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Jennifer Pollock

Learning from others at work: communities of practice and informal learning - 9 views

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    This study examines how adults learn from one another within a workplace environment. As the article highlights: "[Informal] learning at work constitutes a large part of the learning undertaken by adults . . ." The article determined that large worksites afforded a range and variety of communities of practice, informal learning opportunities, and types of learning within a worksite. However, very often, the people we learn from at work are not necessarily recognized as having a role that traditionally promotes learning.
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    The authors David Boud and Heather Middleton acknowledge that in many cases the learning that goes on through informal discussions between coworkers is almost always more valuable than the learning that takes place inside a classroom or formal professional development workshop. As part of the article the authors examined informal workplace CoPs in four different workgroups within the organization. They wanted to see what types of learning occurred. Through interviews with participants they found that the larger the workgroup the more diverse the opportunities for community professional development. What they discovered in that end was that sometimes these workgroups developed characteristics of CoPs and other times the group is not cohesive enough to really develop a shared learning environment.
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    This was a very in-depth paper looking at how adults learn from one another in the workplace in informal ways. I have been reading a lot about Communities of Practice this week and I was struck by how the authors discussed structural factors, such as seniority and large scale workforce, could effect the true development of communities of practice. It discussed political and beurocratic issues could be possible setbacks. This is not something I had considered but is a true reality. When reading, I saw it is easy to assume that like-minded practioners in a similar domain could all just work together in harmony. It is truly more realistic to realize that certain issues like seniority could possible stand in the way.
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    I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article and I found it logical that in the example of the Tiling Teachers, the article mentioned that they considered each other peers on the same level which would facilitate the learning that takes place within that group. I wonder how this learning would contrast from feedback or learning taking place from students in the class or even a superior like a Vice President of a program or a Senior Instructional Designer?
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    This was a great article and got me thinking a little deeper about communities of practice. So far this week, my studies have led to articles and examples of communities of practice in a learning or educational environment. I love how the focus was really on practices of communities of practice in the workplace. It was cool to realize that this process begins way before the class even begins. Thanks for sharing.
Ross Craycraft

CoP in Workplace Learning - 2 views

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    This article was great in that they did a case study on the schoolteachers' workplace learning. What they found is that there should not be boundaries that defines how educators learn and practice.
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    This website by Phil and Heather Hodkinson provides a powerful case study on Schoolteachers' and Workplace Learning, and examines the similarities and differences between classroom and workplace learning in regards to CoP.
anonymous

Communities of Practice - 0 views

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    This article mainly summarizes the work of Etienne Wenger concerning CoPs. Additionally the article has an included video discussing the benefits of CoPs in the workplace.
cynthia mills

Social networking sites as virtual communities of practice: A mixed method study - 2 views

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    I think what makes this study interesting is the fact that the researchers explored how communication and learning develop in an informal environment like a social network and how that communication can be transferred to the workplace, specifically, professional development. The study references CEO's who have blogs and discusses the idea that blogs can enhance the performance analysis process. The question that it poses is founded in Connectivism in that it attempts to "investigate the relationship between learning and connectedness among members of a social networking site, and to explore qualitatively how members perceive the transfer of learning from the social networking site to their workplace practices and professional development."
Renee Phoenix

From hierarchies to wirearchies - 1 views

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    Harold Jarche offers a look at the concept of organizations moving from hierarchies to wirearchies. An argument that communities of practice prove more able to get things done in the real work--a-day world and offer a safe place for members to do highy concentrated work. My college still puts out an org chart every year showing the heirarchy of the organization. But everyone knows who the real people are that you need to connect with to get anything done.
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    I thought this article provided new insight in how to combine social networks and communities of practice into the workplace. Ideally, the workplace should be collaborative and cooperative, but I think most traditional organizations still operate on a hierarchy structure. I thought the term introduced in the article of "wirearchy was extremely creative.
Christopher Higgins

