Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- Contributors
- Series Foreword
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Foreword: Virtual Communities for Learning and Development – A Look to the Past and Some Glimpses into the Future
- Building Virtual Communities
- Introduction: On Conceptualizing Community
- Part One Types of Community
- Part Two Structures and Community
- 5 Evolution of an Online Education Community of Practice
- 6 Building Social Networks Via Computer Networks: Creating and Sustaining Distributed Learning Communities
- 7 Mask and Identity: The Hermeneutics of Self-Construction in the Information Age
- 8 WISE Learning Communities: Design Considerations
- Part Three Possibilities for Community
- Afterword: Building Our Knowledge of Virtual Community: Some Responses
- Afterword: Building, Buying, or Being There: Imagining Online Community
- Index
- References
5 - Evolution of an Online Education Community of Practice
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 November 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- Contributors
- Series Foreword
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Foreword: Virtual Communities for Learning and Development – A Look to the Past and Some Glimpses into the Future
- Building Virtual Communities
- Introduction: On Conceptualizing Community
- Part One Types of Community
- Part Two Structures and Community
- 5 Evolution of an Online Education Community of Practice
- 6 Building Social Networks Via Computer Networks: Creating and Sustaining Distributed Learning Communities
- 7 Mask and Identity: The Hermeneutics of Self-Construction in the Information Age
- 8 WISE Learning Communities: Design Considerations
- Part Three Possibilities for Community
- Afterword: Building Our Knowledge of Virtual Community: Some Responses
- Afterword: Building, Buying, or Being There: Imagining Online Community
- Index
- References
Summary
[Teachers] have no time to work with or observe other teachers; they experience occasional hit-and-run workshops that are usually unconnected to their work and immediate problems of practice. [Effective professional development cannot] be adequately cultivated without the development of more substantial professional discourse and engagement in communities of practice.
–Darling-Hammond & Ball (1997)One important role for technologies is as the backbone for an invigorated, vibrant professional community among educators. This will not happen, however, without considerable effort to design the technologies and the social structure of their use with this objective made explicit.
–Hawkins (1996)The concept of community of practice has become a major theme of teacher professional development (TPD) research and practice. Advocates argue that communities of practice (CoPs) can be powerful catalysts for enabling teachers to improve their practice (Lieberman, 1996; Rényi, 1996). A growing body of TPD policy research (e.g., Loucks-Horsley et al., 1998; Darling-Hammond & Ball, 1997) is beginning to converge on a common set of effective professional development characteristics that stem largely from CoP concepts. For example, Lieberman's (1996; Lieberman & McLaughlin, 1992) research on teacher networks builds on CoP concepts of social networks (Wellman, 1997) and community gathering places (Oldenburg, 1997). Lieberman (1996) describes how informal retreats and dinner meetings help build professional relationships and socialize new members into the fold, thereby solidifying teachers' commitment to the community.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Building Virtual CommunitiesLearning and Change in Cyberspace, pp. 129 - 158Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002
References
Becker, H. J. (1999, February). Internet use by teachers: Conditions of professional use and teacher-directed student use. Teaching, Learning, and Computing: 1998 National Survey, Report #1. Irvine and Minneapolis: The University of California at Irvine and The University of Minnesota, Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations
Brown, J. S., & Duguid, P. (1996). Practice at the periphery: A reply to Steven Tripp. In H. McLellan (Ed.), Situated learning perspectives (pp. 169–74). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology
Brown, J. S., & Gray, E. S. (1995). The people are the company. Fast Company, p. 78. Available: www.fastcompany.com/online/01/people.html [November 1995]
Bush, W. S. (1997). Throwing money at professional development: Somelessons learned. White paper. Louisville, KY: University of Kentucky
CEO Forum on Education and Technology. (1999). The CEO Forum schooltechnology and readiness report, year two. Professional development: A link to betterlearning. Washington, DC: CEO Forum on Education and Technology
Constant, D., Sproull, L., & Kiesler, S. (1997). The kindness of strangers: On the usefulness of electronic weak ties for technical advice. In S. Kiesler (Ed.), Culture of the Internet (pp. 303–22). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Corcoran, T., & Fuhrman, S. (1999). Going to scale: Building effective infrastructure. Available: www.cpre.org/Research/ResearchProjectA-3.htm [9 December 2001]
Corcoran, T. B., Shields, P. M., & Zucker, A. A. (1998). The SSIs and professional development for teachers. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International
