Group items tagged

This site goes over, in detail, what a community of practice is. I had a little trouble understanding what the concept was referring to from the class material, but after reading this site, I was no longer confused. It defines a Community of Practice and breaks it down on a basic level. It provides the three requirements and explains what a CoP basically does. It is very informative.

Article describing communities of practice. Where they come from, and where they are being applied.

Wenger 2006, I chose this article because I recognized his name from my 503 reading. He does explain CoPs well. Wenger states there are three charateriestics crucial to being a CoP. They are: domain or the common interest; community or the interaction, and practice or the fact that the members are practitioners. He coined the phrase community of practice in reference to the living curriculum of apprentices.

Etienne Wegner is a leader in the field of CoP. He along with Jean Lave coined the term. This is his website and it provides a direct introduction to the concept and the application of communities of practice.

This is the website of Etienne Wenger, one of the leading researcher's of communities of practice. This website contains an overview of his theory and links to his papers. Wenger studied the learning process in apprenticeship situations and found that most learning and sharing of knowledge actually takes place between the community of advanced apprentices and journeymen.

Wenger defines what makes a CoP different from a group of friends who like some of the same things, people who share the same occupation, or 30-somethings who all like romantic comedies. CoPs must consist of a group of people who pursue a certain focus and help the members obtain more skills/knowledge in the process. He explains where the term came from and various ways in which it is applied today.

I'm sure many people have listed this one but it does seem like the place to start; at the source. I do like that the wenger does speak in plain language, especially in the call out boxes.

I agree with Richard, especially since the term gets used loosely and tends to mean many different things. One of the articles I found deals with contrasting four different definitions of Communities of Practice.

In this Web site Etienne Wenger introduces the concept of "communities of practice" and defines them 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" and describes why they are useful for learning in many different contexts. A community of practice has 3 characteristics- 1) an identity defined by a shared domain of interest 2) a community of members that engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information and 3) members who are practitioners. These communities develop their practice through activities such as sharing information, problem solving, and mapping knowledge. Communities of practice are ubiquitous and can be small or large, local or global, meet face-to-face or online, informal or formal.

Wegner describes three characteristics necessary for a community to be a "community of practice." These are the domain of interest, a community of members that engage in activities and discussions that allow them to learn from one another, and the actual practice or application of that learning. Wegner also describes what CoPs look like, the theory behind CoPs, and the environments in which they are used.

This site by Etienne Wenger gives an overview of what a community of practice is. You will find definitions and descriptions, as well as applications. There are also resources listed concerning application and learning theory.

Communities of practice are groups of people who share the same job or a common interest in a subject. They come together to form a link to help each other perform in the world around them. This article talks about the value of communities of practice and how and why they work.

Eckert, P. (2006). Communities of practice. ELL, 2, 683-685. In this article, Mrs. Eckert does a great job in simplifying what a community of practice entails and means. She allows you to visualize the communities you belong to as well as other communities of practice you interact with or observe on a daily basis. One important distinction is that the author of this work is written from the sense of sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology and not from an educator's mind set. Irrespective of this standpoint, you can see direct correlations to where students understand themselves and what communities of practice your own student population may fall under. In order to understand the social development of communities of practice Mrs. Eckert does a good job in breaking down common cores that can emerge from memberships. The linguistic side she writes, "A white working class Italian-American woman does not develop her ways of speaking directly from the larger categorical working class, Italian American, and female, but from her day to day experience as a person who combines those three memberships. Her experience will be articulated by her participation in activities and communities of practice that are particular to her place in the social order."(Eckert, 2006) Building upon that theory, she discusses the importance of social space "Emma Moore's study of teenage girls in Northern England (Moore 2003) traced the gradual split of a group of somewhat rebellious "populars" as some of them emerged as the tougher "townies" in their ninth year. In the process, the vernacular speech patterns of the "townies" intensified in opposition to those of their more Conservative friends". (Eckert, 2006) While the article sheds more light on the development of speech patterns and dialects through the medium of communities, we can also see the definition in practice in which a collection of people gather together over a common interest and then orients to their new surrounding

This is just a basic definition of communities of practice. It is a very easy way to understand it.

