Blog #6 Week 3 Communities of Practice

Blog #6 Week 3

Communities of Practice

     In the article posted for this assignment, Communities of Practice, Learning as a Social System by Etienne Wenger, [Published in the "Systems Thinker," June 1998], Ms. Wenger defined this Communities of Practice being groups of people that gather together for something that matters to them.  These are things that they think are important. The people do the “practice,” or action, because they are passionate about it.  Ms. Wenger claims that they are “fundamentally self-organizing systems.”

     The best example I can think of for a Community of Practice is a play in community theatre.  The organization over this is usually a non-profit, who may pay their director and a few other key people, but the cast is comprised of all volunteers.  We prepare, audition, get together, adhere to the director’s rehearsal schedule, memorize, learn, and practice, practice, practice. Then we finally perform.  The resulting production is a living, breathing, work of art that can never be duplicated again.  You create such a great community in that short time that we as drama nuts are always itching for more. It’s great fun! Thus, the next one that rolls around sees another big group willing to audition again.

     If we could get our teaching jobs that fun, with great communities of practice all working together, we would be able to make great strides in education. I think we tend to just stay in our own little world at our own school, perhaps with our grade level team.  Is this because our DNA is wired to function in the past century? What do you other teachers think?

     I see so many different ways I can join with other educators online it is staggering. I joined Tapped in (http://tappedin.org) and quickly found a couple of great sites that I added to my Delicious page. I explored film lessons for my action research project, and found a great resource that lists different cool tools for schools. (http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com) This is great, however, I can’t see a website bringing the personal, sense of belonging to me, that I embrace each time I am in a play.

     I read Will Richardson’s blog today on Weblogg-ed, “Don’t, Don’t, Don’t’ vs. Do, Do, Do.”  He talked about reading a lengthy acceptable use policy that listed all the things you couldn’t do and thought of what would happen in our schools if the students got thi

s list of “Do’s” on the first day of school.

“Do use our network to connect to other students and adults who share your passions with whom you can learn.”

“Do use our network to help your teachers find experts and other teachers from around the world.”

“Do use our network to publish your best work in text and multimedia for a global audience.”

“Do use our network to explore your own creativity and passions, to ask questions and seek answers from other teachers online.”

“Do use our network to download resources that you can use to remix and republish your own learning online.”

“Do use our network to collaborate with others to change the world in meaningful, positive ways.”

Etc. (Add your own below.)

Now, obviously, that would mean that the curriculum would be preparing students to do that all along, But I’m thinking that if I was a student and I read those “dos”  on the first day of school, I’d be itching to get to class.

Retrieved Sept. 20, 2009 at http://weblogg-ed.com/2009/dont-dont-dont-vs-do-do-do/