Rationale

Given the geographic isolation of the members of the gifted and talented community, there are restrictions for weekly face-to-face activities and meetings. Therefore the facilities provided by Internet technologies, now considered main stream, and in particular by existing social media, give the opportunity to reach members of the community irrespective of their geographic location (Weller, Pegler & Mason 2004). Furthermore, participants can directly interact amongst themselves, at their own pace and with minimal time restrictions.
 * Why Social Media? A Rationale for our Community**

Using social media it is possible to offer continued support to members, engaging members in daily activities directed to improving their knowledge and skills, assisting students to achieve their learning goals and further develop their social skills by means of daily interactions with peers and teachers.

In an interview conducted by R. Forbes, in Blackheath on Sunday, 8 May, 2011, a ‘gifted and talented’ mentoring teacher, Judy Tyson, pointed to some findings from her ongoing action research conducted by her and her gifted and talented mentoring colleagues. Judy is often seconded by Catholic Education Office, Bathurst, to help to plan the gifted and talented regional excursions for students who are relatively isolated in their schools. She explained that the kids would get together for group activities several times a year but wouldn't see each other until the next meeting. The high school students are in Year 7 to 12 schools in Dubbo, Orange, Mudgee, Bathurst and Lithgow. However, there are many other central schools in places such as Oberon and Molong.
 * Rationale for the inter-school G & T e-learning space.**

Judy states, “We have found that G & T students often have may have poor social skills and do not enjoy group work because they find it hard to engage in meaningful communication with their age-based peers. For the same reason they usually shun involvement in social networking media.”

Developing a sense of belonging, communication skills and the commensurate development social intelligence has often been denied by their higher order thinking skills. The e-Learning space provides an access to peers, and a networking forum leading to social acceptance and supportive communication in an non-threatening environment of more evenly matched peers with similar interests, abilities and issues.

Redmond and Lock’s (2006) framework sets out a //A flexible framework for online collaborative learning//

> 1. Fostering social presence > 2. Creating and sustaining a learning community > 3. Developing and maintaining teaching presence > 4. Scaffolding learning > 5. Exploring cognitive presence > 6. Participating in critical discourse > 7. Knowledge in action

(pp. 270-4)

Engagement in all of these seven activities is achieved through the investigative “Clubs content” the content is incidental and determined by the mentoring teachers’ skill base and their ability to sustain engagement on these given topics. As different teachers become involved and as the student’s locus of control stretches to the level of deciding investigative pursuits then the clubs will fold and others take their place. The knowledge in action dynamic is an important component in a feed-back loop building on successful engagement and preparing for the next challenge/investigation.

According to Garrison and Anderson (2003), the resolution phase will often “raise further questions and issues, triggering new cycles of inquiry and, thereby, encouraging continuous learning” (p. 60).

Students are expected to engage in one or many clubs. //GnT Connected// will be set up so that all participants can see all transactions and can be reviewed. This gives students access to everything that happens and allows them to join, leave and re-join when. The //GnT Connected// set up in this way also helps to prevent cliques forming and prevents teachers’ being trapped into closed one on one interactions that could ring child protection alarm bells.

Judy Tyson pointed to the thrust of Howard Gardner’s (2006) book //Five Minds for the Future// saying that her gifted and talented work was now being couched in terms of these five minds.

We can see the ‘Five Minds’ frame work operating in the design of //GnT Connected//, using all the modalities available in the site.

The Disciplined Mind
 * Mastering compter programming, reading, researching new vocabulary, writing reports (blogging), (Gardner 2006, p. 154)

The Synthesising Mind
 * Preparing material for publication, within //GnT Connected// or in school or for wider consumption,
 * Using collaborative wiki space
 * Finding new information and skills and integrating them into one’s knowledge base. (Gardner 2006, p. 155)

The Creating Mind
 * Going beyond the set inquiry or brief to produce unexpected acceptable alternatives in programming, expressing insights within characters’ relationships expressed in on line chats and blogs,
 * Formulating and pursuing new visions (Gardner 2006, p. 156)

The Respectful Mind
 * Working collaboratively while seeking to understand peers when gifted and talented students strategy is often is to retreat from social engagement and just get done by themselves. The social and teaching presence is so important here engaging and encouraging more interaction. (Gardner 2006, p. 157)

The Ethical Mind
 * On-line netiquette, avoiding plagiarism
 * Assuming appropriate roles and allowing others to fulfil theirs, understanding the core values of //GnT Connected// and being prepared to speak up when needed to defend these and other values (Gardner 2006, p. 158)

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