Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach Communities of Practice: Turning conversations into collaboration Turning conversations into collaboration

Essential Questions: What does it mean to be a global citizen? What is your role in producing a community of practice in your districts? What attributes promote a healthy and vibrant community? What are common pitfalls and lessons learned?

Learner First— Educator Second It is a shift and requires us to rethink who we are as an educational leader or professional. It requires us to redefine ourselves. Emerson and Thoreau reunited would ask- “What has become clearer to you since we last met?”

What does it mean to work in a participatory 2.0 world? Reflection

What is community, really?

THE CONNECTED EDUCATOR 1. Local community: Purposeful, face-to-face connections among members of a committed group—a professional learning community (PLC) 2. Global network: Individually chosen, online connections with a diverse collection of people and resources from around the world—a personal learning network (PLN) 3. Bounded community: A committed, collective, and often global group of individuals who have overlapping interests and recognize a need for connections that go deeper than the personal learning network or the professional learning community can provide—a community of practice or inquiry (CoP)

FOCUS: Situated, Synchronous, Asynchronous- Online and Walled Garden Communities of Practice

Virtual Community A virtual space supported by computer-based information technology, centered upon communication and interaction of participants to generate member-driven content, resulting in relationships being built up. (Lee & Vogel, 2003)

A Place to Build Trust and Relationships

A Domain of Interest

A Place to Meet

A Place to Construct Knowledge Collaboratively

A Community of Practice is a network of individuals with common problems or interests who get together to explore ways of working, identify common solutions, and share good practice and ideas. puts you in touch with like-minded colleagues and peers allows you to share your experiences and learn from others allows you to collaborate and achieve common outcomes accelerates your learning Improves student achievement validates and builds on existing knowledge and good practice provides the opportunity to innovate and create new ideas

Virtual Learning Communities of Relationship A community built on relationships promotes special kinds of connections among people. These connections might be based on a shared concern, issue or learning problem, but in each instance, the emphasis is on the relationships built among participants. Issues of commitment, trust and values are inherent in any relationships which emerge in the community. (Teacher Leaders Network) Virtual Learning Communities of Place Individuals in this type of community enjoy a common habitat or locale. (My Space, Second Life, World of Warcraft) Virtual Learning Communities of Passion Communities of passion reinforce people's commitment to other people, to common goals, shared values and shared conceptions of being and doing. This can be as trivial as a shared interest in wine making, or as profound as a shared search for truth. Virtual Learning Communities of Memory A virtual learning community of memory is based on a shared past or a common sense of history. (Holocaust Survivors Network )

Helping Communities Best Practice Communities Knowledge Stewarding Communities Innovation Communities Drivers Lower cost through reuse Social responsibility Lower cost through standardisation Consistency of project Improves outcomes Professional development Tracks shifting trends Transforming and Reforming education Designed to evolve Activities Connecting members Knowledge who’s who Collecting, Vetting Publishing Portal Enlisting leading experts Manage content Attend Webinars Share Resources Share insights Development of new Policy Co-Creation of content Structure and roles Problem solving Sub committees Index and store Best practice Publishing Individuals Established leaders Teams Loose governance Community leaders Teams Emergent roles Reward for participation Sense of belonging Assistance to daily work Desire for improvement Shift in knowledge and understanding Professional development Passion for the topic Web 2.0 pedagogy Connections and PLN Knowledge Tacit - high socialisation Low tacit Explicit to explore Tacit to explicit Tacit to tacit Explicit to tacit.

Looking Closely at Learning Community Design 4L Model (Linking, Lurking, Learning, and Leading) inspired by John Seeley Brown This model is developed around the roles and interactions members of a community have as participants in that community.

Members of an Active Community

Celebration

Connection cc Steve Wheeler, University of Plymouth,

cc Steve Wheeler, University of Plymouth, 2010 Communication

Collaboration

User Generated Co-created Content Celebration Connection Communication Collaboration

Motivations Social connectedness Psychological well-being Gratification Collective Efficacy

Kollock’s 4 Motivations for Contributing 1.Reciprocity 2.Reputation 3.Increased sense of efficacy 4.Attachment to and need of a group

The Social Web is built here, from love and esteem

"The debate keeps getting framed as if the only true alternative were to opt out of media altogether and live in the woods, eating acorns and lizards and reading only books published on recycled paper by small alternative presses" Convergence Culture, Henry Jenkins Tim O’Reilly’s Hippies.O’Reilly’s

Attributes of a healthy online community

Norms

Conversations

Sharing

Healthy communities are collaborative, co-created and designed with evolution in mind.

Presence Conversations Sharing Relationships Groups Reputation Identity Self Community Activity Rules & Repercussions Purpose/ Passion? Co-Creation? Planning? Caretakers? Collectively Rate? Publish?

Simple (hard) Steps Have a compelling idea Seed Someone must live on the site –Community manager or you Make the rules clear (and short) Punish swiftly and nicely Reward contributions Spread the work out Adapt to Community Norms Apologize publicly, swiftly and frequently Simple good software that grows with group

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power. Alan Cohen