Wee 3- Blog Posting #6- Communities of Practice

Liz Dalton

Full Sail University

From the moment we are born, we are in a community of practice. Our family is our first community of practice. It is in this safe environment that we learn how to survive. “Families struggle to establish a habitable way of life. They develop their own practices, routines, rituals, artifacts, symbols, conventions, stories and histories. Families do what it takes to keep going” (Wenger 1998). We learn how to function in a community of practice through our family experience. Then we move on to their communities of practice. They are all over. We start and end much community of practices over our lifetime. They are an important way we learn.

We enter a community of practice when we get together with other people that share a problem, goal, or interest. We enter a community of practice when we go to school, go to work, join a club or organization, join a crusade or want to help. When that common interest is no longer an interest a person leaves that particular community of practice. Communities of Practice are very important and a large part of our learning comes from Communities of Practice. We are all constantly learning from each other even when we don’t realize it. I teach childcare and I tell students that if they never have children, for whatever reason, they will still be an influence on children. Children watch adults and try to learn from them. They will have children in their neighborhood and in public places that will be watching them and learning from them. Because we learn so much more from each other especially in groups, we as educators should encourage communities of practice by having our students work together. We should have students using web 2.0 tools so they can share with other students. I am going to have my child care class blog once every 2 weeks about our pre-school and what they have learned from it. Next year I hope to be able to use it to teach next years class. I also hope other people online can learn from it. In the Social Networking in Plain English video (2007) states, “networks make it happen, but the connections are hidden. Social networking and using web 2.0 tools make the connections visible so more people can learn from them. I think working in a Community of Practice using 2.0 tools can facilitate learning of the Community of Practice and the entire world. We solve problems

In our communities of practice and we share them with others. That is what makes our life better.

References

leelefever (2007, June) Social Networking in Plain English [Video File]. Video posted to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a_KF7TYKVc


Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice:learning. Cambridge

University Press. New York, NY