The Development and Implementation of Gathering Grounds, a Virtual Community of Practice Rooted in Indigenous Praxis

This chapter examines the possibility of discovering a “hidden” (potential) Community of Practice (CoP) inside electronic networks, and then using this knowledge to nurture it into a fully functioning Virtual Community of Practice (VCoP). Starting from the standpoint of the need to manage knowledge and create innovation, the chapter discusses several issues related to this subject. It begins by examining Nonaka’s SECI model and his notion of Knowledge Transfer; the authors follow this by an investigation of the links between Communities of Practice (CoPs) and Knowledge Management; the chapter concludes by examining the relation between Nonaka’s Communities of Interaction and CoPs. Having established this the authors start their examination of the characteristics of “hidden” Communities of Practice. Following on from the previous discussion, they look at what is meant by “hidden” CoPs and what their value might be. They also look at the distinction between Distributed CoPs (DCoPs) and Virtual CoPs (VCoPs) and the issues raised when moving from ‘hidden’ CoPs to fully functioning VCoPs. The chapter concludes with some preliminary findings from a semi-structured interview conducted in the Higher Education Academy Psychology Network (UK). These findings are contrasted against the theory and some further proposals are made.

Download Full-text

The Search for the ’Hidden’ Virtual Communities of Practice

Virtual Communities ◽

10.4018/978-1-60960-100-3.ch717 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 2395-2411

Author(s):

Richard Ribeiro ◽

Chris Kimble

Keyword(s):

Communities Of Practice ◽

Community Of Practice ◽

Virtual Communities ◽

Virtual Community ◽

Structured Interview ◽

Electronic Networks ◽

Virtual Community Of Practice ◽

Seci Model ◽

Virtual Communities Of Practice ◽

Fully Functioning

This chapter examines the possibility of discovering a “hidden” (potential) Community of Practice (CoP) inside electronic networks, and then using this knowledge to nurture it into a fully functioning Virtual Community of Practice (VCoP). Starting from the standpoint of the need to manage knowledge and create innovation, the chapter discusses several issues related to this subject. It begins by examining Nonaka’s SECI model and his notion of Knowledge Transfer; the authors follow this by an investigation of the links between Communities of Practice (CoPs) and Knowledge Management; the chapter concludes by examining the relation between Nonaka’s Communities of Interaction and CoPs. Having established this the authors start their examination of the characteristics of “hidden” Communities of Practice. Following on from the previous discussion, they look at what is meant by “hidden” CoPs and what their value might be. They also look at the distinction between Distributed CoPs (DCoPs) and Virtual CoPs (VCoPs) and the issues raised when moving from ‘hidden’ CoPs to fully functioning VCoPs. The chapter concludes with some preliminary findings from a semi-structured interview conducted in the Higher Education Academy Psychology Network (UK). These findings are contrasted against the theory and some further proposals are made.

Download Full-text

How journalism educators discuss journalism law in their community of practice : insights from a qualitative textual analysis

10.32469/10355/85845 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Leslie Klein

Keyword(s):

High School ◽

Best Practices ◽

Community Of Practice ◽

Textual Analysis ◽

Virtual Community ◽

Shared Knowledge ◽

Journalism Education ◽

Shared Meaning ◽

English Departments ◽

Virtual Community Of Practice

Often, journalism teachers are the only ones at their school who do their job, and even when the positions are embedded in arts or English departments, it can be isolating. The Journalism Education Association's Listserv creates a virtual community of practice (CoP) for members to contribute to the shared knowledge of best practices in journalism education. The purpose of this research was to understand how middle and high school journalism educators discuss journalism law and its related topics on the Listserv to determine what additional legal resources might benefit the JEA community. This research, via qualitative textual analysis, examined how advisers used their CoP to build shared meaning of journalism law. The study found that journalism advisers primarily use their CoP for Discussing Developments, Documentation Projects, Problem-solving, and Requests for Information. The primary topics discussed on the Listserv were censorship and copyright. The way advisers discussed journalism law varied based on the topic, but most posts were reactions to things that had already happened, either in the news or to individual educators.

Download Full-text

Cross-Organization Virtual CoP

Handbook of Research on Communities of Practice for Organizational Management and Networking ◽

10.4018/978-1-60566-802-4.ch015 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 265-282 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Demosthenes Akoumianakis

Keyword(s):

Communities Of Practice ◽

Community Of Practice ◽

Collective Intelligence ◽

Virtual Community ◽

Boundary Spanning ◽

Virtual Community Of Practice ◽

Virtual Networking ◽

Ict Tools ◽

Networks Of Practice

The chapter motivates and presents an approach for assembling innovative information-based products and services by virtual cross-organization communities of practice. Using a case study on assembling vacation packages, we describe the cross-organizational virtual partnership, the mechanics allowing it to operate as a virtual community of practice and how collective intelligence of the members is appropriated to ensemble innovative information-based products for tourists. The results provide useful insights into innovating through virtual networking as well as the ICT tools that may be used to foster value-creating networks of practice in boundary spanning domains.

Download Full-text

Children Online: Learning in a Virtual Community of Practice

E-Learning and Digital Media ◽

10.2304/elea.2005.2.1.27 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 27-38 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Angela Thomas

Keyword(s):

Online Learning ◽

Communities Of Practice ◽

Community Of Practice ◽

Virtual Community ◽

Role Playing ◽

Social Practices ◽

Direct Result ◽

Trial And Error ◽

Common Goal ◽

Virtual Community Of Practice

This article argues that children in a particular virtual community are learning through their participation in the discursive and social practices of the community. Using Wenger's model of ‘communities of practice’ the article illuminates examples of children's learning that were a direct result of collaboration towards a common goal. Children regularly puzzled out problems together to find the answers, motivated by the desire to be successful and to gain status in the community. This type of learning is rarely attributed to children, as the field of education often relies upon a Vygotskian theorisation of learning through interaction with expert others. In this study, children often learned without an expert, using strategies such as trial and error, and discussion, and through the construction and transformation of their identities, both in and out of the fictional role-playing context.

Download Full-text