Communities of practice (CoP) are created through a community of people who have common interests. In communities of practice, Eckert (2006) explains "a community of practice develops ways of doing things, views, values, power relations, and ways of talking" (p.1). CoP's have a way of providing a personal identity and a way of speaking within a CoP.

Angela another great pick. I think the biggest key to this resource is a practical demonstration of a PLN for us to utilize. As information is presented we should not only be able to explain but use the resources! Living the theory is just as important as knowing it.

This is a very thorough breakdown of what makes up a community of practice. Also some good links in there (though a few were broken which I find common in Wiki's). Thanks to you posting this site/CoP which I had never heard of http://www.tappedin.org/.

Angela, While doing the research I came across this site as well but did not incorporate it my finds. I'm a big fan of Wikipedia and use it quite a bit for definitions and attaining public domain images. This Edutech Wiki is very complete with definitions and examples. A great resource.

I've never seen the edutech wiki site. I will have to remember this. I also like using wiki from the basics like definitions. This has some great definitions and break down of communities of practice.

I love to gather information from WIKIs. CoP networks are present in almost everything we do. Thanks for sharing!

This was a good perspective on how we can can individually configure our PLN's to work for us based on using the technology in different ways. The concept of "Closing Triangles" was completely new to me. Thinking of how our own configurations interact with others in our network is definitely something to consider when we go into the practice phase.

I like the table they provide that asks the question that a community of practice would ask for each category. I like how they always use the word "we" because of the community aspect.

This is a great intro to communities of practice. I've been referring to this site as I work on my creative expression. I like how its written in plain language and easy to understand. The way the theory is broken down is also really helpful.

I appreciated the definition. Specifically, I appreciated the distinction between a community and a community of practice based on these three characteristics: the domain (an identity defined by a shared interest(s), the community (engaging in joint activities. Interestingly, a website or having the same job/title is not a community unless there is mutual learning), and the practice (mutual interests do not make a community of practice; by definition, members must be practitioners.) I also found interesting that 1) learning can be the reason or an incidental outcome and 2) sometimes people may not even know that they form a community of practice (for instance, nurses meeting regularly at lunch to discuss their prof. practice.) Thank you for sharing!

Etienne Wenger-Trayner explains what CoPs are, where the idea originated, and how the idea of CoPs are being applied in different domains.

This website provides an introduction to Communities of Practice, which includes the characteristics of a CoP, examples of Communities of Practice, and how the theory is being applied.

This article was incredibly helpful in my comprehension of CoPs. It explains what they are, their three domains, what they look like, and how they are being applied in real life.

This is a great resource giving the reader an introduction to CoP - a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.. The best part of this resource are the 3 critical characteristics of a CoP (domain, community, and practice) explained well.

This article provides helpful information on the topic of communities of practice. I was also interested in seeing how CoP are used outside of education. I question whether CoP that develop with "cultivation" are as effective as those that are self-organizing.

This is a great resource for communities of practice. It breaks down the characteristics of a community of practice between the domain, the community, and the practice. This resource also provides a table of examples of what makes a good CoP. It is very helpful in understanding where CoPs are commonly used and how they can be beneficial. Very helpful resource when first learning about CoPs.

This resource is a basic overview of the concept of communities of practice. It discusses the background from which it was created, and gave some specific examples of COPs in the real world. The best portion dealt with how COPs are used in other areas aside from education. There are also some excellent links.

This page look at the definition of a community of practice and includes there critera that are essential: the domain, the community, and the practice.

As others have also suggested, this article gives a good overview of CoPs applicable to real world integration. For example, I tend to focus on the realm of current day educational CoPs at a school or district level. This article goes beyond that by providing examples of other forms of CoPs. One that struck my interest was the "tribe learning to survive" example. This definitely gives a broader perspective on the reach of CoPs, in that, they can be traced back to the primordial beginnings of human interaction.

