Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

Defines CoP's and reinforces that CoP's focus on sharing knowledge and developing best practices. Identifies CoP's as a model for connecting people for learning, knowledge sharing, collaboration and organizational development. Provides great key questions for growth of a CoP.

This is a great guide from Educause on the "nuts and bolts" of establishing a PLN. This resource provides a step-by-step guide to establishing a CoP.

This article is really helpful since it gives practical there are some things you can do. My favorite is "Design." You can not just set up spaces and expect people to interact. You have to drive purpose and there has to be meaning there.

The video by Bruce Knox helped me to reacquaint myself with Communities of Practice. I like how he explains the parts to consider and if one already exists.

Very clearly laid out. I like the way it defines a community of practice and the purpose. And the three areas that need to be developed: the community, domain and practice. Communities of practices are not created but rather are fostered - nice differentiation.

Video sharing what and why we want Communities of Practice. This class could be considered a CoP, we are grouping together with similar interests, to share ideas and get better at what we do.

This article provides an excerpt from the book, Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge by Wenger, McDermott, and Snyder. This pieces notes what CoPs are and what makes them successful. It explores seven design principles to help CoPs thrive and evolve. Each principle is explained and supported with understandable real-world examples.

This does give a really complete explanation of each one. I agree that the examples are relevant and helpful. I think this is a great resource.

I like this article. Much of what I read dealt with what communities of practice are. This article focuses more on how to set up and maintain a successful community of practice. Each of the elements brought up is very detailed. I like this article because it details what a community of practice is indirectly. In describing what a successful CoP looks like you can easily see what it is and how valuable it can be. Good find!

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.