Online Communities of Practice as Vehicles for Teacher Professional Development

2012 ◽  
pp. 142-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Meletiou-Mavrotheris
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Statistics Education ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Service Training ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Online Communities Of Practice

The affordances offered by modern Internet technologies provide new opportunities for the pre-service and in-service training of teachers, making it possible to overcome the restrictions of shrinking resources and geographical locations and to offer high quality learning experiences to geographically dispersed teachers. The focus of this chapter is the question of how information and communication tools made available online could be effectively exploited to build and study network-based services with the aim of fostering online communities that promote teacher learning and development. The chapter presents an overview of the main experiences gained from a study which investigated the forms of collaboration and shared knowledge building undertaken by a multinational group of teachers participating in EarlyStatistics, an online professional development in statistics education targeting European elementary and middle school mathematics teachers. Findings from the study provide insights into the factors that may facilitate or hinder the successful implementation of an online community of teaching practitioners.

Online Communities of Practice as Vehicles for Teacher Professional Development

2014 ◽  
pp. 1791-1815
Author(s):  
Maria Meletiou-Mavrotheris
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Statistics Education ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Service Training ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Online Communities Of Practice

The affordances offered by modern Internet technologies provide new opportunities for the pre-service and in-service training of teachers, making it possible to overcome the restrictions of shrinking resources and geographical locations and to offer high quality learning experiences to geographically dispersed teachers. The focus of this chapter is the question of how information and communication tools made available online could be effectively exploited to build and study network-based services with the aim of fostering online communities that promote teacher learning and development. The chapter presents an overview of the main experiences gained from a study which investigated the forms of collaboration and shared knowledge building undertaken by a multinational group of teachers participating in EarlyStatistics, an online professional development in statistics education targeting European elementary and middle school mathematics teachers. Findings from the study provide insights into the factors that may facilitate or hinder the successful implementation of an online community of teaching practitioners.

Efficacy of Organizational Learning and Social Capital in Online Communities of Practice

2018 ◽  
pp. 96-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serkan Gürsoy ◽  
Murat Yücelen
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Organizational Learning ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Online Communities Of Practice

This chapter deals with the evolution of communities of practice by considering two key components which facilitate knowledge sharing: Organizational Learning and Social Capital. Dualities and intersections between the building blocks of these two components are investigated by discussing organizational learning in its explorative and exploitative forms, while considering social capital in its bridging and bonding forms. As a critical contemporary step of evolution, information and communication technologies are also elaborated in order to examine the impact of constant and instant tools on these facilitators of knowledge sharing. The study aims to derive proxies among these components of organizational learning and social capital in order to design an integrated framework that reflects the nature of online communities of practice.

Information Superhighway and Continuous Professional Development for the Networked Teachers

2018 ◽  
pp. 1761-1776
Author(s):  
Asli Lidice Gokturk Saglam
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Continuous Professional Development ◽  
Learning Networks ◽  
Personal Learning ◽  
Impact Of Technology ◽  
Online Communities Of Practice ◽  
The Impact

This chapter focuses on the impact of technology on teacher training through online communities of practice (CoP) and investigates its potential for facilitating continuous professional development for the educators who can create personal learning networks on the web. Wenger's Community of Practice Theory (1998) and Garrison et al.'s (2000) Community of Inquiry (CoI) are explored as underlying theories of CoP. Furthermore, examples of online communities of practice will be briefly enlisted. The chapter will provide brief information how online learning is operationalized within the confines of CoP. The chapter will also discuss role of online communities of practice for teachers' continuous professional development with reference to current literature, explore challenges and focus on suggestions and avenues for further research.

Online Communities of Practice and Web 2.0

2016 ◽  
pp. 265-292
Author(s):  
Amir Manzoor
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Management Communication ◽  
Organizational Goals ◽  
The People ◽  
Online Tools ◽  
Online Communities Of Practice

In contemporary Knowledge Management, communication and collaboration play very significant role. Knowledge exists within the stakeholders of an organization. Such knowledge, when extracted and harnessed effectively, can become an extremely valuable asset to achieve organizational goals and objectives. This knowledge, embedded in the people, must be properly released through an appropriate channel to make it usable. Through dialogue and discussions, using online tools, this release and reuses of knowledge can be made possible. The Community of Practice (CoP) is a useful organizing concept for enhancing collaboration, sharing knowledge, and disseminating best practices among researchers and practitioners. This chapter explores the concept of Communities of Practice and how Web 2.0 technologies can facilitate the transformation from a conventional community of practice to online community of practice for better and effective online communities of practices.

Blended Learning and Professional Development in the K-12 Sector

2011 ◽  
pp. 182-202
Author(s):  
Suzanne Riverin
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Support Teacher ◽  
Education Network ◽  
K 12

This chapter examines the use of blended learning in an online community which supported teacher professional development in the province of Ontario, Canada for ten years. The online network which was called The Education Network of Ontario/ Le Réseau éducatif de l’Ontario (ENO/REO) used a blend of tools and some face-to-face opportunities to support teacher professional development across the province. Teachers were encouraged to use the ENO/REO environment to join in discussions, create and maintain online projects and share research and curriculum resources. The chapter will focus on a study which examined the effect of long term participation in such a community in order to provide insight into the use of blended learning in online communities for professional development.

Knowledge Brokers in Overlapping Online Communities of Practice

2010 ◽  
pp. 77-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jocelyn Cranefield ◽  
Pak Yoong
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Knowledge Flows ◽  
Knowledge Broker ◽  
System Level ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Knowledge Brokers ◽  
Online Communities Of Practice ◽  
Professional Learners

This chapter argues that leaders need to better understand the roles played by informal knowledge brokers in connecting overlapping online communities of practice (CoPs). It illustrates how distributed individuals playing a key knowledge broker role – the Connector-leader – helped to drive transformative professional change. The research context was a professional development programme for New Zealand schools that promoted a new, student-centric teaching approach. The research project explored how online CoPs facilitate professional knowledge transfer, focusing on how new knowledge is embedded in interpretive frameworks and practices. Connector-leaders spanned boundaries in the online community realm and had a strong online presence. As professional learners, they were strongly outward facing, identifying primarily as members of a distributed online CoP. As leaders, they were inward facing, focusing largely on the knowledge needs of local organisations and CoPs. This study extends previous research into the boundary spanner and knowledge broker, introduces new ideas about the nature of boundaries in CoPs, and promotes a system-level view of knowledge flows, emphasising the importance of both visible and invisible dimensions of online knowledge brokering.

Design of an Online Community of Practice to Support an Emerging Doctoral Culture

2010 ◽  
pp. 117-126
Author(s):  
James M. Monaghan
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Doctoral Program ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
State University ◽  
Track Record ◽  
History Of ◽  
Online Community Of Practice ◽  
Online Communities Of Practice

During the initial accreditation process for California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB)’s new doctorate in educational leadership, the accrediting body, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), presented the institution with a serious concern. Reviewers of CSUSB’s proposal to offer their first doctorate indicated that the institution did not have a history of a doctoral culture. The challenge was how to acculturate students into a doctoral culture in the absence of an established doctoral culture? The university proposed to leverage their track record creating and nurturing departmental online communities of practice by creating and nurturing a similar community of practice for scholars in the doctoral program. This online community of practice was intended to provide scaffolding which was similar to that which occurs in full-time doctoral programs where faculty and students regularly interact in both formal and informal settings. In designing the online community of practice, the Office of Distributed Learning built upon the expertise developed in the successful implementation of similar communities of practice for numerous departments across the campus.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document