Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

This research effort developed by Barbara F. Hartigan, Ed.D. and Marialice B.F.X. Curran, Ph.D at University of Saint Joseph that looks at connectivism in the context of using social media as a mentorship program for pre-service teachers. It is based off the researchers witnessing teachers on Twitter who engage in the Twitter chat #kinderchat mentoring a first year kindergarten teacher through their weekly chats. This developed into a research project where they embedded social media into the program for 19 pre-service teachers. They used mostly Twitter, Skype, and blogging and found that all of the participants learn from and value learning and teaching ideas and methodology obtained from their social media interactions. They note that next steps would be to follow those educators into their classrooms to see their continued development using social media.

Summary: Communities of Practice are all around us. They exist in most businesses and most professional communities. These communities are important because work is shared, revised, and organized; thus, making it better. The development of CoPs is dependent on leaders within these communities.

The sharing piece seems to be the most integral part CoP in my opinion. Also, before exploring these topics I feel my thinking was streamlined towards education, but I am understanding the need for CoP in all professions. If you are not sharing as a part of the community then you are not a contributor. This translates to the classroom and making sure all students play a role and have a place in the classroom's community! This starts as early as having a classroom "job."