Group items tagged

Cate, This one makes you think. I am sure it will not be long before being hired as a teacher or administrator will include advanced skills with the computer and being connected. It probably happens now. CoPs will make it so much easier for teachers and administrators to glean the most popular trends and technological information.

A list of different communities of educators for professional learning.

This was a great find. This site connects educators with communities that suit their needs. Educators can pick their interests and connect with folks on the spot.

Quick, easy to build, and has many quizzes available to be used

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.