1. Communities of Practice
          
Communities of Practice
CoPs
          

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

3. Communities of Practice
          
Communities of Practice
introduction
“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. 1991
physical
“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. 2002
virtual
          
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4. Communities of Practice
          
Communities of Practice
introduction
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. 2002
          
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5. Communities of Practice
          
Communities of Practice
theory
explicit & implicit knowledge
community knowledge
          
slide 4

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

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

8. Communities of Practice
          
Communities of Practice
application
scaffolding
constructivist
creative practice
competencies
          
slide 7

9. Communities of Practice
          
Communities of Practice
reflection
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?
          
slide 8

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