Transcript for

Episode 107:

Spinning Communities as Learning Communities

When you have a question about spinning, what do you do? Who do you ask? If you're lucky, you have other spinners in your life who are a bit further along in their spinning journey than you are who can answer those questions. But what if you're not lucky? 

Hello there darling Sheepspotter! Welcome to episode 107 of The Sheepspot Podcast. I'm Sasha, and my job is to help you make more yarns you love.

In March of 2020 I was teaching a seminar for fourth year students. Our class was going to end in early April, so we only had a few meetings to go when the university moved classes online on March 18. 

I was unusual among my academic colleagues in that I already had some experience teaching on Zoom, because a spinning course I was leading met on Zoom. So I at least knew how Zoom worked. (I remember teaching Mr. Sheepspot how to mute people.)

The next time I met my students virtually they were so disoriented and sad. Many of them hadn't had time to say goodbye to their friends. One was living alone, suddenly, because all three of her roommates had gone home. Others had first responders in their family and were terrified for their safety. At that moment, it became clear to me that my students had learned everything they could from me, academically. It was time to abandon the syllabus. My job in relation to them had changed: we met for our last few classes, and it was my job to hold a space for them to remain connected to me and each other for just a little bit longer, and to model (as best I could) how to show up in this crisis. 

In that context, learning was no longer possible, because learning, for humans, is a social process. We learn best in community. Once the community of that class was dispersed, learning stopped, because we were all so freaked out, and because we no longer had the ritual of gathering in person or the container of the classroom, the things that had made us a learning community in the first place. And with three weeks left in the semester in the midst of a global crisis, we just didn't have the time or the emotional wherewithal to remake that community on different terms. 

Online Learning communities can work, but they must be designed with care

Note that I'm not saying that online learning communities can't work. I teach spinning online because I really believe online courses and communities are the best way to teach spinning. And some of the most satisfying and transformative educational experiences I've ever had have been online. But they have to be carefully designed. They have to be what education scholars call "communities of inquiry." 

A community of inquiry requires three things: teaching presence, cognitive presence, and social presence. 

Teaching presence provides direction to the community by designing cognitive experiences that will allow learning and also by facilitating social interaction within the group. 

According to D. Randy Garrison, who is one of the leading theorists of communities of inquiry, cognitive presence "fuses individual reflection in constructing personal meaning with collaboratively confirming understanding amongst other learners through critical discourse."  Not the clearest sentence ever written, so let's rephrase. In other words, cognitive presence is the process by which community members think about things and test out their ideas by interacting with others. 

What about social presence? Social presence is crucial, because it's the foundation on which cognitive presence can be built. Social presence is basically members of the group being themselves, with all their particular personal characteristics, talents, and limitations, within the community. Without social presence, cognitive presence is impossible; learners need to feel that they are known by the group and free to be themselves in order for learning to happen. 

The Guild as a community of inquiry

My membership for intermediate and advanced spinners, The Guild, is a community of inquiry for spinners. 

I and the community moderators, whom we call Shepherds (of course) are the main teaching presence in the community (though increasingly members are stepping forward and teaching on specific topics). So we're the people who are designing learning opportunities, which in The Guild we call "challenges," and also facilitating social interaction and presence within the group.

We base the monthly challenges on the Pillars of Skillful Spinning™ so members have the opportunity to work on each of them at least once during the year. For example, in January we focused on spinning tools, with an emphasis on caring for our wheels, spindles, and prep tools. In April, we worked on drafting, and had Rachel Spin from Wool N Spinning come in to teach a class on combination drafting (which has produced some amazing yarns, BTW). Last month we worked on plying—the challenge was to create a yarn structure they hadn't tried before, by chain-plying, or making a four-ply, or trying a more complicated ply structure like a cabled yarn. 

But what about the social aspect? Creating social presence can be tricky online, but we've hit on some things that I think are working well. The first is a predictable pattern of prompts that we post in the group every week to encourage discussion. For example, Wednesday is WIP Wednesday. The next is virtual meet-ups on Zoom, where members gather to chat and bring whatever they are working on. Because we have members from all over the world, we hold multiple sessions on different days of the week at different times to accommodate different time zones. 

And sometimes we'll devote an entire month to building social presence. This month, for example, we're running our annual "coffee date" challenge, where members meet with other members one-on-one for a short virtual coffee date to get to know each other. In August, we do a fiber share within the community, another opportunity to get to know others in the group and send them presents!

Some questions to think about when looking for a spinning community

If you're not lucky enough to have an in-person spinning community where you live, here are some things to think about when you're looking for an online community of inquiry. 

Is there a teaching presence in the group? It doesn't have to be one person, and it doesn't have to be the same person all the time, but someone has to be responsible for convening the group, facilitating social presence (members being themselves), and creating opportunities for members to learn, try new things, make meaning, and then share the results with other people in the group.

How are the learning opportunities (cognitive presence) structured? Are they designed to accommodate a range of spinners' preferences and predilections? Are there ways for members at different levels of skill or experience to participate? If it's pitched too high or too low, it's going to be difficult for you to get the most out of the community. 

How does the group facilitate social presence, or, in other words, how does it encourage you to show up authentically, learn, and help others learn? How easy is it to get to know other members?

What's the culture of the group? Is it supportive and encouraging, or competitive? Is it welcoming, or cliquish? Do the participants trust each other with less-than-perfect spinning results? Do they communicate respectfully? I'll have more to say about this in a future episode.

I've talked about the crucial elements of a "community of inquiry" and about how we create and maintain a community of inquiry in The Guild. I hope I've given you some things to think about if you don't have a local spinning community—or if you have one that isn't really a learning community. 

A spinning community of inquiry can help you forge connections with other spinners and keep learning and growing as a spinner. Because most theories of how people learn agree on one thing: we learn best in community. 

In the next episode, I'm going to talk about another thing the community provides: inspiration. In the meantime, I would love to know what you thought about this episode and whether it helped you think about the spinning community or communities of which you're a member. There is a discussion thread in The Flock dedicated to comments and questions about this episode. You'll find a link to join the conversation in the description of this episode in your podcast app, so find the link, join The Flock if you haven't already, and let me know what you think!

In the meantime, my friend, if the weather is lovely where you are, take your wheel outside and do some spinning. You know it will do you good.