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In this study from the University of Central Florida, the researcher focuses specifically on how classroom activities drive student learning towards the CoP model, most notably collaboration. The researcher uses a graduate public administration level class to conduct her study, which is important because all student participants share the same learning and degree outcome---essential to the effectiveness of CoPs. One finding this study presents is the concept of building 'friendship networks' in CoPs. The study shows that friendships were "greatly strengthened" throughout the course and there were no "weakly connected individuals" at the end of the semester (Napucu, 2012). Furthermore, in this study, emphasis is placed on the facilitator (in this case, the professor) of this CoP and how that facilitator structured the course to fulfill the learning needs of the students in the created CoP. *Note, you'll need to log in to Albertsons Library to read the article in full.

Communities of practice are made of people who share a passion or interest and want to improve their knowledge of it; for real learning to occur, it must take place in a community of learners who are also interested and learning; the relationship between knowledge and practice is explored

This provides a nice overview of CoPs. I enjoyed the annotation feature too.

This site gives an overview of communities of practice and discusses the viewpoints of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, who are well known proponents of the idea. This site provides a basic rationale for communities of practice and describes how we are all involved in them in various aspects of our lives, whether we realize it or not.

This is an excellent overview of what communities of practice are, the characteristics that define them and some examples of what they "look" like. Gives great information to those new to the idea.

I really enjoyed the author's writing style which included metaphors and lots of examples and non-examples of COP. I noticed this blog post was 2006, and so I was curious what the author had been involved with since this post, especially since he points out the importance of sustained interaction. He now has a consulting business to help problem solve education solutions found at http://wenger-trayner.com/

Excellent resource to begin to understand CoP's. Etienne Wenger was cited in many of the articles I researched.

A brief but excellent look at the need for PLN in school.  Give a good description of why teacher's need to be involved as students develop their existing PLN's and why they need to develop their own.

Everyone's network is going to look different. It is more of a process than just being in a room with those you interact with every day. It is an independent function that you need to engage in! We have to create our own PLN so that we can connect with our students who already have one.

Everyone's network is going to look different. It is more of a process than just being in a room with those you interact with every day. It is an independent function that you need to engage in! We have to create our own PLN so that we can connect with our students who already have one.

This article explains why communities of practice are so important for the business realm. In one statement it explained that companies have now figured out that "knowledge = power, so share and it multiplies". This idea is synonymous with connectivism and the idea that in order to gain more knowledge more connections must be made through sharing, collaborating, creating, etc. This article also made the distinction between tacit knowledge that is rooted in people's life experiences with explicit knowledge that is deliberately shared outside of people. This distinction also helped me to really see the reason why connectivism, PLNs and CoPs work so well together. You have a group of people, connected by common interests and goals, that are expanding upon their knowledge by sharing their own collective experiences and goals in effort to connect with others that can share insight, collaborate with and add to their ideas, solutions and questions.

Allee uses the term organizational intelligence to describe how CoPs are becoming more prevalent in the modern workforce. He talks about how he has consulted with various multinational companies to help them create CoPs and to get employees at various levels to share their expertise.

We are not teaching one subject, we should be teaching the student! This video shows how using a PLN and Connectivism, you can create more ideas from people outside the classroom. There are also many people willing to help you if you look for them.

We are not teaching one subject, we should be teaching the student! This video shows how using a PLN and Connectivism, you can create more ideas from people outside the classroom. There are also many people willing to help you if you look for them.

A funny way to demonstrate to a "newbie" how connectivism and PLN (and teamwork) can get you through some tough times!

A funny way to demonstrate to a "newbie" how connectivism and PLN (and teamwork) can get you through some tough times!

Simple and effective. Not to mention how easy it is to rally like-minded people from around the globe through social media platforms! Good find!

"Only student who have a desire to learn will learn". We strive to make students life-long learners. This article defines the main characteristics of CoP as "The Domain", "The Community", and "The Practices". It gives examples of strengths and weaknesses, how it associates with the Constructivism Theory, and how to integrate with technology.

Debi, the initial quote really got my attention. I am more interested in getting my students interested in learning than almost anything else I do as a teacher. I think making them life-long learners through Communities of Practice might be the best way to get them to value learning over a lifetime.

This article is a good definition of what a community of practice (CoP) is and how they are used. It is not specific to online/social networks but offers good background on how communities are formed and what they are used for. With this general knowledge can be applied to many specific domains such as a personal learning network, a google circle or an anime club.

