Communities of Practice
COP’s or Communities of Practice are defined as, the process of social learning that occurs and the shared sociocultural practices that emerge and evolve when people who have common goals interact as they strive towards those goals (Wikipedia, 2009).
Learning is fundamentally a social phenomenon! People organize their learning around the social communities to which they belong. Therefore, schools are only powerful learning environments for students whose social communities coincide with that school.
Knowledge is integrated in the life of communities that share values, beliefs, languages, and ways of doing things. These are called communities of practice. Real knowledge is integrated in the doing, social relations, and expertise of these communities.
The processes of learning and membership in a community of practice are inseparable. Because learning is intertwined with community membership, it is what lets us belong to and adjust our status in the group. As we change our learning, our identity–and our relationship to the group–changes (Rodriguez, 2009).
Recently I started blogging with my sixth grade students using Classroompress.com (Classroompress, 2009). My kids feel empowered by their own learning environment via the web. This site offers a unique blogging experiences, and at the same time, allows me to totally control their online environment. I have special education students who are intimidated in the classroom, but become at ease when behind a computer screen learning at their own pace. The success that technology gives to all my students is invaluable. Blogging has opened up a world that maybe I become a part of in the spring. Students are sharing and answering academic questions via the blog site, Classroompress.com, without the dull every day life of just pencil and paper.
Communities of Practices such as Teachertube and Youtube, allow me to pull curriculum based material shared by thousands to empower my teaching, creating a unique environmental classroom that my students actually want to take part in.
Rodríguez, Marco, A. R. (2009). Communities of practice. Retrieved September 21, 2009 from, http://www.funderstanding.com/content/communities-of-practice
Wikipedia. (2009). Communities of practice. Retrieved September 21, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_practice