This article, by Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner in 2015, gives a wonderful introduction of what a community of practice is and why researchers and practitioners find them to be a valuable way of communicating and learning. You get a good perspective of what communities of practice looks like, where the concept comes from, and where the concept is being applied. Myths about communities of practice and suggested readings are also included.

What are CoPs? This article breaks down the terminology for Communities of Practice and explains what they are (and aren't). One common theme that appears throughout the article are the ideas of intention and implementation. CoPs are not just interest groups for casual entertainment. They are formed with intent and with the purpose of implementing ideas. Social media has removed the boundaries of who can form/join CoPs, and the sources of information are virtually endless.

This overview from 2015 is written by one of the anthropologists who coined this term when studying apprenticeships. It describes the 3 crucial characteristics: domain, community, and practice; its origin; its uses in a variety of settings; and refutes various myths about COP. A pdf is available.

This is a great overview of COPs. The author defines COP's and gives the three major characteristics: domain, community, & practice (and goes on to clearly define each of these). He explains the origins of COP's, describes them and gives examples of COP's today, addresses common myths of COP's and provides an influx of resources. A great site with a lot of valuable info!

This article outlines what communities of practice are and what they look like. It also describes how these communities are used in a variety of fields.

Wenger-Trayner give an overview of what constitutes a community of practice (CoP). It differentiate between a community and a CoP. Three features of CoP are given: domain, community, and practice. It is more than common interest; it involves interaction among practitioner who want to learn from each other. The article is helpful to understanding how to develop a PLN.

Often times grasping a new concept is difficult without examples to show what what a particular concept might look like. This article has a sub-head that reads: "What do communities of practice look like?" There are boxes with questions like "requests for information," "seeking experience," and "reusing assets." If you click on the plus/ minus sign on the boxes, you get taken to a short example.

In this fairly in-depth article, Etienne and Beverly Wenger- Trainer, focus on many different aspects of Communities of Practice. Some of the key elements they name regarding CoPs are: they are intentional, they can improve performance among members, the members have a shared domain of interest, the members have a commitment to the group, and the members build relationships that enable the to learn from each other. The 3 main element of a CoP are the domain, the community, and the practice.

Great share @MrsLieberman356! It's quite in-dept but chalk-ful of excellent information on CoPs and their objectives.

Thanks Joanna! When reading about CoPs myself, I love how they say that they're intentional. Through reading this article as well as others, I really see why that's an important piece to it!

According to this article, three characteristics are crucial in order for a community to be considered a "community of practice." A community of practice is not merely a club, it has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest. In pursuing their interest in their domain, members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information. They build relationships that enable them to learn from each other. A community of practice is not merely a community of interest-people who like certain kinds of movies, for instance. Members of a community of practice are practitioners. They develop a shared collection of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems -- a shared practice. http://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/

A brief overview and introduction of the concept and uses of communities of practice. This article shares theories and what it should look like instead of the "How" it should be done. They share the background of the concept and how it fits into the teaching environment.

This article gives a brief overview of the concept of communities of practice. Communities of Practice are groups that share a passion for what they do and share how they can do it better. The domain is a network of connections between people. The community is the activities and discussions share among the group. The practice is sharing the tips and tricks of how things work.

This delivers an overview of CoP's and discusses what a CoP would look like. It discusses the background and how it would fit in the learning environment.

This site breaks down what distinguishes Communities of Practice from communities.

This resource illustrates a CoP first, and then it uses this example to explain the components of CoPs: domain, community, and practice. It further provides examples fo what CoPs look like.

A great introduction into communities of practice. These communities require three things: commitment to the mission/goal, a community, and a shared role (or practice).

This website was created to explain CoP by the developers of the practice. The website explains what CoP is and what it looks like. The websites explains where CoP came from and how it can be applied in the workplace in different environments. The authors also diffuse any myths about the CoP so that others can understand what it is.

This article goes in depth on the three requirements for a CoP. It also goes through several examples of what a CoP looks like in various activities.