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Professional Learning Communities are often times being used to describe any form of meeting within a school community. This misuse of the PLC is causing it to become another reform movement that will pass. In order for them to stay true to what they are, the three big ideas need to remain present in each community. The first big idea is that a PLC needs to ensure that students learn. PLCs develop the teaching practices that don't let a child get left behind when they haven't mastered a skill yet. The second big ideas is that PLCs create a culture of collaboration within a school. It brings together individuals who, with a shared goal and motivation, learn and develop together. The final big idea is to focus on the results. A PLC, when done correctly, should yield results directed to the shared goal. Throughout handwork and commitments, PLCs can become true to what they were originally intended to be. 

This is a good article, if you are interested in deep diving into the theory of situating learning in the context of communities of practice. I have never thought of Alcoholics Anonymous as a community of practice before. The article looks at the structuring relation between the scope of participation in communities and the production of that scope in relations of commodification and the characteristics of divided forms of labor. The article also lists a set of conceptual independencies among person, activity, knowledge, and a world that recommend a conception of learning as legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice.

This book chapter is very informative, and takes a look at some of the situations regarding identity in a community of practice. There are many different roles one can take in a CoP. I enjoyed this chapter, because it took a look at Yucatec Mayan midwives. Which, as it sounds is an important role played in this community. There is a sort of apprentice mindset when learning something, and I find the same structure in teaching.

This work provides first person accounts of creating and implementing communities of practice as well as research about communities of practice. The goal of the work, according to the author, is to guide and promote other educators in the creation of communities of practice. Communities of Practice are explored in this work through the lens of higher education, professional development, secondary education, and primary education with the varying chapters all presenting a different type of community of practice.

This 2011, Communities of Practice: A Brief Introduction, by Etienne Wenger distills earlier writings and discussions about communities of practice and outlines some characteristics and guidelines. Wegner's definition, "Communities of practice are 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." There are 3 characteristics: the domain of shared interest, the community shares information, activities and relationships and the practice of practioners who share resources, experiences, stories, tools and problem solving. Communities of practice can be for problem solving, information requests, experience seeking, reusing assets, coordination and synergy, documentation projects, visits and mapping knowledge. They can be small or vast, online or face to face. The theory of communities of practice has spilled over into organizations, businesses, government, education, associations, social sectors, international development and the web.

Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg highlights the ways in which we are all connected in society and the various communities we are linked with. Mark emphasizes the need to continue to network and stay connected. Our history is based on connections in society and we have continued to grow. Although only one platform to grow from, Mark's Facebook Community has offered our society and people countless opportunities to connect and grow personally and professionally.

This article discuses the theories behind communities of practices. This resource includes charts and practices of designing effective communities of practice. It provides a clear definition of what these practices mean and provides several crucial characteristics of a community of practice.

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."

This is a clip from a conference in New Zealand where the speaker starts to discern the differences between the focus of a network and that of a community of practice.

Melissa, thank you for sharing! I was having a hard time differing from the two, and this clip really help the viewers understand why each is important yet a little different. I really like the idea of communities of practice and what they can do for a professional!

Hi Melissa, I had not thought about the differences between a network and a community of practice. As the author identified the differences and the key aspects of a community of practice, I was able to gain better insight and understanding of a community of practice. I noted that she specified commitment, a purpose for improvement, and co-ownership as key characteristics. Thanks for sharing! Hanna

This approach views learning as an act of membership in a "community of practice." The theory seeks to understand both the structure of communities and how learning occurs in them. The communities of practice concept was pioneered by the Institute for Research on Learning, a spin-off of the Xerox Corporation in Palo Alto, CA.

This article talked about how students have their own communities and that we should recognize them and use them to help our students learn.

This blog post describes a conference about Communities of Practice. The author considers the similarities and differences between Communities of Practice and Personal Learning Environments.

A major difference between a Community of Practice and a Professional Learning Committee is that those in the PLC are often assigned or required to be a member. CoPs seem to evolve more naturally from a desire to gain knowledge. The author of this post had just attended training given by the Wenger-Trayners--CoP gurus.

This blog post highlights communities of practice as one of the theories behind the personal learning network concept. It makes a distinction in that even though PLC's can be a community of practice, they aren't always guaranteed to be.

By: Eitenne C. Wenger and William M. Snyder Wenger, E. C., & Snyder, W. M. (2000). Communities of practice: The organizational frontier. Harvard business review, 78(1), 139-146. The first article I started with was a Harvard Business review entry regarding communities of practice within organizations. While my other articles focused on the education world and describe actions within the social environment, this article took a different approach in explaining the inner workings CofP's play in the office. The fundamental meaning communities of practice represent go unchanged, but it is interesting that this article puts a table and explanation for the differences other office groups represent, such as an informal network, project team, and formal work group. This distinction allows for other varied communities of practice to be represented. Such as the education field and social psychology. Wenger and Snyder then take the article one step further by explaining the uses of CoPs for management and how to facilitate their growth for strong company cultures.

