Sunday, October 31, 2004
Is CI5331 a COP?
Happy Halloween!
Etienne Wenger's site has a good introduction to Communities of Practice.
My idea of using our class as a COP still has merit, I think. But what about the class itself and not "grad students"?
The question: Is our class a community of practice?
There are three crucial characteristics (see Wenger above): domain, community, practice.
Our domain is instructional design.
Our community is the class. We meet regularly and learn together and help each other in the learning process.
Our practice? I'm not so sure about this.
We certainly have sustained interaction but what is the practice in the end? We are not all planning on becoming Instructional Designers. Could we say our practice is teaching? What we learn in Aaron's class will certainly help in being a good teacher.
Etienne Wenger's site has a good introduction to Communities of Practice.
My idea of using our class as a COP still has merit, I think. But what about the class itself and not "grad students"?
The question: Is our class a community of practice?
There are three crucial characteristics (see Wenger above): domain, community, practice.
Our domain is instructional design.
Our community is the class. We meet regularly and learn together and help each other in the learning process.
Our practice? I'm not so sure about this.
Members of a community of practice are practitioners. They develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems—in short a shared practice. This takes time and sustained interaction.
Etienne Wenger
We certainly have sustained interaction but what is the practice in the end? We are not all planning on becoming Instructional Designers. Could we say our practice is teaching? What we learn in Aaron's class will certainly help in being a good teacher.
# posted by Peter Fleck @ 1:58 PM 
