Online Communities of Practice: What Works?

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session: CS2738

Learner outcomes for this session

• An awareness of what “community of practice” means and the salient characteristics of an online COP

• An understanding of the healthy attributes of an online COP

• An understanding of the different roles that people play in sustaining an online COP

• An awareness of the outcomes and products that can be produced from an online COP

Panelists

• Melinda George, National Commission for Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF)

• Sheryl Beach-Nussbaum, Powerful Learning Practice

• Al Byers, National Science Teachers Association

• Allisyn Levy, BrainPOP

Learner Outcome #1: An awareness of what “community of practice” means and the salient characteristics of an online COP.

Getting to Effective Communities

• Teacher Artisans

Solo practitioners

• Learning Communities

Guilds and independent teams Collaborate to improve individual capacity & performance

• Learning Teams

Interdependent team members Use diverse skills to achieve well-defined learning objectives Individual and organizational capacity develop in tandem

NCTAF Learning Studios

• More effective teaching supported by collaboration

4-6 classroom teachers Interdisciplinary, cross-curricular

• Higher community engagement

• Deeper learning for students through shared, project-based learning challenges

Characteristics of Effective Learning Studios

Shared Goals & Well-Defined

Learning Challenge

Real Time Assessment Feedback to

Improve Learning & Performance

Well Orchestrated Use of Community Expertise

Time & Space to Develop Individual Talent that Contributes to Team

Capacity

Cross Curricular & Cross Disciplinary

Strong Leadership & Professional Support

Balanced With Pressure to Improve

Learner Outcome #2: An understanding of the attributes of a healthy online community and the common pitfalls/challenges that online communities face.

Attributes of a healthy online community

Healthy communities are collaborative,

co-created and designed with evolution in mind.

Learner Outcome #3: An understanding of the roles different people play in sustaining healthy online communities (i.e., different ways to participate)

Understanding Activities in a Vibrant Community

Consume/Engage • Provide just-in-time quality resources

• Shared by trusted source or colleague

Consume/Contribute/Extend • Resources and strategies to enhance local student

learning (data-driven) • Professional Learning Community

Consume/Coach/Mentor/Enlighten • Elevate one’s stature in community • Serve in leadership capacity or as expert • Contribute to improvement and generation of resources

and learning

Early Career/Novice EducatorIncrease Knowledge,

Confidence,and Pedagogy

Mid Career EducatorHone practiceand PCK

Master Teacher Contribute

(coach/mentor)

Aggregators- Add between 5 and 50 personal digital resources to your library (7 levels)

Disseminators- Share a resource collection with between 1 to 150 individuals (7 levels)

Commenters- Post a comment/question on Learning Center Discussion Forum (7 levels)

Advocators- Write btw 5 and 100 reviews and rate an NSTA resource or a public collection (7 levels)

Badge System Helps Drive Online Activityand Recognizes Roles within Community

Leader Boards Recognize Contributors

Learner Outcome #4: An awareness of the outcomes and products that can be produced by an online community of practice.

Typical Mix of Contributors

My students were AMAZED that their work had inspired younger students. Now that they have seen the potential collaborative nature of sites like BrainPOP Educators, it has really left an impression!”

“

~ Robert Miller, Teacher

Melinda George

National Commission of Teaching and America’s Future

Phone: (202) 464-1934 Email: mgeorge@nctaf.org

Web: http://nctaf.org

Panelist Contact Information

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach Powerful Learning Practice Phone: 757-965-4451 Email: sheryl@plpnetwork.com Web: http://plpnetwork.com Blog: http://21stcenturycollaborative.com

Al Byers

National Science Teachers Association

Phone: 703-312-9294

Email: abyers@nsta.org Web: http://learningcenter.nsta.org/impact

Allisyn Levy BrainPOP

Phone: 212.574.6051

Email: allisynl@brainpop.com Web: http://brainpop.com/educators

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