Blog: Connected Educator Chapter 4

Chapter 4 of The Connected Educator begins by discussing the importance of relationships and the understanding of the need to change values, norms and beliefs to assist the growth of connected learning. Within the teaching community, there is a lack of collaboration and sharing of knowledge and teaching structure that is suppressing the rate of change within our education system. The first step in bridging this gap is to put relationships first. When interacting and collaborating on professional networks we must understand we do not have to fully remain "professional" and can build a social relationship through our interactions. Having social encounters that stray away from the professional task at hand is important, as it helps establish trust and ultimately strengthens professional relationships. Through having professional and social interactions that are transparent, open and truthful, professional networks can begin to harvest trust, and allow for the trust to augment. An example of an online trust-building exercise Lani gave, was asking her members to share a photo taken from the window of their workplace or a photo from an aspect of their life. This simple exercise allows other members in the online community to develop trust and an understanding for each other that is beyond "keyboard interaction". The chapter expresses the need for both congenial and collegial relationships in an online learning community. Congeniality can best be described as being friendly and polite. Collegial refers to sharing responsibilities and trying to individually grow together. Fostering a collegial culture is not easy and often requires a shared vision. Having a shared vision inspires thinking and passion; cultivating a collaborative culture for connected learners. To achieve a shared vision stakeholders must ask questions to provide a purpose for their goal. To reach a vision and spur a passionate collaborative culture is not always easy, the chapter breaks down the stages of collaboration into forming, storming, norming and performing. In the forming stage, you introduce yourselves, express congeniality and move past the small talk. The next stage is storming, during the storming stage you will be faced with disagreements and conflicts. Norming is an acceptance stage where team members push through adversity and look to complete the goal. The last stage is performing, during this stage relationships are maturing along with collaboration and deep learning. You will be faced with many obstacles and needs throughout the collaboration process, in order to keep a strong culture and unified collaboration, peoples needs must hold priority.

Having the ability to collaborate and gain trust online is important in finance as you are constantly connecting with people across the world for day to day operations. With the improvement of our professional networks, collaboration with people who have never met before is increasing, it is important to have an understanding of how to strengthen these relationships and maximize interactions. In my future career I will keep in mind the principles of this chapter to influence a strong culture when collaborating.


Does the use of video face-to-face collaboration make it easier to gain trust?

Works Cited

Nussbaum-Beach, S., & Hall, L. R. (2012). The connected educator: Learning and leading in a digital age. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.