Communities of Practice Online (CoPo)

Communities of Practice Online (CoPo)

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Qutoes from Elizabeth McPherson - Flexible Learning Leader 2000

Canberra Institute of Technology - Canberra.

Elizabeth has been involved in CoPos for many years and has extensive experience in developing and facilitating communities of practice.

Elizabeth asked me to consider the following before I began my journey to create an online communication hub for the Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Management.
' you must first first work out what it is you are creating. Is it a CoP, a network or a learning community'.

Elizabeth suggested I read the following books and articles. I have listed the information I found of interest below. From evaluating the following material I have decided that the online communication hub will begin as a network and hopefully grow into a CoPo.

Cultivating Communities of Practice by Ettienne Wenger, Richard McDermott and William M. Snyder 2002.

Ettienne et el breaks down CoPs into the following three structural elements:
‘- domain of knowledge creates common ground and a sense of common knowledge in the community. The domain inspires members to contribute and participate, guides their learning and gives meaning to their actions. Knowing the boundaries and the leading edge of the domain enables members to decide exactly what is worth sharing, how to present their ideas, and which activities to pursue.
- a community creates the social fabric of learning. A strong community fosters interactions and relationshiops based on mutual respect and trust. It encourages a willingness to share ideas, expose ones ignorance, ask difficult questions and listen carefully.
- the practice is a set of frameworks, ideas, tools, information, styles, language, stories and documents that community members share'.
Whereas the domain denotes the topic the community focuses on, the practice is the specific knowledge the community develop, shares and maintains. Wenger says it is important to develop all three elements in parallel ‘ focusing too much on one while neglecting the others can be counterproductive.

Ettiene et el uses an interesting analogy that cultivating a CoP is like cultivating a garden.
'You can do much to encourage healthy plants: till the soil, ensure they have enough nutrients, supply water, secure the right amounts of sun exposure, and protect them from pests and weeds. Similarly, organisations can do a lot to create an environment in which a CoP can prosper: value the learning they do, making time and other resources available for their work, encouraging participation, and removing barriers'.

They also list seven principls of cultivating Communities of Practice as as follows:
1. Design for evolution
2. Open a dialogue between inside and outside perspectives
3. Invite different levels of participation ie. management and entry level staff
4. Develop both private and public community spaces
5. Focus on value (whats in it for me)
6. Combine familiarity and excitement
7. Create a rythm for the community eg. regular meetings, regular emails

Networking and the National Training System by John Mitchell and Susan Young (Reframing the Future Project Core Ideas report 2002)

A set of criteria for analysing the health of a network could include-
- trust, what is the level of trust and mutuality?
- knowledge, how well is knowledge shared?
- access, how easy is it for members to access each other?
- engagement, how well are members listened to and assisted?
- safety, will members ignorance and needs be used against them?

Effectively Structuring Communities of Practice in VET by John Mitchell March 2003 (Reframing the Future project report 2003).

Key points raised in this report were
- community-building is needed in VET to meet common challenges such as the distances between members of the same industry or the diversity of community membership. Community building is not a luxury in VET: it is a necessity.
- many facilitators in VET use a wide reportior of community-building strategies to build relationships and to help members learn
- Advanced community building skills used by some VET facilitators include finding ways for members to communicate regularly and continuously in an atmostphere of trust, enabling collective inquiry about issues of important to the members.

The report also discussed the most important factor in a communitys success is the vitality of the leadership. Community coordinators (facilitators) perform a number of key functions:
- identifying important issues in their domain
- planning and facilitating community events
- informally linking community members
- forstering the development of community members
- managing the boundary between community and the formal organisation
- helping build the practice, including the knowledge base, lessons learned, best practices, tools and methods
- assessing the health of a community and evaluting its contributions to members and the organsiation

Thursday, May 20, 2004

'Lack of time'!!!

In my many discussions with Industry representatives the most common point raised is
'great idea but we just dont have time'. So while they think the idea of an online network has a great deal of potential there is a concern that it will not be utilised due to time constraints.

