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Excellent literature review on community of practice. Case study of mentoring within a community of practice

This article gave an overview of what a community of practice is - but what I really like where the graphics included, especially the one on social media in the classroom - some cool statistics presented in an eye appealing manner.

I really like the visual representation at the top of this post. It shows the circular nature of communities of practice and breaks down the key ideas nicely.

Communities of practice give teachers the opportunity to interact, communicate, gain knowledge and collaborate in an environment of English Language Learners (ELL). Teacher not only have a community of practice with fellow teachers, but also in the classroom.

This article by Richard DuFour, one of the key voices in PLC professional development, identifies what distinguishes a PLC from other Communities of Practice. PLCs in schools are focused on student achievement, and creating a common understanding of what students should know and be able to do, how we will know when a student has reached mastery, and what we will do when a student is not successful.

I also had the opportunity to go through a training with the DuFours, but for three days last summer. I felt their were spectacular. Communication and problem solving are also important aspects of PLCs. #EdTechSN

I am developing my curriculum into a more blended environment. I think the professional learning communities and collaboration suggested here could really help me overcome some barriers. Thank you.

This is a link to an archived session from the 2013 Leadership in Educational Technology Virtual Conference. The session links CoP as a model for professional learning communities. At the link you will find the downloadable research paper as well as a link to a recording of the session.

I had to check this out because the concept of Guild was introduced to me last year with 3DGameLab. I was happy to see one of the presenters is Steve Isaacs because I met him last summer while playing in the 3DGameLab. I understand he is now in the EdD program, so it makes sense he would do a presentation on this type of connection. I have not spent enough time listening to our EdD students, so thank you for bringing this presentation to our attention.

This article investigates communities and the different steps that one takes to "belong" to a community. These communities facilitate sharing of ideas, resources,and research.

This article describes how communities of practice can be used to help teachers connect to diverse populations.

Huwe, T. K. (2006). Breaking into Communities of Practice. Computers In Libraries, 26(5), 22-25. In order to increase information literacy, relationship building is key. Online classes can be an example of a community of practice since there are discussion boards and ways for students to connect together.

I have to balance reading with other learning sources and so this video on Communities of Practice in action is simple and effective. It focuses on uk govt as as example but covers the main idea, if not the academic theory. Person, working with others, driven to connect, collaborate and learn. Simple but effective

This video was helpful in showing how a Community of Practice is useful to individuals. I also found it helpful to be reminded that there may also be a face to face element in a Community of Practice, and it does not all have to be digital.

This essay makes an argument that organizations need to include social learning systems, such as communities of practice, in order to achieve success. The author explains social learning and explains why communities of practice are beneficial.

This article looks at communities of practice from different sections of a community such as individuals and organizations. The article starts with a social definition of learning and then takes a deep look at the structure of communities of practice and social learning networks.

This article provides ways that classrooms become communities of practice, how the teacher typically can be become the facilitative leader. If done effectively, students will learn to collaborate. Learning starts occurring (both formally and informally), and communities of practice help us learn through development of skills as well as establishing identity. The goal of these communities of practice is to prepare individuals for the real world.

Being safe in our community means being safe on the playground. This website offers an abundance of information related to safe play in the community (school, home, playground).

Interview with Etienne Wenger on the learning theory behind communities of practice. He explains, CoP's are a collaboration of ideas people have an interest in.

Nice interview - I like how he differentiates the communities of practice from the technology but also doesn't diminish the technology. For some reason I had thought that Etienne would be a female so it was great to watch this!

A good overview of the concept and theory behind Communities of Practice by Etienne Wenger one of the authors of the term. It gave me a good overview and is written clearly and concisely. It helped me to understand the what and the where, as well as learning about the 3 main characteristics.

Very straight forward introduction by Etienne Wenger. She clearly explains the meaning and importance of the terms "domain", "community" and "practice" and shows some examples of where COPs they are being applied.

You will need to use your BSU information to access this pdf article by Christine Muller. This is a pretty dry article that attempts to make the connection between the need for community and mathematics. The author states, "Despite a common belief that mathematical practitioners prefer isolation and self-study, we observe that they are highly collaborative and active in their community. Mathematical collaborations are essential for any stage of mathematical practice". The author states the need to further analyze the need(s) for web-based community tools, such as discussion spaces that facilitate international online collaboration on the Web. This article is a starting point of a great discussion but needs much more elaboration.

Ms Brown describes Communities of Practice in her article citing Wenger (who coined the term) in her references. She goes on to describe what communities of practice are and how COP's have changed because of the digital world (Twitter named specifically). I appreciated her list of qualities of a "good" community of practice and her video link of John Amaechi's speech on COP's.

In this site, communities of practice are defined as "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." This seems very encompassing. It would include a group of friends that play a simple, addicting game on their smartphone. If this group of friends hangs out and discusses tips on how to do well in the game, boom: community of practice. At this point in my research, I'm surprised that there is so much literature produced to discuss something so simple. The value of a community of practice is clear: passionate, committed people doing something and learning from each other. But this has existed throughout human history, and is now labeled. Next, I'm going to search for who coined this term.

This article describes five major issues in the design and implementation of online communities of practice. The common theme in these five articles is they all focus on the online communication process, and they all try to understand how CoPs, as a reflective tool, can help improve professional practice.

While this article provides examples of communities of practice in action and provides easy to understand definitions it also discusses ways in which CoP's can be sustained. It's one thing to understand their purpose or how to get them started but what do we do once they are up and running? How can we keep a CoP going for say multiple school years rather than diminish over time?

There is a great deal of useful information throughout the wenger-treyner.com site. I selected this section, because it brought up a question that I had not considered. This discusses the difference between a community and a network and whether you can have both in one.

The post from the Wenger-Trayner website contrasts communities of practice and informal networks painting a clearer picture of the subtle differences, though the lines are blurred frequently between the two. CoPs and networks aren't the same, though they are related. Though all CoPs are networks, not all networks are CoPs.

Connectivist theorists argue that the way in which individuals acquire knowledge has changed. Academic institutions (which have historically been considered as the place in which individuals acquire knowledge and information) are being supported and/or replaced by groups of people within a learning network. The process of learning involves the creation of knowledge through these personalized networks and identifying the relationships between one's own knowledge and the knowledge of others within a network. These connections can occur in a variety of ways and with a variety of learners.

This article helped me to understand how to apply connectivism in the classroom. It also pointed out misconceptions that educators have about using social networking in the classroom.

Written by Kegan Remington, an Instructional Designer, the article discusses what connectivism is and how it can be applied in the classroom. He lays out the four simple ways of introducing connectivism in the classroom.

This Twitter account belongs to a Principal at Kurt Hahn EL School in Brooklyn New York.  While this may not be thought of as using, social networking in education, I say it is.  Education is not just about classrooms and lessons, it is about about community and parents as well.  Keeping the community, parents, and students up to date on happenings at the school and profiling teachers and student achievements is an important part of education.  This is a great way to use Twitter.