1. Communities of Practice: Promoting Learner Autonomy in ICT-Delivered Courses Gavin Dudeney – Nicky Hockly, 2004 www.theconsultants-e.com

2. Communities of Practice: Promoting Learner Autonomy… session overview slide 1 Introduction to CoPs – some definitions...Theory: what are CoPs?Reflection: how do CoPs relate to me?Application: how can CoPs affect online teaching?Resources

3. “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 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. 1991 virtual physical Communities of Practice: Promoting Learner Autonomy…

4. introduction slide 3 know your place...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 and... ??? Communities of Practice: Promoting Learner Autonomy…

5. theory slide 4 community knowledge explicit & implicit knowledge Communities of Practice: Promoting Learner Autonomy…

6. theory slide 5 voluntary negotiated goals roles: assigned - - - - emergent Communities of Practice: Promoting Learner Autonomy…

7. theory slide 6 reflection social scaffolding negotiated meaning artefacts Communities of Practice: Promoting Learner Autonomy…

8. application slide 7 scaffolding creative practice competencies constructivist Communities of Practice: Promoting Learner Autonomy…

9. students application slide 8 self Communities of Practice: Promoting Learner Autonomy… skills

10. reflection slide 9 Do you belong to any informal networks, similar to CoPs? How are they similar/different? Consider: - Are they online / 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? Do you see any area(s) in your professional life where an online CoP might be helpful to you? Communities of Practice: Promoting Learner Autonomy…

11. the final word... more resources at the consultants-e website http://www.theconsultants-e.com Communities of Practice: Promoting Learner Autonomy…

12. resources www.tcm.com/trdev/cops.htm www.ewenger.com/ewCoPToC.html www.learningalliances.net/CP_bib/ groups.yahoo.com/group/com-prac/ post-session reflective quiz: www.theconsultants-e.com/quiz/quiz.html slide 10 Online skills sharing is breaching staffroom 'wall of silence' http://education.guardian.co.uk/tefl/story/0,5500,1048661,00.html Communities of Practice: Promoting Learner Autonomy…