Personal Learning Network - 2 views

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    This article is fairly specific.  It helped understand the difference between a CoP and a PLN.  Primarily it talks about what learning is and how a PLN can help and how learning can come in a PLN.  It elaborates that a PLN is something that we have.  It is our connections that we make and, while not explicit, it emphasizes that we feel ownership in the PLN.
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    PLNs are a necessity. Even when we are learning in a formal situation, we take the information and go to apply it in our jobs. However, we typically do not have access to the original resources for information. This is where the PLN comes in. In many cases we may not know some or all of the members personally, but they are still a very valuable resource!
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    This article addresses setting up a PLN in the corporate workplace. When reading this article it reinforced the need to expose students during their formative years to this type of collaboration.
aschurg

10 Workplace Trends For 2015 - 0 views

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    Great page to share with college students demonstrating skills the companies are looking for in candidates.
Allison Hall

Using student group work in higher education to emulate professional communities of pra... - 0 views

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    This paper examines the role of group learning at the university level to prepare students for interacting in CoP in the workplace. Researchers utilized Hoadley and Kilner's "C4P" framework to create an IT consultant scenario. The resulting reflections placed an emphasis on purpose, context, content, communication, and leadership.
hamitup

Goals, Motivation for, and Outcomes of Personal Learning through Networks: ...: EBSCOhost - 1 views

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    The following peer-reviewed article notes the expectation of professional development in the workplace. Individuals and cohorts in all professions may receive training and PD that only goes so far. It's critical for all individuals to continue to develop and strengthen their skills, attitudes, and knowledge through the use of Personal Learning Networks. This article highlights the pros and cons of a Twitterstorm, but ultimately captivates the need to seek-out other professional beyond your institution.
Jessica Gake

Understanding personal learning networks: Their structure, content and the networking s... - 4 views

  • This article aims to understand how professionals determine the networking actions they undertake. In other words, how does the support offered by different ties in a professional’s personal learning network change and evolve with the intentional actions of the professional?
  • The learner as orchestrator of her personal learning network
  • Communality
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  • Organisation of the contact
  • Like–mindedness.
  • Reputation
  • Benevolence
  • Network of a contact.
  • Real potential for collaboration.
  • Real potential for learning
  • Trends in work environment
  • When asked to reflect on their learning experiences and the role of others in those learning processes, interviewees displayed clear differences in the way they interact with contacts in their personal networks and the way they learn from these interactions.
  • the effects of networking are not limited to face–to–face interactions with the contacts: even when others are not present, their words, messages and perspectives can influence the reflections of the learner.
  • Proficient networkers use dedicated events and environments where networking has the prime focus (such as professional conferences, seminars and, more recently, online social networking sites) to trigger their mind into making valuable associations.
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    Summary: The authors of this article clearly prove that a learner who is in control of h/her own learning will benefit the most, especially if h/she designs and navigates h/her own network. A learner will learn whether the connection is strong or weak as long as h/she has: 1) a choice in what network is joined, 2) a true passion or interest, and 3) a flexible method of communication (could be in person or via technology).
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    This work goes into detail on how the individual learner impacts the creation and function of their PLN. It identifies 9 specific factors that influence how we "build, maintain, and activate" our learning networks. It fits these factors into a "Personal learning network model"
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    PLN: This article delves into how networking is essential to personal growth and learning; especially personal learning networks. Learning by interacting with peers lets us make the connections that either in learning or work environment is important.
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    A clear explanation of personal learning networks, and in particular the different ways they form and the different ways individuals interact with their PLNs. Helpful diagrams for understanding the PLN model are included.
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    This article focuses on personal professional networking. This is essentially a PLN in the workplace. Three primary tasks build a foundation for future activities within the PLN, 1) building connections, 2) maintaining connections, 3) activating connections. There are nine factors that influence a personal professional network. See include: communality (or commonality) reputation, and real potential for collaboration or learning. Learning within a PLN must be cultivated and involve reflection. Participants must recognize the value of other contributors to their own learning in order for the network to be truly effective, because this will allow person to know who to contact in the future for a similar issue. Networking to create a PLN depends on the person be g able to make connections between their own skills and their contacts' potential contributions. In creating an PLN, the learner "orchestrates" the environment, "browsing, selecting, and choosing" relevant resources.
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    This clearly follows the belief that personalized learning is beneficial to the learner. By getting to create your PLN you are strategically picking who to network with and the topics you want to be involved in.
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    In this article, the discussion of personal learning networks surrounds working professionals and how they manage their professional network. The article presents a model of personal professional networking with the goal of creating a personal learning network.
Russell Nash

