This independent studies course involves an examination of the facilitation of Networks of Practice. I have begun with a literature review to familiarize myself with the concepts surrounding transactional distance theory, Community of Inquiry, and connectivism. There are two tasks: 1. consider theory and practice to serve the purpose of building a participatory culture within the Me2U community; 2. build from scratch an online community of adult literacy instructors working at the College in remote First Nations communities, using a College LMS;I think we are looking at three types of learning models for using edu-blogging, and not all of them have to do specifically with the building of community: 1. self-paced learning delivered within an LMS, emphasing distance delivery and control over structure, sequencing, and content (industrial model); based on transactional distance theory;2. connective learning, emphasizing autonomous, synergistic learning, delivered using web 2.0 technologies, which is based on connectivism;3. collaborative learning, emphasizing learning within cohorts and Communities of Inquiry. At this point, I want to introduce June Kaminski's explanation of indigenous pedagogical theory based on a Community of Appreciative Inquiry;These models do not incorporate confessional blogging, a type of writing commonly found in learner journals; they also do not incorporate anonymous writing, either creative or confessional, in which participants engage in discourse and debate ideas and express personal experiences without revealing their identity.These models also don't really incorporate simulation games found online that build in acts of reciprocity. Farm Town is such an example. If a learning community was developed along the lines of farm town, in which learners gain tokens and priveleges to personalize their personal presence and in which they are interdependent on others to accomplish these aims, then it would promote more participation than what is currently the case, in which the vast majority of learners are unclear of the rules of conduct, their respective roles, whether they can interact with others outside their own cohort, and whether they can engage in blogging on topics of interest to them, but are off-topic. I would prefer an edu-blogging model that addresses learners so that there is a combination of autonomous learning and an opportunity for learners to engage in a participatory culture using a Community of Appreciative Inquiry. Assessment and instructional strategies would be quite different from an industrial model that emphasizes delivery of content and evaluation of product/skills, instead emphasizing individual learning processes, and capturing meaningful learning events using a combination of negotiated assessment tools that are embedded within the instruction.The first assumption is that the majority of activity will take place as dialogue and self-talk, that the act of blogging requires intrinsic motivation and not on external grades or conforming to the role of the "good" student. Instead, the act of learning entails an act of meaningful connection with ideas found from others' ideas, from texts, from events, and other online learning content.I think that edublogging needs to emphasize critical self-reflection, and the use of the safe learning space allows for learners to practice and rehearse various communicator roles. The acts of rehearsal, the practice of various roles, and the mastering the skills and knowledge attached to these roles, leads to transformative learning.This is the gist of where I am seeing the place of edublogging in promoting learning.Glenn