Kablogerate

Here is the handout I plan to use. Let me know if you are unable to download.

1. Hand out COP definition paper.
2. Divide class in groups of four. Each group assign spokesperson.
3. Each group to decide:
4. According to the definition above, Is CI 5331 a community of practice?
5. List three reasons why it is or why it isn't.
6. Spokesperson tells class what the reasons are.
7. Aimee maps out.

Do we list on white board too?

I think we just monitor the discussion and try to ask questions. I will have some questions in mind but all of us can contribute here.

I am still thinking that we should define COPs with a handout for the first exercise. One reason is so that we are all discussing the same characteristics and we are not attempting a definition from multiple class sources. This, to me, is somewhat like a control for the exercise.

Here is the definition that I would recommend, taken from Mr. Wenger's web site.

Communities of Practice

Definition:
Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and who interact regularly to learn how to do it better.

Characteristics:

1. The domain:
A community of practice has a shared domain of interest and shared competence that distinguishes members from other people.

2. The community:
In pursuing their interest in their domain, members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information. They build relationships that enable them to learn from each other.

3. The practice:
Members of a community of practice are practitioners, not merely a community of interest. They develop a shared practice including a repertoire of resources. This takes time and sustained interaction.

Source: What are Communities of Practice? by Etienne Wenger. http://www.ewenger.com/theory/index.htm

The Book

Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation
by Jean Lave & Etienne Wenger (1991)

• The term "Communities of Practice" was coined in this book.

The People

Jean Lave

Professor of Education and Geography, University of Berkeley, California.

Social anthropologist with a strong interest in social theory.

Much of her work concentrates on the re-conceiving of learning, learners, and educational institutions in terms of social practice.

Selected books:

• Understanding Practice (co-authored with S. Chaiklin, 1993);
• Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation (with E. Wenger, 1991);
• Cognition in Practice (1988).

2004 Keynote speaker OKLC 2004 Fifth European Conference on Organizational Knowledge, Learning and Capabilities. "Communities of Practice as Inter-Generation-al Relations"

Etienne Wenger

Pioneer of "community of practice" research.

Author and co-author:

• Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity (Cambridge University Press, 1998)
• Cultivating Communities of Practice: a Guide to Managing Knowledge (Harvard Business School Press, 2002)

Founder of CPsquare: cross-organizational, cross-sector community of practice on communities of practice
http://www.cpsquare.org/

Research Project: Learning for a Small Planet
broad, cross-sectoral investigation of the nature of learning and learning institutions at the dawn of the new millennium
http://www.ewenger.com/research/researchsummary.htm

I went through the settings and found that George had co-opted all email functions! So I took away his admin privileges. Just kidding.

Turns out there is only one email box for the blog. We don't get our own settings as members of the blog. So I have listed all our emails (with comma separators) in hopes that will allow us all to be notified when someone posts or comments.

This will be a test post and then I'll comment and you both the notified.

BTW, I'm in a coffee shop looking out over Lake Superior in Duluth. It's a dreary day but it doesn't seem to have snowed or rained here. We did drive through a snow storm on the way from St. Cloud to Duluth.

Winter has arrived.

We are leaving for St. Cloud and Turkey then on to Duluth and relaxing near the big lake. I have found coffee shops in each city with wireless access so expect to hear from me probably more than my favorite wife would like.


TO DO for PF
I've got the bio of Lave and Wegner. If anyone sees Lave info, let me know. She's a bit elusive. Wegner has material on his site.

I'll also relate the theory to meaningful learning and I think my previous post on this is a good start. Aimee's post should help too.

And I'll do my meaningful activity but I'll want to run the script by yous guys. I'll get on that.

Chatting: can we actually chat on webct? Is that activated for students. George, I'll bet you might know.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING AND TO ALL AND GOODBYE TILL ? I'll probably be off-line until Friday sometime unless Mary's family throws me out (always a possibility) or I find a wireless access point in my mother-in-law's neighborhood.

New Blog Our new blog is at:

http://kablog-tip.blogspot.com/

Feel free to change the template. This one seemed nice.

Kablogers,

go to http://blog.lib.umn.edu/

log-in and you should be at the blog.

Play around if you like. You have almost full settings. George, you do have full settings. Aimee, you have everything except messing with the address book because I thought why would we need that then I thought maybe that is our email addresses when I did George and then I would go back and change yours but I don't know how... yet. I'll get there.

Anyway, let me know what you think.

From Aimee's Email:

Greetings gentlemen,

George, we didn't really talk about much related to our prez--just that we
thought we would have email access over the holiday to chat as needed.

If you don't have any objections, here's my action plan:
- Add the responses to my assigned questions today and post them to
kablogger

- Be prepared to create a concept map of "Peter's Opening Activity"
discussion
- Be ready for brief 5-minute demos of COP tools: Breeze, Groove, and
TappedIn.

- Take the lead on developing a handout for more information on Breeze,
Groove, and TappedIn. I'm thinking maybe it could be the Wenger PDF handout
that Peter sent to us on one side and the additional Breeze, Groove, and
TappedIn information on the other side.

Presentation Roles Still Available:
1. Create the blog or other media that will house our presentation

2. Provide brief prez intro and introduce "Peter's Opening Activity"

3. Conduct the after session for "Peter's Opening Activity" (while I'm
creating the concept map)

4. Conduct the lecture part of our presentation

5. Pass out the handouts to the class (when? Just after the activity
session?)

6. Conclude the presentation, after Peter and George's community examples,
open it up for questions from the class

We've discussed lurking on lists, etc. and I found this in an article I'm reading about blogging. I think it makes an interesting and valid point.