This article is great that CoPs and PLNs (PLEs) build upon one another to drive a foundational strategy. The primary group might only be a few people but will continue to build to the point that the entire organization is involved. I also think it is important to discuss how this is utilized not only in education but also in business (or other fields). Great pick Jason!

I liked some of the real world examples for benefits of CoP's. The story of the technician who came up with the pneumatic tube idea that was ulitmately adopted because of support from his fellow technicians was really cool to hear.

Very interesting article. This article discusses findings of interactions and supports for communities of practice or both student-to-student and teacher-to-teacher. It goes on to describe the challenges for student-to-student communities and their dealings with conflict, and the corresponding support provided for the instructor who struggled with having student communities struggle in cohesion. There is a useful graphic on page 291 showing the gathering's (read: community's) intentionality and strength of their social bond - where both are high, there emerges a community of practice.

This study explores the pitfalls of virtual teams within the business world. While I realize this paper doesn't focus on schools specifically it still applies in its exploration of communities of practice. This paper follows a few case studies while it explores virtual teams rather than teams working in the same space or building. Traditionally, virtual teams, have more challenges and communities of practice are introduced as a way to help overcome these challenges. Communities of practice are also defined and stages of participation are explored.

This article discusses the use of communities of practice for libraries and library science. Due to the nature of university libraries being located far from one another geographically, communities of practice tend to be online. Additionally, this article talks about the differences in communities of practice, communities of inquiry, and communities of learning.

This document is a compilation of readings and resources for a community of practice. It includes infographics as well as summaries of information of theories of COP's.

This article had mentioned a good point about communities of practice: not all communitites are communities of practice. They gave the example of a neighborhood, it is a community where people are living, but they are not necessarily practicing a common interest. However if you have a neighborhood watch group to watch and protect the surrounding homes, them that would be a community of practice because they have the same goal and are working together. It stated that learning can be the reason for the group to come together, or it can be an outcome of someone's actions.

This article describes the process of growth of the community of practice of SEDA, the Staff and Educational Development Association. Members of the community went from being on the outskirts, learning from others but not bringing anything new to the table. Then, as they grew, they later became mentors and trainers to those around them. In particular, phrases like "element of selflessness" and "stewarding knowledge" best describe the feeling and attitude of the article.

This article discusses the uses of communities of practice in specifically religious education contexts. Key line on page 126 about how "community of practice as rhetoric becomes community of practice as reality." This seemed to argue that as members more and more participate, the more beneficial communities of practice become and more and more of "what they are supposed to be" - the development of a community of practice takes commitment and time.

Learning communities help to share the responsibilities of student success within a school system. Since PLNs require a shared goal, when used in a school it helps align the vision for students, teachers, and administrators. PLNs are a continuous cycle of research, planning, and implementation. They are data driven and reflected upon. Everyone within the PLN is responsible for the development and implementation of the community. When everyone participates it creates an environment of trust and expertise that can be shared equally amongst all of the members. The learning that takes place within PLNs helps to keep school systems aligned and functioning.

This was a very interesting article that really had me thinking deeper bout PLN. One specific line " Learning communities convene regularly and frequently during the workday to engage in collaborative professional learning to strengthen their practice and increase student results" really caught my eye. How does one find time for such intensive participation? Separate from that I like the idea of learning being a group responsibility and not just an individual one.

Hi Ryann, I love this article and how it chunks the topics into easy comprehension for the reader. Collective responsibility stuck out to me the most. I think this is so important whenever tackling a project as a team. The team is interdependent and I think its important for each member to take responsibility of their strengths that they bring to the table. Nice article!

"Communities of practice (CoPs) are among the professional development strategies most widely used in such fields as management and education." This article expresses the use of Communities of practice as a part of the healthcare sector. I enjoyed reading about the similarities of needs among these professions and education, as all professionals should be involved in various communities of practice.

KM stands for knowledge management. This article talks about CoPs in terms of the need to do away with canonical practice because the rules and procedures inhibit problem solving abilities. There is something I cannot identify that annoys me with this article. I do like the " Empowerment is key to learning" statement.

This article looks at Communities of practice and the implications to knowledge management. Communities of practice is a term originally developed by Lave and Wenger (1991). It describes a learning theory with a strong relationship to the social construction of knowledge. http://www.knowledge-management-tools.net/communities-of-practice.html

"Communities of practice is a term originally developed by Lave and Wenger (1991)." A community of practice is a group with common goals and interests. It is important to note that they are not a team. The goal is not to acquire specific information but to be part of a group to share information. It is unstructured dialog which leads to problem-solving and innovation.