ICT+PD+Online

**ICT PD Online community of practice**
The concept of an online learning community is based on a constructivist view of learning with the belief that people learn best as they interact and engage with others. Each member of the ICT PD Online and sub-communities have different perspectives form personal beliefs and values, expertise and experiences, from which the whole community can learn.

The ICT PD Online community is based on Wenger's ideas of communities of practice. A community of practice is a group of people who come together with shared interests and common goals to share what they know how to do and who interact regularly to learn how to do it better. Wenger identifies three characteristics of a community of practice as the domain (the purpose and common goals of the community), community (who the members are), and their practice (body of knowledge, methods, stories, cases, tools and documents). The purpose and community for ICT PD Online have been outlined and now more detail is given as to how members of ICT PD Online develop a community of practice. They:
 * share information about personal experiences and viewpoints at a collegial level
 * explore ideas about effective practice with each other and invited 'expert' guests
 * share links to useful online classroom resources
 * make links between classroom practice and current research
 * model online learning situations
 * contribute to a national network of people with experience in the ICT field
 * gain support by working with others
 * maintain contacts across a geographically dispersed group
 * participate at a place and pace that suits individuals
 * offer access to resources.

= Facilitating Online = (Direct from the Facilitation Strategies wiki.)

There are many clusters that are now using online tools such as blogs and wikis to develop a professional online community within the cluster and beyond. Knowing how to facilitate in a virtual setting is becoming an increasingly important skill.

Online Communities of Practice Literature Review
Recently a literature review was completed and published looking at 'Online Communities of Practice'. You can download a full copy of the report and read a summary of findings on: http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/curriculum/5795

Included below is the summary table for Section Five of the report that outlines how to design effective online communities of practice. Read through this and then complete the task below.

Summary of Findings - section five
media type="custom" key="5235439"


 * Task: Assessing an online collaborative space for effective design - personal reflective task **
 * Look at an established online community - this could be one that you are already part of such as your cluster wiki or even this one! You could also use the '[|Cluster Links]' area in ICT PD online to explore the communities created by other clusters.
 * Assess the space against the design principles listed above (some principles will be difficult to judge if you are not a member of that community).
 * Decide what you think the 'next steps' would be for that community to become more effective

Further reading There is an excellent set of blog articles on Communities of Practice that you can read to further explore this topic:

[|Communities of Practice (CoPs)] [|CoP Series #2: What the heck is a Domain and why should I care?] [|CoP Series #3: Community - without people?] [|CoP Series #4: Practice Makes Perfect] [|CoP Series #5: Is my community a community of practice?]

media type="custom" key="3945413"