Colleagues,

Robert Kelley, a member of the Massachusetts Adult Basic Education  
Distance Learning Advisory Board, posted the message below about  
online communities of practice to the Advisory Board's Moodle.  With  
his permission, I am re-posting it here. Do you participate in an  
online CoP?  If so, tell us about it. Who organized it? For what  
purpose(s)? How does it work? What do you see as its benefits for you  
and others? Is this discussion forum a CoP for you? If so, tell us why.

David J. Rosen
djrosen at comcast.net
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I have been interested in and am currently working on developing  
online communities of practice (CoP's) for teachers and administrators.

CoP's can be defined as small groups of people held together by “a  
common sense of purpose and a real need to know what each other  
knows... an effective hothouse in which new ideas germinate, new  
methods and tools are developed, and new communities are rooted. The  
CoP can help professionals gain access to, and facility with, ideas,  
methods, content, and colleagues; help novices learn about the  
profession through apprenticeship and peripheral participation; and  
enable journeymen to become valued resources and community leaders  
through informal mentoring and participation in multiple work groups."
[ http://tappedin.org/tappedin/web/papers/2002/TIEvolution.pdf ]

A community of practice is also a ‘community that learns.’ Not merely  
peers exchanging ideas around the water cooler, sharing and  
benefiting from each other’s expertise, but colleagues committed to  
jointly develop better practices.” In the CoP literature, learning is  
viewed as a social activity that occurs as newcomers and journeymen  
move through an established community’s professional hierarchy toward  
expertise.

Learning opportunities occur primarily through informal interaction  
among colleagues in the context of work. Newcomers gain access to the  
community’s professional knowledge in authentic contexts through  
encounters with people, tools, tasks, and social norms. New practices  
and technologies are adopted by the CoP through the evolution of  
practice over time. Thus, a CoP can be an effective hothouse in which  
new ideas germinate, new methods and tools are developed, and new  
communities are rooted.

I've listed some papers that explore the theory and practical sides  
of CoP's. The first link has research from one of the longest running  
projects, called Tapped_In. It's pretty technical but deep into the  
paper it discusses the common issues: http://tappedin.org/tappedin/ 
web/papers/2002/TIEvolution.pdf

Some easier reading includes: http://www.fullcirc.com/community/ 
communitywhatwhy.htm
http://www.fullcirc.com/community/networkscatalystscommunity.htm

Bob Kelley
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