Communities of Practice CoPs

Communities of Practice overview slide 1 Introduction to CoPs – some definitions...Theory: what are CoPs?Reflection: setting up a CoPApplication: learning in CoPsResources

“A distributed community of practice (CoP) consists of a group of people who communicate with each other synchronously and/or asynchronously, concerning a topic of common interest.” Jones, C introduction slide 2 “A CoP is a group of people who share an interest in something, and come together to develop knowledge around this topic, in order to use it in practice.” Wenger, E virtual physical Communities of Practice

introduction slide 3 from vertical to horizontal... “The goal of the community (CoP) is to advance the collective knowledge of the group about the subject area at the same time that the individual's knowledge is increasing. Thus, all participants have a genuine need to learn from each other.” Jones, C Communities of Practice

theory slide 4 community knowledge explicit & implicit knowledge Communities of Practice

theory slide 5 voluntary negotiated goals roles: assigned emergent Communities of Practice

theory slide 6 reflection social scaffolding negotiated meaning artefacts Communities of Practice

application slide 7 scaffolding creative practice competencies constructivist Communities of Practice

reflection slide 8 Setting up an informal network or CoP? Consider: - Are they online or f2f? - Are they focused on implicit/explicit knowledge? - What are the main roles and who holds them? - Is your participation voluntary or imposed? - What are the goals (if any)? How are they arrived at? - Does your network produce any ‘artefacts’? - Do negotiation and reflection have a role? Communities of Practice

resources groups.yahoo.com/group/com-prac/ CoPs quiz: slide 9 Online skills sharing is breaching staffroom 'wall of silence' Communities of Practice