Communities of Practice - 4 views

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

Connectivism: a theory for learning in a world of growing complexity by Strong, K. Hutc... - 2 views

The paper begins by discussing the vast amount of information and knowledge that is available. It then provides an in-depth understanding of what connectivism is and its principles. The paper also ...

connectivism e-learning theories

started by chris mason on 07 Sep 13 no follow-up yet
Chris Hill

Understanding Personal Learning Environments - 4 views

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    The Activity Theory model breaks down PLE's into subject, object, tools, rules, community and division of labour.Context is not an external container but it is constituted through an activity.The most common context for PLE's takes place through Higher Education (31%) and Lifelong Learning (15%), followed by enterprise,organisations and workplace (9% each).
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    This paper included many diagrams documenting personal learning environments. The PLE is broken down into six distinctive parts. The subject is the person with the object leading the subject to the outcome. Tools connect the subject and object within a community where the subject acquires knowledge. Rules are present to minimize conflict and help to guide the subject toward the object and possibly most importantly, the PLE has a division of labor. This is how the community is organized and includes contributions from all subjects. Without any one of these parts, the PLE would not function which would lead to the loss of knowledge within a community of practice.
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    A helpful--if lengthy--article explaining what a PLE is, and how to conceptualize the structure and role of a PLE in terms of Activity Theory. Helpful section distinguishing PLEs, PLNs, and CoPs on p. 24.
Christopher Higgins

Effective Virtual Teams through Communities of Practice by Chris Kimble, Alexis Barlow,... - 0 views

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    This paper addresses how virtual teaming in the workplace has changed the dynamics of the physical and virtual aspects of businesses.
cbjohnsrud

Education World: Build Your Personal Learning Network - 2 views

  • onsider that our understanding of learning is changing. We need to think of learning as an experience that happens when we connect with others.
  • Whenever there is contact with other educators, there is hope. That's the power of communications. I
  • Blog what you learn, what you do. Soon, you'll realize you know -- and as importantly, discover more -- about what is in your head than you think
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    The author, a chief technology officer (CTO), does an excellent job outlining how to develop your own PLN. He challenges the reader to use Twitter, Diigo, Google+, and blog. The is an excellent beginners resource!
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    I agree with the beginner's resource comment, as everything on the site is simply reinforcing concepts and tools that are used in nearly all MET courses. In regards to Diigo, I'm still not completely convinced, but I assume I will come around by the end of this course.
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    I love that we are doing what he references in this class. And I have to admit, I have my share of resources, but connecting with others was never my thing. I like to research, save websites, share my curriculum with others, but never really thought to surround myself online with "co-workers." Why? Because I see them all day, and we barely even talk at work. We have meetings and still barely get to talk, and then if you see a co-worker in the lounge, the last thing you want to talk about is work! So, creating the online community and the PLN, really benefits you because it's work, but it's outside of the workplace. I am so thankful this class is forcing me to work on developing my PLN. Thanks for sharing the resources that article speaks to!
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    I like this a lot. As Jody stated above, I never really thought of connecting with others and considering them colleagues. I was more focused on just listening to their ideas and making them my own, rather than sharing collectively.
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    This article, while simple, points out some profound "a-ha's" about power of online personal learning networks. Online PLNs allow educators to engage in the flow of conversations without necessarily being to tied to a time and/or place. As the author points out, some of the biggest changes occur in educators when they begin to share what they know on a PLN. By sharing one's thoughts, an individual can reach a deeper understanding of his or her own understanding.
Amanda Hatherly

Cathy N. Davidson | Distinguished scholar of the history of technology, appointed to th... - 2 views

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    Just about my favorite scholar. She leads the Futures Initiative at the Graduate Center at CUNY and writes extensively about participatory learning, the history of technology and innovations in education, including personal learning networks. This website highlights her books, research and blog.
shannahollich

DO-IT | Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology - 0 views

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    The DO-IT Center's goal is to empower people with disabilities through technology and education. There are a wealth of resources here, some of which are specifically geared towards students and educators. They promote awareness and accessibility in both the classroom and the workplace.
shannahollich

G Suite Learning Center - All the training you need, in one place - 0 views

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    "Get the most out of G Suite in your workplace with training guides, tips, customer examples, and other resources."
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