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This 2011, Communities of Practice: A Brief Introduction, by Etienne Wenger distills earlier writings and discussions about communities of practice and outlines some characteristics and guidelines. Wegner's definition, "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." There are 3 characteristics: the domain of shared interest, the community shares information, activities and relationships and the practice of practioners who share resources, experiences, stories, tools and problem solving. Communities of practice can be for problem solving, information requests, experience seeking, reusing assets, coordination and synergy, documentation projects, visits and mapping knowledge. They can be small or vast, online or face to face. The theory of communities of practice has spilled over into organizations, businesses, government, education, associations, social sectors, international development and the web.

The author of this article, Etienne Wenger, is one of the leaders in the field of communities of practice. Wenger briefly defines and describes communities of practice. He also explains how communities of practice are being applied in organizations, government and education. The resource is a great overview for those wanting to understand the basics of communities of practice.

This is a step-by-step guide to setting up and growing CoP. It defines CoP and discusses why they are important. The guide also outlines how to establish and grow the community. At the heart of any successful CoP is purpose. A rubric is given to help identify the effectiveness of the community both in terms of infrastructure and language of inquiry.

I really liked this article, it gave some great information on CoP and the bullets on the first page were a nice outline of why CoPs are important and useful.

This article provides a step-by-step guide for designing and cultivating communities of practice in higher education. The first part of the guide is for those who are considering the use of CoPs to facilitate collaboration, learning, or knowledge generation and want to know more. That last part of the guide helps CoP designers and facilitators understand the questions, issues, and options involved in planning and cultivating communities https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/nli0531.pdf

Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg highlights the ways in which we are all connected in society and the various communities we are linked with. Mark emphasizes the need to continue to network and stay connected. Our history is based on connections in society and we have continued to grow. Although only one platform to grow from, Mark's Facebook Community has offered our society and people countless opportunities to connect and grow personally and professionally.

This article looked at a Web-based survey and its results in order to make a correlation between gratifications and uses of social networking sites (SNSs) and an individual's political and civic engagement in the real world. This survey targeted the Facebook Groups application to look at how participation compared to offline activities, mainly due to this feature's ability to recruit members, share common issues, and organize off-campus events. The survey identified four main needs for Facebook Groups involvement: 1) socializing, 2) entertainment, 3) self-status seeking, and 4) information. However, as this survey was trying to draw links between online and offline involvement, the need for information was recognized as having the most impact on participation in real-world activities.

This article looks at the role of social networking and connectivist theory in the learning process. It explains how not only has technology changed, but the learner has changed as well. For example the learner no longer just consumes information, but also produces resources that can be shared in a network of knowledge. The article argues that technological tools, such as social media, will assist the learner in creating and contributing useful material.

This article explores how to find a balance between teacher control and student autonomy in personal learning environments. I like the author's observation that students are "networked learners in training." Page 3 has a networked teacher model, while page 4 of the article shows a diagram model of a networked student. A networked student uses constructivism based on experiences and social interactions. Meaningful learning is made up of knowledge construction, conversation, articulation, collaboration and reflection. The remainder of the article details a test case with networked learning. And there is a link to a YouTube presentation of the project, at the end of the conclusion.

Thank you for sharing this article. The diagrams painted a good picture of the networked teacher and student. It was interesting the direction the arrows were pointing in both pictures!

In this article Librarian Andrea Wilson Brooks discusses how the educational theory of connectivism can be used to enhance the delivery of information literacy instruction. She begins the article with a discussion of the connectivist theory and then moves on to the specific role that this theory can play in 21st century library instruction. The instruction that Brooks talks about in this article utilizes mobile technology, in particular, tablets. She concludes the article with a series of specific examples of lessons based on connectivism. Each activity involves the use of mobile devices, various apps, and social media platforms to engage the learner while developing his or her information literacy skills.

This article supports the argument that connectivism, which is often used as a guiding pedagogy for MOOCs, does not meet the criteria of a true learning theory. As such, connectivism should be abandoned as a pedagogical tool for Web 2.0 environments and replaced with a valid learning theory, specifically the Vygotskian cultural psychology. MOOC future pedagogy would, thus, consist of two initial principles: 1) the visualization of objects and 2) sustained dialogue and joint activity.

