Download - Communities of practice
Communities of Practice
Griff Richards, PhDManager, Educational Technology
and Learning Resources
ACEP, Nairobi, 15 November 2013
KEY IDEAS1. No one knows as much as everyone
2. The currency of a community is its shared resources and knowledge
3. A community supports shared goals
4. You can belong to many communities
5. Communities have a life cycle
XeroX Copier Repairmen(Jean Lave & Etienne Wenger)
• Morning coffee meetings• Share client stories• Share technical trouble-shooting
1. Informal structure2. Removes worker isolation3. Promotes social cohesion4. Both social and task focused
Communities are important
• They connect people• They provide a shared context• Enable dialogue• Stimulate learning• Capture & share knowledge• Encourage collaboration• Help people organize• Generate new knowledge
THE LIFE CYCLE
VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES
Balance different communications methods to meet the needs of the members
VIRTUAL COMMUNITIESRelationships Learning Action Knowledge
Leaders
Technical structures
Members
Canada
60oN
49oN
60oN
49oN
Distance LearningIn Alberta-North-DE Consortium of six colleges and Athabasca University.
Population 1M people but .9M in cities, andonly 42,000 above60 N Latitude.
60oN
49oN
Distance LearningIn Alberta-North
Ethiopia
Alberta-North area
-Sparse population
-51% aboriginal
-85 Community Access Points to internet
NORTHERN LEARNING CENTRES
• Clustering of formal learners• Mentoring by elders and leaders• Communities of informal learning• Scaffold internet skills for e-commerce, e-
government and e-health• Coordinators / technical assistants
VIRTUAL COMMUNITIESRelationships Learning Action Knowledge
Technical structures
SkypeE-mail
F2F & Elluminate calls
Sub-group forumsCalendaring
Repository
Even with limited bandwidth the core of the community support structure is communications to support relationships, work and planning collaborations.
VIRTUAL COMMUNITIESRelationships
Learning Action Knowledge
Leaders ? ? ? ?
Technical structures
SkypeMoodle Forum
F2F & OnlineWorkshopsElluminate
Community Marketing &LearnerSupport Notes
File storage
Members ? ? ? ?
Different tools for different community roles
Team Chat: Your ODeL Community1. What communities of practice do you belong?2. How do they help you with your practice?3. Are they growing or slowing? 4. How could a community of practice help launch
ODeL at your institution?5. What technology tools would you use?
REFERENCES
. Cultivating communities of Practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Boston:Harvard Business School Press.
Wenger, E., McDermott, R. & Snyder, W. (2002)
. Community of Practice Design Guide: A step-by-step guide for designing & cultivating communities of practice in higher education.
(http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/nli0531.pdf) Cambridge, D., Kaplan, S. & Suter, V. (2005)
SOME COMMUNITIES?• Open u of sudan – DE community
• TESSA• AVU• MALI – comm pratice open and distance
ALSO a community for multimedia learning• Facebook