User:Chawt

Welcome to My User Page

In order to begin experimenting with communities of practice in an online collaboration, I have registered with Wikipedia and created this user page.

This will be my workspace to create and organize my contributions to Wikipedia and experiment with this work process.

What concepts related to COP's do I want to explore? I am interested, from a practical perspective, in efficiently and 'usable' ways to capture, store and retrieve knowledge.

As a starting point, I will review what already exists in Wikipedia related to my interests!

I have now begun to search the databases for articles that relate to my area of interest in communities of practice. I found a few research articles that looked at how communities of practice emerge in a language learning environment. I found an interesting article that looked at how online discussion forums helped second language learners construct their identity in the target language.

Research conducted by Nguyen and Kellogg for the 2005 Canadian Modern Language Review, noted that 'the dynamic emergence of a community of practice paralleling the language socialization processes that took place in the data clearly demonstrates that L2 students do not simply acquire new language forms; rather, they learn to construct themselves in the second language.' The article makes a good case for the relevance of online CoP's for language learners. By allowing the students to participate in an online CoP, we afford them opportunity to acquire other language related skills. I can see how the online community could provide a space to participate in Wneger's Limited Periphereal Participation that is safe and entices the learners to work together to negotiate the language while developing their identity in the community.

I also found an interesting looking article on CoP's relating to teachers of ESL. I was unable to retrieve it through the library. Nor could I retrieve it through the TESOL website (I have membership and so should be permitted to do so).

In order to further develop my perspective about CoP's and Language Learning, I searched article databases and found some interesting pieces about identity, situated learning and the relationship to language acquisition. Lave noted 'the process of changing knowledgeable skill is subsumed in processes of changing identity in and through membership in a community of practitioners'. He talks about the rich experience language learners immerse in as they participate in communities of practice. The article is from the 90's, as such he refers to classroom communities. I would like to look at online communities to see if the experience is the same.

In class this past week, we decided that our primary focus for our online contribution to Wikipedia would be to function as a CoP in order to edit and complete the Wikipedia page that exists on CoP's. We discussed how we would organize this revision and decided that we would carry this out as participants in an online CoP, using the TALK page to discuss our ideas. I have looked over the page as it stands now and have decided that I would like to furhter expand the 7 actions that Wenger identified to cultivate CoP's

Factors of a Successful Community of Practice

see also: Online participation

What makes a community of practice succeed or fail greatly depends on the purpose and objective of the community as well as the interests and resources of the members of that community. Wenger identified seven actions that could be taken in order to cultivate communities of practice:

1. Design the community to evolve naturally 2. Create opportunities for open dialog within and with outside perspectives 3. Welcome and allow different levels of participation 4. Develop both public and private community spaces 5. Focus on the value of the community 6. Combine familiarity and excitement 7. Find and nurture a regular rhythm for the community.(Wenger, McDermott & Snyder 2002)

EDITING AREA:  Factors of a Successful Community of Practice

see also: Online participation

What makes a community of practice succeed or fail greatly depends on the purpose and objective of the community as well as the interests and resources of the members of that community. Wenger identified seven actions that could be taken in order to cultivate communities of practice:

1. Design the community to evolve naturally - Because the nature of a Community of Practice is dynamic, in that the interests, goals, and members are subject to change,CoP forums should be designed to support shifts in focus. 2. Create opportunities for open dialog within and with outside perspectives - While the value of the knowledge within a CoP is its most valuable resource, it is also beneficial to look outside of the CoP to understand the different possibilities for achieving their goals. The CoP can bring an outsider into the community for dialogue or look at other CoP's to broaden the group's perspective. 3. Welcome and allow different levels of participation - Wenger identifies 3 main levels of participation. 1) The core group who participate intensely in the community through discussions and projects. This group typically takes on leadership roles in guiding the group 2) The active group who attend and participate regularly, but not to the level of the leaders. 3) The peripheral group who while they are passive participants in the community, still learn from their level of involvement. Wenger notes this group typically represents the majority of the community.   4. Develop both public and private community spaces - While CoP's typically operate in public spaces where all members share, discuss and explore ideas, they should also offer private exchanges. Different members of the CoP could coordinate relationships among members and resources in an individualized approach based on specific needs.   5. Focus on the value of the community -  CoP's should create opportunities for participants to explicitly discuss the value of their CoP.    6. Combine familiarity and excitement - CoP's should offer the expected learning opportunities, and    7. Find and nurture a regular rhythm for the community. - CoP's should coordinate a thriving cycle of activities and events that allow for the members to meet, reflect, celebrate and evolve. The rhythm should contain a blend of public and private encounters.

(Wenger, McDermott & Snyder 2002)

Hi, please don't edit / cut sections from the Communities of Practice article without reading the talk pages - the section that contained a reference to dualities had been deemed essential. Compo (talk) 16:04, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

Please see the talk page for Communities of Practice. There are 66 other people who have this page on their watch list. The section that you have deleted (two or three times now) has been judged essential. If you think it is incomprehensible, please try to improve it rather than deleting it.

Compo (talk) 19:51, 29 November 2009 (UTC)