How can we overcome this sentiment. I think there is 'enough time' we just have to get Industry to make our Copo a priority in their time allocation. How can we do this? If anyone has any ideas please add your comments as I would really appreciate any feedback on this.

Ideas I have at this stage are -
- make it fun (Industry has to want to access the networkcome on) perhaps add in prizes and games?
- create a sense of ownership by having pictures of local industry in the site

Regards,
Kerry Trabinger

Saturday, May 08, 2004

Findings from the 'Connecting Up Conference'

Here are my findings from the ‘Connecting Up Conference’ (Using Information and Communication Technology to Build Australian Communities), which ran from the 3– 4 May 2004 at the Hyatt Regency Adelaide. I found this conference incredibly valuable to my goal of creating a virtual community of Practice for ACT Tourism TAFE teachers and Industry Staff. I have listed below some useful resources/information I gleaned from the conference.

Hints in creating successful online communities (collated from many different sessions across the conference)
- Build a webpage first then ask for feedback or else you will never get agreement on what should be included/not included.
- Adjust the site as you receive feedback.
- Importance of ownership. Never have the philosophy of ‘build it and they will come’ as often they don’t!
- Have the community name the site, have input to what is included and use photos of the community members.
- Importance of training/how to. Community members must be comfortable with how to navigate the site.
- Navigation must be consistent on every page
- Must be current and relevant
- Don’t bury links
- Keep it simple. If it is too fancy it will take time to download and most consumers will not wait.
- Be specific ie. ‘click here’
- Think of the advantages of using a website over a manual document and create it for these purposes – interaction, search functions and hyperlinks. Don’t just add in static pages.
- The use of an active facilitator encourages participation
- Importance of WI4M (whats in it for me) or WCB (why come back) personal interest
- Dynamic change ie. automatic changes to time/date/weather. Have consumers assume you update the site daily!!
- Fun
- Local Information/relevance
- Gossip/photos/bitch pages
- Interactivity
- Free adds, events calender, local pictures, area for request for local speakers.

Useful webpages
http://www.communitybuilders.nsw.gov.au/builder/what/nebraska.html Case studies on community building for example ‘ Community Builders Nebraska Case Study’ There is also a link to ‘Case Study Guidelines’
http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/pid/332 This is a link to an area on community tools and how to start your own community in Edna Online.
http://grsites.com. Useful freeware links with free web tools including button makers, sound effects and logo makers.

Useful publications
Flexibility through Online Learning’ (NCVER)A brief report including ‘Barriers to effective online learning and delivery from a learners perspective and from a teachers perspective’. http://www.ncver.edu.au/teaching/publications/885.html?PHPSESSID=3903457e60a902499dd177ba0283d347

Broadboand – Teleworking. Case studies on teleworking for example a travel agency manager working from home. (NOIE September 2003)

Quote - ‘Increasing capacity to use ICT is the 3rd essential life skill for ALL Australians’ by key note speaker Wal Taylor (PhD) from the COIN Internet Academy, Faculty of Informatics and Communication, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton.

A full summary of the conference including an overview, list of speakers and program can be found at http://www.communit.info/documents/08_Connecting%20Up%20Conference/_Downloads/report.pdf.

Thursday, May 06, 2004

Flexible Learning Leader Project - Create a CoPo

The Flexible Learning Leaders project I will be researching during 2004 is:

'To investigate the use of an effective online communication tool as a means of encouraging information exchange between Education (TAFE) and Industry (Tourism and Hospitality) practitioners. An expected outcome of this project is the development of an online community of practice that TAFE and Industry practitioners can access and utilize to exchange timely information. '

I intend to investigate best practice online community of practices, what works, what doesn't and how to encourage staff and Industry to want to become part of this community. A major focus of this community will be the use of asynchronous discussion forums. I also intend to investigate techniques and strategies for effective use of these discussion boards by both staff members, industry personel and also the use of these forums in the classroom environment. I would welcome any comments/ideas/strategies/techniques that any of you can share with me.

For further information please click on the link below to view my profile page.
http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/leaders/fl_leaders/leader_profile.php?key=163