, & (1999). On-line communities: Helping them form and grow. Journal of Knowledge Management, 3(1), 54–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darling-Hammond, L., & Ball, D. L. (1997). Teaching for high standards: What policymakers need to know and be able to do [World Wide Web page]. National Educational Goals Panel. Available: www.negp.gov/Reports/highstds.htm [June 1997]
Derry, S. J., Gance, S., Gance, L. L., & Schlager, M. S. (2000). Toward assessment of knowledge building practices in technology-mediated work group interactions. In S. Lajoie (Ed.), Computers as cognitive tools I (pp. 29–68). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
(1996). Getting to scale with good educational practice. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 1–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardin, J., & Ziebarth, J. (1996). Digital technology and its impact on education [World Wide Web page]. National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Available: www.ed.gov/ Technology/Futures/hardin.html [9 December 2001]
Hawkins, J. (1996). Dilemmas. In C. Fisher, D. C. Dwyer & K. Yocam (Eds.), Education and technology. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp. 35–50
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral practice. New York: Cambridge University Press
(1996). Creating intentional learning communities. Educational Leadership, 54(3), 51–5Google Scholar
Lieberman, A., & McLaughlin, M. (1992). Networks for educational change: Powerful and problematic. In M. McLaughlin & I. Oberman (Eds.), Phi Delta Kappan, 73, pp. 673–77
Lieberman, A., & McLaughlin, M. 1999. Professional development in the United States: Policies and practices. Address presented at International Conference on New Professionalism in Teaching: Teacher Education and Teacher Development in a Changing World, Hong Kong
(1994). Teachers' professional development in a climate of educational reform. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 15(2), 129–51Google Scholar
Loucks-Horsley, S., Hewson, P. W., Love, N., & Stiles, K. E. (1998). Designing professional development for teachers of science and mathematics education. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
McDiarmid, G. W., David, J. L., Kannapel, P. K., Corcoran, T. B., & Coe, P. (1997). Professional development under KERA: Meeting the challenge. Preliminary research findings prepared for The Partnership for Kentucky Schools and The Pritchard Committee for Academic Excellence. Unpublished manuscript
McLaughlin, M., Mitra, D., & Stokes, L. (1999). Theory-based change: Going broader, going deeper. Paper presented at the 1999 PACT meeting, Hong Kong
National Science Foundation (1997). Foundations: A monograph for professionals in science, mathematics, and technology education, Vol. 1: The Challenge and Promise of K-8 Science Education Reform. National Science Foundation Report, NDF 97-76. Washington, DC: Author
Oldenburg, R. (1997). The great good place. New York: Marlowe
, , , & (1992). Small group design meetings: An analysis of collaboration. Human-Computer Interaction, 7, 347–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PCAST (President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology: Panel on EducationalTechnology). (1997). Report to the President on the use of technology to strengthenK–12 education in the United States [World Wide Web page]. Available: www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/OSTP/NSTC/PCAST/k-12ed.html [March 1997]
Pea, R. (1999). New media communications forums for improving education research and practice. In E. Lagemann & L. Shulman (Eds.), Issues in education research: Problems and possibilities. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Rényi, J. (1996). Teachers take charge of their learning: Transforming professional development for student success [World Wide Web page]. National Foundation for the Improvement of Education. Available: www.nfie.org/publications/takechargefull.htm [9 December 2001]
Schank, P., Fenton, J., Schlager, M., & Fusco, J. (1999). From MOO to MEOW: Domesticating technology for online communities. In C. Hoadley (Ed.), Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Computer Support for Collaborative Learning (pp. 518–26). Stanford, CA: CSCLCrossRef
, , & (1998/1999). Cornerstones for an on-line community of education professionals. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 17(4), 15–21, 40CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlager, M. S., & Schank, P. (1997). Tapped In: A new on-line community concept for the next generation of Internet technology. In R. Hall, N. Miyake, &N. Enyedy (Eds.), Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Computer Support for Collaborative Learning (pp. 231–40). Hilldale, NJ: Lawrence ErlbaumCrossRef
Schofield, J. W., Davidson, A., Stocks, J. E., & Futoran, G. (1997). The Internet in school: A case study of educator demand and its precursors. In S. Kiesler (Ed.), Culture of the Internet (pp. 361–84). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Stokes, L., Sato, N., McLaughlin, M., & Talbert, J. (1997). Theory-based reforms and the problem of change: Contexts that matter for teachers' learning and community. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, Center for Research on the Context of Teaching
Wellman, B. (1997). An electronic group is virtually a social network. In S. Kiesler (Ed.), Culture of the Internet (pp. 179–205). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press
- 77
- Cited by