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By Etienne Wenger, this site offers her defintion and categorization of communities of practice.

This article provides a simple definition of the term - "Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and who interact regularly to learn how to do it better." Businesses, organizational design, government, educational, professional associations, civic life and development projects use the concept of community of practice to focus on people and the social structures that enable people to learn from each other.

This article focuses on defining communities of practice and includes several examples. I like that they break up the words and meaning to simplify and better understand the meaning and benefits of communities of practice. For example, we might live in a community neighborhood, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we live in a "community of practice."

This article looks at the connection between learning communities and linguistic and sociolinguistic elements that are essential to success in such communities. The article gives an initial theory of how linguistics is important in determining how different communities are conceived and the effect on diverse groups and how these communities are an excellent place to study those linguistics.

This article delves into the definition of communities of practice and relates this to the world beyond my lens of education. This academic article relates communities of practice to anthropology and linguistics. The way we talk influences our communities of practice. The things that band us together can be many… finding an identity inside of this community is important

This article goes in great detail to define communities of practice. The author defines communities of practice as, a collection of people who engage on an ongoing basis in some common endeavor. Communities of practice develop in response to common interest, and have an important role in forming their members' participation. This commitment to the common interest holds the individual accountable for their participation.

This page on the Wenger-Trayner website, there is an in-depth explanation of communities of practice as well as a brief history of its inception. I really appreciated the part of this site that gave examples for how to effectively use communities of practice (CoP). It was interesting to read myths about CoPs as well as to be provided with links to further reading on the topic. I also found it incredibly insightful that the site explained how CoPs are being used in a variety of forums, not only in education.

This article provides examples of where COP can exist!

I like how it emphasizes that the three components of COP are domain, community, and practice. You need each of these to have a successful COP. Thanks for sharing.

A new chapter in Tony Bates' open source textbook, this one dealing with COPs - what they are, designing effective ones and learning through them.

@Terrence. I too liked the comments section which is ironically appropriate seeing that the article was about communities of practice. I think that Downes is viewed as a kind of expert in connectivism and social learning. I have read a few things on his blog through the process of this research and they are quite good. He also co-teaches an MOOC on connectivism with Siemens through the University of Manitoba.

I found this interesting at the end when the questions were posted. It made me think of things that I hadn't yet....Can we force these communities or do they just happen naturally and do I think they can replace other forms of education. I have not sorted those out in my own mind yet but I like that they stopped me to think about.

Communities of Practice are becoming an important focus in organiation development because of the learning and collaboratiave aspects of CoP. Theory and practice of CoP's are reviewed. The model of situated learning is reflected upon as CoP's are viewed as a process of engagement.

This is an article that dives deeper into the theory and practice of communities of practice. The article hits the main components of domain, community, and practice but dives deeper into the thinking of the researchers Lave and Wenger. I appreciated how the article dives deeper into the process of these communities and how many of us join COPs as periphery learners and then as we gain competence through out interactions with the COP we move to full participation. The cornerstone of the theory being that learning not is solely acquisitional but rather a process of social participation. There are extended quotes from the researchers that provide a deeper context to their theory and more is discussed about the processes of their research.

This article provides a great overview of the writings of Wenger and Lave on communities of practice. Their basic points are that we are all involved in communities of practice and they are valuable tools to become better educators. They also explain how our learning never ends as education continues to change. We constantly need to adapt and change our methods to fit our learners.

Great short clip that explains communities of practice for educators.

This brief but detailed summary of Wegner's 1998 idea of Community of Practice gives a basic understanding of the idea. The videos included can be useful for seeing how the idea can be helpful in education.

This resource explains what CoP is and when the theory was developed. The concept of CoP was developed by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger. The author uses quotes directly from their book to explain CoP. There is a video that illustrates how CoP can be used in a K-12 classroom and another video that shows how CoP can be applied in other fields. The article also differentiates between Communities of Practice and Team members. The categories include objective, membership, organization, termination, value proposition, and management. My take away from the chart was that the major difference between CoP and being a team member is this: what will be the outcome of the participant?

Christopher Hoadley defines communities of practice, explains underlying theories of CoPs, compares CoPs to other types of learning communities, and discusses the use of technology in the support and development of CoPs.

This chapter dives deep into communities of practice. It begins with an overview of the history of CoPs and discusses theoretical underpinnings the concept is based on. The author explores CoPs in relation to other types of learning and related technology.

In this resource, Christopher Hoadley helps to define community of practice with two approaches. The first approach to the definition is what he calls the "feature-based definition" and the other approach is the "process-based" definition. He attributes these definitions based on Lave and Wenger's book on situated learning. This resource provides a good starting point to understanding what CoP is and the theoretical approach it involves.

This is a more technical site that better describes CoPs.  It talks about what a CoP is and what the requirements are.  I particularly like that the it states that the learning is not necessarily the primary reason for the existence of a CoP.  It also gives some sources for further study.

This article is an outline of Communities of Practice with description of relevant terminology outlined and defined. Identifies the three components of CoPs - domain, community and practice. This article says that the central component of this learning theory is to draw participants deeper into the community through the attractiveness of developing skills relative to the domain.

