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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.

Great interview highlighting some strong examples of working tech environments and components that are needed to grow and sustain. Favorite quote: "In several classrooms, I couldn't tell where the front of the classroom was. On one side of the room was an interactive whiteboard; on another side, a regular whiteboard; and the teacher's desk was on a third side. The whole space was a learning environment, and the technology was just part of the infrastructure." Makes me want to rethink me space as well.

Cator brings up some great points, especially about the finite scope of education today. Where do you find the room to add new ideas and technologies? Something has to give to make room for something new.

A combination of PLN and connectivism that shows why we need this more than ever in education.

Nate, excellent find! That really was a great video, thank you for sharing that. One thing that struck me from the video was the realization that the coffee houses and salons of the past provided an opportunity for people with various "hunches" (per the video) to meet and mingle exchanging ideas. Perhaps the salon of the 21st century is the greater web communities (web forums, facebook, twitter etc).

I Loved This! No doubt it gives a terrific explanation of the importance of a connected learning environment. For me it also gives that sense of worth for the ideas that are incubating within and just waiting for the serendipitous moment when they come together with their other piece(s). Imagine how empowering that is for a student who suddenly feels such potential. Nice one.

I really liked this video. I never would have thought to search You Tube for this kind of resources. This video really does describe and make important the ideas involved in connectivism. I am interested in seeing what other great videos on this topic are on You Tube.

The way Johnson describes how ideas (or "hunches," as he calls them) often need a great deal of time to develop is definitely interesting, but I think that part of it is somewhat expected or already understood. The part I found really fascinating with the focus on the connectivism notions that the hunch one person has may very well need to collide with another person's hunch before it can truly form into something useful. The end of the video provided a very profound thought to consider: "Chance favors the connected mind."

I have seen this before and am still moved by it. I always discount the use of videos and I enjoy them so much I am not so sure why I never think to look there. I also like his idea that good ideas are born from smaller ideas.