| California Community Colleges serve a diverse student population, and the "open door" policy of the institution admits many students who are academically unprepared for college level work. However, the hiring standards for community college instructors simply require a Master's degree in the major, but do not require training in pedagogy. Faculty development programs can help faculty develop the teaching expertise to work effectively with academically unprepared students, but such training takes time. The emerging Web 2.0 social networking tools may be used to enhance traditional faculty development offerings. The purpose of this study was to examine how one college is integrating social networking into an ongoing faculty inquiry project and how faculty participants make use of the available tool.;The participants for this qualitative case study belonged to one of six faculty inquiry groups (FIGS) focused on how to teach students "Habits of Mind" that will better prepare students for academic success. Data were drawn from interviews with FIG participants and facilitators, documents collected from the social networking site used in the program, and meeting transcripts from FIG and facilitator meetings. A semi-structured interview protocol was used for participant and facilitator interviews, and an ongoing comparative analysis was used to identify emerging themes from the data. The results illustrated the importance of establishing clearly stated learning objectives and a well-defined structure when integrating Web 2.0 technology into face-to-face faculty development programs. The expected outcomes of technology enhanced programs must be aligned with the experience level of the participants. |