Hi Jennifer, I came across a similar article as well. What I do like about the idea of connectivism is that we are trying to reimagine learning processes and education and trying to make sense of it within the digital world. But it will be interesting to watch how this debate progresses over the next few years.

I saw a reference to MOOCs when I was researching so I wanted to dive deeper into MOOCs (massive open online courses). This article serves as a report card discussing the successes and needed improvements for MOOCs. MOOCs biggest successes seem to be the huge reach they have with their online presence. Millions of people enroll in the courses and top universities, such as Harvard and MIT, have MOOCs. However, some pitfalls are that less than 10% of people who enroll in MOOCs actually finish. The article gives ideas for improving MOOCs mostly based off the belief that online courses can be isolating and more collaboration with actual humans, via chats and videos, need to be included in MOOCs. I found this read interesting because the MOOCs are founded with the connectivism theory in mind, however many of this components that drive connectivsm and communities of practice are lacking.

Jake, I found a resource on MOOCs as well and while it was a positive presentation of them, it also noted some of the pitfalls. The fact that they draw mostly highly educated students, makes me wonder how accessible they are for all people. However, I know they are new and evolving, so it will be interesting to follow their development.

This article was extremely interesting! I was surprised to see the the high percentage of people who sign up for MOOCs and don't finish. I also strongly agree with the comment in the article, "people need people." Thanks for sharing!

Summary: Educators from Australia uncovered that the most useful collaboration taken from a course was student-led and student generation conversations. The users were able to exponentially grow professionally with the help of their peers through social media. The collaboration in this case was not mandated by the professor, but merely a suggestion. It was the desire to learn from others that sparked the community created digitally. It was through the social media that the learners were able to share ideas, questions in a way that was organized and beneficial to all.

Very interesting article. I always sign up for MOOCs and find I always take away something but have never had that social connection experience in the course as they did in this article; maybe it was the instructor(s) and their encouragement to connect outside of the MOOC. I am going to pay more attention in the future to see if I see connectivism, PLN, and communities of practice.

Great article. I wanted to dive deeper into the MOOC's but just did not have the time. I am so glad you found and posted this article. I would really like to find a MOOC with the social interaction described in this article. I think that would be a very valuable learning opportunity.

This is a very detailed, somewhat technical, article about how Web 2.0 tools can reach a variety of different learners in different situations. For example, learners with different cognitive abilities and learning styles can be reached within the same network. I found the table that compares and contrasts constructivism and connectivism particularly helpful in this article (p. 107-108).

Hi, I looked at the table and also found it helpful. It was very detailed, more so than some tables I saw in other articles as I was researching. One thing I haven't seen yet in discussions of connectivist learning is accessibility. So maybe this information moves in that direction.

I really appreciated the visual tables. It was nice to have a clear picture of the differences between constructivism and connectivism.

This graduate dissertation was particularly interesting to me since it focuses on K-12 Spanish teachers. The author discusses how communities of practice can be used as professional development and ongoing language training, particularly for non-native speakers. The research includes the use of technology in that the community of practice studied was conducted online.

I can see the use of CoP being very beneficial for non-native speakers. The technologies are the tools that would help to bridge the learning gaps and support learners. Non-native speakers often feel very isolated in learning environments, as having more than one learning group would be helpful. What a great dissertation topic.

In this article Mark McBride, a librarian at Buffalo State College, discusses the recent changes that he made to his information literacy course. He talks about how he incorporated constructivist principles and problem-based learning activities into his course structure. In the process of making these changes, however, he discovered that he is really incorporating connectivism into his classroom. He makes the case that librarians should begin to adopt connectivist principles when teaching information literacy concepts. Additionally, he acknowledges that if librarians are going to move in the direction of the connectivist theory, the Association of College and Research Libraries must take a look at its information literacy standards and update them to acknowledge the ways in which learners can share and create information through the use of social media.

Thie video shows teachers utilizing communities of practice. This video was a great way to see CoP in action. These teachers show how amazing CoP can be in their classroom and students. My big take away was that all the teachers, regardless of grade level, felt it was valuable to them.