1. Jigsaw Project – Team 2 Chapter 2: “Building an Airplane in the Air” The Life of the Inquiry Group Barbara Mullin Caitlin Trought Megan Weyler

2. The Inquiry Group Mission Statement The Inquiry Group is a diverse, evolving group of educators, learners, professionals and community members. We have come together to create tools, develop research opportunities, and build social and professional networks for discussing, understanding and fostering inquiry-based learning.

3. Inquiry Group Community or Assemblage that has supported professional development through both online and offline for more than 25 years It is a term used for assemblage of people, organizations, projects and technologies, united by common participation, experiences and values It is a group that continues to reinterpret, adapt and reinvent itself to serve its needs

4. How are communities developed? Top Down Model Professional development challenge is identified Proposers then develop online tools to support Focused on a targeted community Project is in the foreground and community background Typically runs it course and is terminated Bottom up Model Community is in the foreground and projects may or may not contribute to the background Has less explicit goals Is like “building an airplane in the sky”

5. Inquiry Group – The Evolution Dialogues Methods of Education (DIME) Started to discuss problems in Education in 1981 Free Education Mail and a Network was created in mid 80’s to help teachers Inquiry in Teaching and Learning Lunch A place to dialogue about fundamental questions of thinking and learning Community Inquiry Research Group – combination of DIME and Learning Lunch

6. Inquiry Units Database of units that support investigations into phenomena like teaching and learning Once just for teachers to use to share curriculum units with other teachers, but are not used by community centers, libraries, schools, universities and workplaces that engage in collaborations

7. Inquiry Cycle Ask Reflect Investigate Create Discuss

8. Inquiry Cycle and Dewey “Based on John Dewey’s philosophy that education begins with the curiosity of the learner, we use a spiral path of inquiry: asking questions, investigating solutions, creating new knowledge as we gather information, discussing our discoveries and experiences, and reflecting on our new-found knowledge,”(Falk and Drayton, p. 55).

9. Content and Context and the Professional Experience (q1) How does the content and context affect the professional experience of the participants? The content and context of the inquiry group should affect the participants in a very positive way. The inquiry group is a way for professionals and community members alike to work together and collaborate on projects. When people are able to collaborate with others and work together on projects, everyone benefits from it. Inquiry groups allow such people to learn and grow together, and continue to learn from each other.

10. Developing the Community (q2) How does the site architecture, choice of collaborative tools, models for interaction and administrative structures influence the professional development of the participants? (You should first describe each of these components and then discuss their influence.) In a top-down scenario there may be some type of proposal that lays out a professional development need. Once it is approved, the proposers then become developers or facilitators who proceed to build or adopt online tools to encourage participation from the target community. Site architecture, choice of collaborative tools, models for interaction and administrative structures are all in the forefront and developed before the community begins to exist. Since the Inquiry Group is considered a bottom-up creation that may not have a defined beginning, end, purpose and target audience, the site architecture, choice of collaborative tools, models for interaction and administrative structures are not at the forefront of the creation. Its purpose is to bring people together with common needs. Participants are not passive recipients but active creators of the system that promotes their inquiry (J. Falk and B. Drayton, 2009). The community defines its activities and continuously reinterprets, adapts and reinvents online environments to serve its needs.

11. Community Engagement (q3) How does size, coherence of membership, structure, and offline interactions support a community and deepen interactions online? It’s not about the size, coherence of membership or structure that supports a community and facilitates interactions online. It’s doesn’t matter how many people are part of a group or what membership rules were required. Instead, it’s a matter of interest, collaboration, and willingness to share ideas and build on one another’s that deepens interactions online. Knowledge construction depends on community processes – sharing and building on one another’s work. When a community of interest comes together, we have the opportunity to learn from others experiences. A respect for diversity is essential, as each individual should be recognized for his or her own abilities, interests, ideas, needs, and cultural identity. This allows for all community participants to develop a socially engaged intelligence. Engagement entices members to participate and continue to return to provide and exchange resources, share research, network with colleagues, disseminate their findings and dialogue with peers who are involved in similar endeavors. It is nurtured by the relationships that participants build within a community or within multiple nested communities. This allows participants in online learning communities to be both the recipient and provider of professional development; they are not merely passive recipients, but active creators of the very system that promotes their own inquiry.

12. Success and the Online Community (q4) How is success for those online communities assessed over time? The inquiry group has developed without a mission statement, major funding, explicit rules, membership dues or criteria, or institutional standing. Despite, or maybe because of, this openness, various activities have been energizing, often spawning others, and it has continued in various forms for over 25 years, thus demonstrating both sustainability and scalability. Members continue to participate for a variety of reasons, including friendship and emotional support, professional validation, and finding ways to think outside of professional boxes. Continuing engagement and use is one measure of success. Because participants are encouraged to define their own goals and ways of using the Inquiry Page, we need diverse metrics for impact. Such measures include continued engagement, page visits, and workshop attendance as additional forms of measuring success.

13. Bibliography Falk, J. and Drayton, B. (editors). (2009j). Creating and Sustaining Online Professional Learning Communities. New York: Teachers College Press. ISBN: 978-0-8077-4940-1 The Inquiry Group, (2011) Retrieved on February 3, 2011, From: http://inquiry.illinois.edu/us/inquiry_page.php