This paper looks at the use of specific communities of practice (CoP) created at McMaster University designed to promote informal teacher professional development (TPD). They found that the CoP's that were specifically created to foster teacher interaction affective, were not only effective but that several additional CoPs were organically created by the faculty during the writing of the paper. They use this as evidence of the effectiveness of CoPs for TPD.

Examples of how our students are using PLN's and how we need to be thinking the same way that our students are if we want to be effective teachers.

This video did a nice job of showing the often antiquated school system most students function within. I especially enjoyed the inclusion of focusing on student strengths and resisting holding against them what they have not yet learned.

I like the way this video explored how students are taught in school versus how they learn information outside of school. The speaker in the video called this the "learning age" as opposed to the information age because we are learning all the time in everything we do. Yet, education still remains antiquated and traditional when our technology-filled, instant information society is anything but those traditional methods. We need to help students realize that learning is a way of life, not merely a classroom activity. The connectivism ideas permeate our society even beyond education.

One of the main reasons WHY we should have a PLN. "Having an online network is important because it allows you to express your resources and opinions in Education through an online identity. It allows for collaborative learning, and with an online PLN there are no limitations to who you can learn from and share ideas with." "Learn from your learning network and with them!"

One of the main reasons WHY we should have a PLN. "Having an online network is important because it allows you to express your resources and opinions in Education through an online identity. It allows for collaborative learning, and with an online PLN there are no limitations to who you can learn from and share ideas with." "Learn from your learning network and with them!"

This video talks more about what a PLN is and how you can set it up to be "your own filtered TV station/programming."

This video talks more about what a PLN is and how you can set it up to be "your own filtered TV station/programming."

This is an interesting video which communicated the process of reciprocal learning well. Having the inclusion of text being pointed to with a highlighted mouse arrow was awkward for me to watch, but could be a tool to help engage the viewer.

The goal of teachers in the digital age and how we can use PLN's to help. "No one is really asking teachers or school systems to change what they've been doing. They're basically asking them to basically do what they have been doing better. The huge barrier is trying to get people to acknowledge that this new world of learning exists and then starting a conversation around how can we make that effective for kids." - Will Richardson

The goal of teachers in the digital age and how we can use PLN's to help. "No one is really asking teachers or school systems to change what they've been doing. They're basically asking them to basically do what they have been doing better. The huge barrier is trying to get people to acknowledge that this new world of learning exists and then starting a conversation around how can we make that effective for kids." - Will Richardson

How our educational system was and is set up and what we could possibly do to help our educational system in the most stimulating time in our history. This is a little bit of connectivism but more about understanding the past and how it is shaping the future of our education and why we need a change!

How our educational system was and is set up and what we could possibly do to help our educational system in the most stimulating time in our history. This is a little bit of connectivism but more about understanding the past and how it is shaping the future of our education and why we need a change!

Presents a rather critical approach to Youtube as an educational tool. Explains that online video library is mostly maintained by a fan base as opposed to deliberate or intentional facilitation. This reduces its credibility as a teaching tool and lacks cohesive curriculum. It is asserted that if learning is encountering what you don't know, then Youtube is not effective for learning as users search their existing interests and for entertainment. Another noted disadvantage is that viewing and commenting on Youtube videos may provide marketing data and potentially undermines student privacy.

This is a decent video of a discussion between two professionals who discuss CoPs.  It defines a CoP and gives examples of what might happen in a CoP.  It is informative and helped me understand the difference between CoPs and PLNs.  

This video contains an interview with Dr. Etienne Wenger in which he discusses communities of practice. Wenger describes his background and how communities of practice create partnerships in learning. Wenger explains that a community of practice provides a group of people one can turn to during a challenge, giving him/her a learning partnership to go to for assistance or ideas.

This links to a review by Andrew Cox of four seminal works on Communities of Practice. Three of the works are authored/co-authored by Etienne Wenger. Although it is geared toward management/business, the underlying theory of the necessity of belonging to a larger network is the same, as individuals seek communities that meet their needs and interests.

This article, which was written for The Electronic Journal for English as a Second Language, discusses the value of teachers being a part of many communities of practice. This enable them to see social media modeled and be more likely to use it in the classroom.

This is a link to the Word file of the dissertation of Etienne Wenger. In his abstract, he states," It is an attempt to open up a universe of discourse about learning that does justice to the social character of human life." The dissertation let to the eventual book that he published, "Communities of Practice." Wengers dissertations deals more with issues of transparency, while the book pursues the CoP theory. This dissertation supports the udea of visible artifacts being part of CoPs. This was written in 1990, so was before the advent of social networking as we know it, but comes from a social perspective that correlates to what we consider social networking today.