Communities+of+Practice

=Benefits of Learning Communities=  In 1990, long before the advent of Web. 2.0 technologies, William F. Hanks wrote, "learning is a way of being in the social world, not a way of coming to know about it" (Lave & Wenger, 1990). The creation of communities of practice allows for the realization of this theory.

These communities can be housed with greater permanence than some f2f (face to face) environments afford. Students can return to these communities for clarification, confirmation or personal knowledge creation at any time during a course or unit. They can also be required to articulate their own understanding more regularly and carry out concrete collaborations with their peers in such a way that the teacher can really see what they understand and what remains unclear.

Students engaged in on-line collaborative learning communities can also engage more regularly in Legitimate Peripheral Participation: learning by being part of a community of practice where members support each others’ growth in different areas. Students engaged in these sorts of communities are participating in the authentic activities of problem-solving, collaboration and socially-mediated knowledge construction that will be critical in their life and work experiences in the 21st century.



Figure 1: A representation of Legitimate Peripheral Participation (National Teaching Fellowship Scheme, n.d.)

In a classroom where laptops are being used, communities of practice can look like many different things including students reading the same book and sharing interpretations, resources and insights in blogs or discussion boards; students working on the same lab experiment, sharing observations, discoveries, errors and ideas for further exploration in google docs; students working through complex word problems on web-based collaborative white boards like [|Scriblink] or [|Dabbleboard].
 * Theory Into Practice: **

In a community of educators who are using laptops, this looks like, teachers sharing resources collaborating in lesson planning and assessment on-line. It also looks like teachers providing regular on-line formative feedback to students.

Based on the work of Hung and Chen (2003), we suggest teachers consider the following when thinking about creating vibrant and productive communities of practice
 * //Situatedness://** The learning must be around authentic, problem-solving activity.
 * //Commonality://** There must be commonality of questions and experiences and artifacts for the user.
 * //Interdependence://** Members of the community must be required to assist each other in extending their learning
 * //Infrastructure://** A learning community will not be sustainable or productive without specific direction, teacher response and clear expectations.

Creating communities of practice in K-12 classrooms is more challenging than in post-secondary environments, where most of the research in this area is focussed. Students’ level of engagement may vary widely. Students who struggle to express themselves through writing may find on-line interactions particularly challenging. Social forces may also come into play and may create problems for you in creating a vibrant community of learners. These challenges, however, will not be markedly different than those you might experience in a f2f environment.
 * Challenges Creating Communities of Practice: **

One of the most significant challenges will be managing the infrastructure of these environments. Please see Lesson Design for more ideas on how to reduce the challenges of on-line formative feedback, check-in and redirection that these environments can have.

**Works Cited **
Hung, D. & Chen, D. T. (2001). Situated Cognition, Vygotskian Thought, and Learning from the Communities of Practice Perspective: Implications for the design of Web-based E-Learning. Educational Media Internaitonal, 38(1), 3-12.

Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1990). Chapter 1 in Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. LPP.pdf

National Teaching Fellowship Scheme. (n.d.). //Situated learning.// Retrieved December 8, 2009, from Learning and Teaching: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/graphics/lppart.gif