This one I didn't summarize, only because I really had a hard time grasping the three elements of the CoP, and I thought this site encapsulated it nicely. Incidentally, my creative assignment for this week was inspired by the reference to Star Trek fans in this post. Here are the three elements make up CoP, and again, this information below is taken straight from the source (long quotes), because the definition is so good: 1. There needs to be a domain. A CoP has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest (e.g. radiologists, Star Trek fans, middle school history teachers, Seahawks football fans, etc.); it's not just a network of people or club of friends. Membership implies a commitment to the domain. 2. There needs to be a community. A necessary component is that members of a specific domain interact and engage in shared activities, help each other, and share information with each other. They build relationships that enable them to learn from each other. In this way, merely sharing the same job does not necessitate a CoP. A static website on hunting in itself is not a community of practice. There needs to be people who interact and learn together in order for a CoP to be formed. Note that members do not necessarily work together daily, however. Wenger points to the example of Impressionist painters who sometimes met in cafes to discuss their painting styles. He indicates that even though these men normally painted alone, these kinds of interactions were essential to making them a CoP. 3. There needs to be a practice: A CoP is not just people who have an interest in something (e.g. sports or agriculture practices). The third requirement for a CoP is that the members are practitioners. They develop a shared repertoire of resources which can include stories, helpful tools, experiences, stories, ways of handling typical problems, etc. This kind of interaction needs to be developed over time. A conversation with a random stranger who happens to be an exp

This article talks about how communities of practice are all around us and that more than likely, everyone is in multiple groups or communities. It also discusses how knowledge is what holds the communities together rather than tasks doing so like on a team. As it explains what a community of practice is, it also goes into how to develop the community as well as how to maintain it. To help a community of practice to succeed, it says no member needs to be on the outside of the community, but for all members to be fully inside the community and fully committed.

It is nice to see how communities of practice are used in areas outside of education. I feel this really highlights the importance of them beyond the theoretical value and into real-world application.

This article provides characteristics of communities of practice and examples of where they can be seen but what stood out to me as being useful information is how to keep CoP's productive and "nurtured." The focus of implementing CoP's is not in education but rather business; however, the information is still relevant and applicable.

Eckert looks at Communities of Practice (COP) to study situated language use. She finds that the COP is important because of "its focus on the fluidity of social space and the diversity of experience" (p. 3). She finds the COP to be complementary to the speech community and that feedback between the two approaches would provide the best process for analysis.

Communities of Practice: Eckert describes a community of practice (CoP) as a group of people who interact ongoing with a common goal or endeavor. Sometimes they come about by similar interests, the workplace, and education. She concludes that communities of practice are very powerful inside and outside the community.

Penelope Eckert discusses the value of a community of practice in linguistic studies, giving a definition for a community of practice and distinguishing it from a more conventional linguistic construct: speech communities. Communities of practice link broad social patterns with concrete, observable behavior in individuals. They emphasize individual experience over demographic generalities. They address dynamic, fringe effects within a community. They build on social constructivism as groups of people engage in active sense-making.

The "community of practice" is defined and there are examples. The characteristics are the domain, the community, and the practice. There are examples given and explanation of where the concept came from and where it is being applied.

Great article on Community of Practice. It is defined and there are examples listed. Its very basic.

Wegner describes three important criteria for a community of practice, the domain, the community, and the practice. When the three criteria are combined, it creates the basis of a community of practice where interaction takes place and participants gain knowledge on a topic/topics.

In this article, Wenger defines Communities of Practice (COP) as a "tribe learning to survive," (p. 1) although learning isn't always the goal of the group but can be an outcome. Members are committed to their community and create a shared practice of networking for a specific purpose. Originally associations and groups, the Internet is extending the reach of COPs and increasing the flow of information.

For those who have never heard of communities of practice, this resource explains it well. What are communities of practice, what do communities of practice look like, where does the concept come from and how it is being applied is all covered.

This is a brief but comprehensive introduction as to what communities of practice are by Etienne Wenger. One important aspect addressed is that learning is a product of a community of practice whether intentionally or not. It also gives multiple examples of what a common community of practice can look like such as problem solving, discussing developments, and visits. The concept came to be as a learning model by Wenger and Jean Lave. The concepts has many applications but a couple common places these communities are seen are organizations, government, education, and technology.

Throughout this website, Etienne Wenger describes Communities of Practice as "groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly." It strongly conveys the importance of working together and emphasizes teamwork as a vital component for success. I could not agree more.

This short summary did a really good job of making this concept simple to understand. It explains that you need three things for a COP: a domain, a community and practice. Great short explanation

This article is an overview of CoPs. The highlight for me is that it must be a collaboration over time, not a one-time Professional Development.

The article discussed "connected learning communities" and how it is relevant in the digital age. There are three components (professional learning communities (PLCs), personal learning network (PLNs), and communities of practice (CoPs)) with these communities and different theories, experience and knowledge, effectiveness, anticipates growth or decline, challenges and dilemmas, and use of technology within each component.

