Assignment #2 - Communities of Practice

When reading the article, Communities of Practice: a brief introduction by Etienne Wenge, it made me think of how much communication and education has changed since I was the student sitting behind the desk. In the past I was taught to work independently, quietly, and the only people I should ask for help are my parents and teachers. Today however, students are taught to "ask three then ask me". This idea is that a students should ask three peers before asking the teacher or adult when it comes to general questions (not during testing). Students are encouraged to be teachers inside and outside of the classroom about all subjects, academic and/or social. 

With education swaying to a group dynamic, it is not surprising to me that the article is talking about how every aspect of our lives can create groups called communities of practice. Of course these "groups" are special as they are a group, called a community, of people that share a common "domain of interest" which means they have interests/passion that they actively seek information about or want to share information with others. This is very valuable theory as it shares the idea that if people are in a community of practice, everyone is a learner, and everyone is a teacher. We can learn from our peers through interactions about topics and situations we want/need to know.  

In the inFed article the idea of communities of practice go beyond just the idea that we learn in communities for one or two subjects or for one or two years, but we are always forever learners. We will always continue to seek out new information and thus create new communities or practice. As individuals we learn best in "situational learning" or 'learning by doing", and actively searching for new information gives us the "act" of learning.

After reading the positive aspects of Communities of Practice I came upon an elearningpost article that had concerns of using this theory in place of traditional education. The article touches on the concept that most communities of practice theses days are created and maintained electronically. Although this opens the up the community to a global audience there are many critiques of how one learns in this environment.  The main worries I grasped from the writer was that electronically we can not formally communicate with others in a professional manner. Also with by talking online the "social capital" or trustworthiness of the information and persons is low. Some people may act as experts however they may not even be trained or have access to true information. We need to realize that although CoPs exist, they should not be the main structure for learning, especially for "new learners" (i.e. young students).

My own opinions of Communities of Practice, is that there can be good ones and bad ones. I think that the idea of people learning from people is very strong and successful, but I think it depends on who is in the group and how much knowledge that group truly holds. As a new educator I will actively engaged in multiple CoPs but there will be some that I give advice on, and others I will choose to ask questions from. 

When looking at how CoPs correlate with PLN (personal learning network), I think that PLN's are the CoP's of the Internet. I recently had my first educational "twitter" conversation last night when I posted about my desire to use QR (quick response) codes in my classroom. In a matter of seconds I had responses, articles, and questions flowing in about my post. I truly enjoyed hearing new view points from people who have used QR codes and some loved them but others did not share that same optimism. I thought this was a very effective way to learn great strategies, but in a matter or minutes I also became a bit cynical. People would post so quickly that it was hard for me to multitask. Twitter became a new version of "AIM" and I lost track of the conversation quickly. A minute or two later however, everyone stopped and moved on to the next interesting post. My biggest concern was that after the conversation ended I wanted to talk with one or two people regarding QR codes, but there was not follow up. Although PLNs are CoP and we all shared a common domain, a group of members, and we were/are actively engaged, I still think that there may be other ways to make sharing more effective for ME.