communication: Working with others

Working collaboratively was integral to my 7 years employment at Ultralab. This included both working with co-located colleagues and, perhaps more significantly, in a team of distributed workers which brought together a practitioner community of around 40.

As a member of this community, I engaged in discussions and supported colleagues both on projects where I had direct responsibility but also on those which I had an interest or in response to requests.

This community was the focus of a paper and book chapter I co-authored, “€œBuilding a community of practice: technological and social implications for a distributed team”. http://69.89.27.211/~stephep6/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/building-a-community-of-practice.pdf   The chapter is based upon the professional communities that work within Ultralab supported by a range of online technologies with the express purpose of developing the whole teams capacity in learning, technology, and research.

A specific example of the power of the Ultralab practitioner communities is demonstrated by the Ultraversity project. Although the team drawn together to work on the project were experienced educators, there was the need to develop new working practices of this remote team to support the delivery of the new BALTR degree programme.

This online community worked on a daily basis to address issues that naturally arise out of the development of a new pathway.

In addition to the ongoing online professional development, I convened three ‘mini’ conferences per year of 3 days duration that focus solely on the development of the BALTR programme. At these conferences, sessions address research, module development, issues of learning and teaching, and learning resource development.

I would describe myself as a practitioner researcher, and my research interests are in the disciplines of learning and teaching, education, and learning technologies. Papers and presentations that I have co-authored include:

* Bradshaw, P., Powell, S., Terrell, I. (2005). Developing Engagement in online community: lessons for higher education. Innovations in Education and Teaching International.
* Bradshaw, P., Powell, S., Terrell, I. (2004). Building a community of practice: technological and social implications for a distributed team. Chapter 16 of Knowledge Networks: Innovation through Communities of Practice. Edited by Paul Hildreth and Chris Kimble published by Idea Group Publishing.
* Powell, S. (2003). Leading a Geography Department. In, M. Brundrett & I. Terrell (Ed.), Learning to Lead in the Secondary School: Becoming an Effective Head of Department.
* Powell, S., Terrell, I. (2004). Across the continents - online community conferences as a mechanism for school improvement. Paper presented to ICSEI Conference.
* Bradshaw, P., Powell, S. (2003) - Online Communities for School Leaders. Paper presented to the VCI Conference, London. Pete Bradshaw and Stephen Powell.
* Bradshaw, P., Gee, A., Powell, S. (2002) - Virtual communities and professional learning across a distributed, remote membership. Paper presented to Virtual Communities Conference, University of Navarra, Barcelona.
* Bradshaw, P., Powell, S., Terrell, I. (2002). Online Communities - Vehicles For Professional Learning? Paper presented to BERA.
* Bradshaw, P., Powell, S., Terrell, I. (2002). Learning, Community and Technology: Ultralab’s recent experience. Paper presented to APU Learning and Teaching Conference.

I am a Reviewer for the British Journal of Educational Technology which I find to be an invaluable way of keeping abreast of developments in the field of learning technology and online learning or e-learning in general.

I maintain a professional weblog ‘Thoughts mostly about learning’ where I post reflections on my work on the BALTR programme, reviews of conference events I have attended, and research findings. This post evidences a discussion with a colleagues’ around a post.