The PLP (Powerful Learning Practice) model looked at three different learning connected learning communities to discuss what each one is, the effects on teacher professional development, challenges and use of technology to name a few. Personal learning communities, personal learning networks, and communities of practice were the three that were discussed. I like how in this article, Connectivism is tied into PLN's which demonstrates how these concepts of PLN's, CoP's, and Connectivism are interrelated. Within PLN's and CoP's, members are concerned about the content and "what they do" as well as interact amongst the group to achieve a higher purpose.

This article is fantastic as it encompasses all that we are studying right now! Each aspect was broken down very well and explained completely. I also appreciated that the authors talked about the anticipated growth, use of technology and value of a PLN, for instance. This is a great reference to refer back to later.

This shows how communities of practice is defined, explains the process of how they've created and what they look like. Further explanation into how they can be applied in a wide variety of environments. The application part discusses how specifically it can exist within education both internally and externally. For EDTECH students, web communities of practice enable us to " extend the reach of our interactions beyond the geographical limitations of traditional communities."

I forgot to add my summary! This is an excellent source that fully explains what a Community of Practice is and how it can be applied. "Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly." I particularly liked the section about what CoPs actually look like. This is a must have resource for every EdTech student.

The author lists three "must-haves" to be considered a community of practice: the domain - shared interest, the community - learn from each other, the practice - share a repertoire of resources. Communities of practice fall back to learning theories. The term community of practice refers to a living curriculum. The concept is being applied in organizations, government, education, associations, social sector, international development, and the web.

"The basic argument made by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger is that communities of practice are everywhere and that we are generally involved in a number of them - whether that is at work, school, home, or in our civic and leisure interests. In some groups we are core members, in others we are more at the margins." In these communities we share information and resources that further our education.

This article begins by explaining communities of practice. The article cites Wenger who states that a community of practice defines itself among three different dimensions which are what it is about, how it functions, and what capability it has produced. It explains that there are a vast number of different types of communities of practice and that in our daily lives we are a part of a number of them whether a central member or more on the outskirts. Being an educator myself, I really appreciated the final section of the article which explains implications for educators. It explains that learning occurs through interactions with people, we as educators work so that students may become members of communities of practice, and the importance of thinking through the connection between knowledge and practice.

This article is a great starting piece for understanding the theory and basic practices of communities of practice. You get background information on the work of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger. In addition to this background information on communities of practice the article also discusses some of the issues and implications for educators,.

This article discusses communities of practice from a business perspective, which I found interesting because CoPs truly to exist in all professions; they aren't strictly and education trend. The merit of CoPs, according to the author, is that people share their experiences and knowledge in free-flowing, creative ways that foster new approaches to solving problems. They discuss the various benefits of CoPs and then examine why they aren't more prevalent, concluding that though the concept has been around for centuries, it hasn't been widely accepted yet and therefore companies (and education) haven't spent a long time cultivating them and helping people learn to effectively develop them. They refer to CoPs as the new frontier and predict that they will become a more and more important part of knowledge acquisition for professionals in the future.

This is a great resource that focuses specifically on the use of communities of practice in business environments. However, the information is easily transferred to other areas of industry or academia. It addresses the fact that CoPs are different than the traditional approach of working in teams in that their success and usefulness can be difficult to measure. The author gives tips for how to evaluate the success of a CoP through the sytematic gathering of anecdotal evidence.

This is a great resource for businesses to gain insights into the use of Communities of Practice. In this article, Wenger and Snyder discuss Communities of Practice and their value for organizations.

This article describes the features in communities of practice and provides a real life example of how it is used and what it looks like in an educational setting. The article also shows how communities of practice can be extended through the use of new technologies.

This article really captivated me, especially how it started with the vignette about the English teachers collaborating over how to mark their students' papers. I am an English faculty at a university and I have sat through collaborations on such things. I appreciated how such a simple paragraph on this collaboration could embody the three tenets of communities of practice.

The National Council of Teachers of English wrote this briefing with the intent of helping not just English teachers but any educator understand the alignment, implementation, and instructional support of a CoP. The comprehensive but short article is an easy read to get a basic outline of communities of practice.

This blog describes some differences between social learning and communities of practice. While it is written by an instructional designer in the corporate sector, many of the details and examples are still applicable to education.

This post aims to distinguish between social learning and communities of practice. It offers an interesting take on the two sides. What I really got most out of it was actually from the first comment from another reader who offers an amazing example of a community of practice. The author of the comment uses Professional Chefs as an example of a community of practice which was one of the best real world and simple to understand explanations I have seen. "My favorite example of a community of practice is professional chefs. They are a community in every sense of the word even though no one maintains a membership list. Chefs identify with one another. They spend time together. They share their knowledge and swap secrets with one another. They enrich the practice of the profession. They nurture people entering the professional and guide their professional development. They set and maintain standards. You can even spot them by the clothes they wear. What brings them together is the "practice." That's terrible term, for it's subject to misinterpretation. We're talking practice as in legal practice or medical practice, not as in piano practice or football practice." Their goal is not making profits; it's furthering the practice.

CoPs are becoming much more popular with the use of technology. Etienne Wenger and Jean Lave are two of the most respected names when it comes to communities of practice. CoPs are groups that are focused on collaboration of common interests while having a purpose and motivation.