Indeed, Nonnecke & Preece (2001) maintain that lurking is an imperative aspect of an online community and should be regarded as a form of passive or vicarious participation that not only serves to increase the understanding in the lurker, but provides a sense of belonging regardless of whether they ever intend to participate. There is also the possibility that active participants in an online community 'perform' to a potential readership that may or may not eventually become active participants in a community. Thus, active participants may well assume a lurking audience as part of the accepted risk of rebuttal, in creating an argument or expressing a theory in making a blog entry. This risk, in turn, develops skills among active participants in critical thinking and argument creation.

Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces in the higher education sector by Jeremy Williams

Aimee said:
Do we want to divide session 1/2 situated learning and 1/2 communities of practice?

That might work.

Aimee said:
What about an activity where we divide students into groups and have them read a thread from a situated group of some sort. We could ask them to identify the relationships and ability levels of members of these groups and perhaps more as we learn more about situated learning.

Aimee can you bring some samples of a thread? On the groups that I participate in (I think there all tech oriented), it's very easy to pick out ability levels of participants. Relationships aren't so easy to discern except for an occasional personal comment. If someone decides to leave the group, and posts such, and they have been a long-time member and helper, then there are lots of personal goodbyes.

I would say that I would have to study several weeks worth of posts to really figure out a group.

But you may have different ideas. I know George likes your idea too - maybe he can chime in.

Shameless plug and details for my idea...

(doing this on my break and not much time left)

1. Divide class into groups.

2. Pass out sheets with simple definitions of COP. We can get this from the Wenger site.

3. Groups to answer question: Is our class a COP?

4. Groups to provide recommendations as how class could be a better COP (if they think it's a COP) or how to make it a COP (if they don't think it's a COP).

Objectives: Students to discuss and think about Situated Learning and COPs. Discussion of our class itself and your place in it. Provide instructor (Aaron) with feedback.

Judging from Jason's COP presentation, there was a strong interest in this idea. This also surfaced on the WebCT discussion boards. (Or maybe I'm seeing it that way because of my interest in situated learning and COPs.)

Anyway, we'll talk tonight. I definitely want to hear more about your idea, Aimee.

I'm looking over the assignment sheet for the TIP presentation and thought I'd share some notes in preparation for our Tuesday meeting.

Who were the authors of the theory?
Lave and Wenger. We should mention the book. Any other seminal work for this?

What is the theory?
Start with the definition from the TIP site. Mix in the Community of Practice idea and also legitimate peripheral participants. Discuss examples and non-examples - I've noted that there is some confusion on what comprises a COP so it would be good to come up with groups that aren't COPs or to open that up for discussion. In fact, this could be an exercise with the class!

How has the theory impacted education and instructional design?
links that may be helpful here:
This is Browns paper which is mentioned on the TIP site.
http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/publications/papers/JohnBrown.html

http://homepage.mac.com/scottlab/situated.html

(I may have got them from you but here they are again.)

Does the Reiser text have anything?

This might be helpful:
http://www.ewenger.com/theory/communities_of_practice_intro.htm#Where%20useful

I think the theory has definitely impacted both education and instructional design.

I see COPs as circles and we are all part of several of these circles that intersect. Some are more functional than others.

Is a family a COP? What about a church congregation?

These questions could lead to something participatory with the class.

What are some examples of the theory and how has it impacted and what are the implications for education and instructional design?

Hmmm. Same question almost as the previous.

What are the implications for technology integration?

The Internet provides excellent resources to support a community of practice. Mailing lists, blogs, newsgroups, IRC, IM, all can be used.

How does the theory relate to meaningful learning?

When correctly configured, situated learning allows for very meaningful learning. It emphasizes learning (doing) rather than teaching (filling someone with knowledge). Relates to apprenticeships. If you think of jobs you have really enjoyed and learned from, I bet it was due to some degree of situated learning.

Develop and deliver a generativge activity for the class to understand the theory.

Objective to understand theory.

Put together examples and non-examples and have class or groups decide if it's a COP and involved with situated learning.

Divide in groups and come up with a COP example for each group that we will then discuss together.

Develop a plan (in groups) to turn our current class (CI5331) into a COP utilizing situated learning. (I like this one.) What would it look like?

from Amy:
What about an activity where we divide students into groups and have them read a thread from a situated group of some sort. We could ask them to identify the relationships and ability levels of members of these groups and perhaps more as we learn more about situated learning.

Consider our class a COP and evaluate how well it's functioning.

How do you believe the theory will impact education and instructional design in the future?

I think it is impacting especially in corporate environments. One way I see it changing education is that learning will become more cooperative rather than competitive.

OK. I'm burnt out now. Comment or post if you can.

I keep digging in the settings here to try and make it easier to know when there are new postings.

Under 'settings=>email' you can have posts to the blog emailed to you. So email communication can be combined with the blogging. You can also have comments to your posts emailed to you.

Disappearing Drafts

I had a couple of drafts floating in my list of posts and they disappeared. Then I noticed that there is a setting for how many posts/drafts are displayed at one time and the default is five. When I increased that, my drafts reappeared.