www.semantix.co.uk

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach http://www.21stcenturycollaborative.com

Communities of Practice:

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

Whatis community, really?

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• 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 CommunityA 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 RelationshipA 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 PlaceIndividuals in this type of community enjoy a common habitat or locale. (My Space, Second Life, World of Warcraft)

Virtual Learning Communities of PassionCommunities 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 MemoryA 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 reuseSocial responsibility

Lower cost through standardisationConsistency of projectImproves outcomes

Professional development

Tracks shifting trendsTransforming and Reforming educationDesigned to evolve

Activities Connecting membersKnowledge who’s who

Collecting, VettingPublishingPortal

Enlisting leading expertsManage content Attend WebinarsShare Resources

Share insightsDevelopment of new PolicyCo-Creation of content

Structure and roles

Problem solvingSub committees

Index and store Best practicePublishing

IndividualsEstablished leadersTeams

Loose governanceCommunity leadersTeamsEmergent roles

Reward for participation

Sense of belongingAssistance to daily work

Desire for improvement

Shift in knowledge and understandingProfessional development

Passion for the topicWeb 2.0 pedagogyConnections and PLN

Knowledge Tacit - high socialisation

Low tacitExplicit to explore

Tacit to explicitTacit to tacit

Explicit to tacit.

Looking Closely at Learning Community Design

4L Model (Linking, Lurking, Learning, and Leading) inspired by John Seeley Brown

http://learningcircuits.blogspot.com/2006/06/roles-in-cops.html

This model is developed around the roles and interactions members of a community have as participants in that community.

Members of an Active Community

• occasional

• transactional

• peripheral

• active

• facilitator

• core grou

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• lurkers

• leaders

• outsiders

• experts

• beginners

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Connection

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Communication

Collaboration

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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.

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?CollectivelyRate?

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