Communities of Practice Reflection

Communities of practice as described by Etienne Wegner “are groups of people who share a concern or a passion from something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly”. It is through things such as discussion, collaborative work, and interactive activities that these communities develop an understanding. However, although a community may come together because they all share a common point of interest, it does not mean that they want to learn something while being in the community. Communities of practice can be a place where people can just come together to share their views for something. Thus, it is important to understand what are the characteristics of a community of practice. Domain, community, and practice are the three essential components. Domain refers to the main interest for which the community needs to come together for. Community refers to the relationships that are formed within the community that allow the member to learn from one another. Lastly, practice refers to the development of “shared repertoire of resources” . That is, by sharing experiences, stories, tools, etc, with others, we can them use them in our own practice.

In my experience thus far I feel I have seen communities of practice at work but have never given them that specific title. For me they were just a community with a shared interest and didn’t think much of it beyond that. However, after considering Lave and Wegner’s theory, I can definitely see there is more than just getting together to talk about a common interest. For instance, the relationships that are built in the communities don’t just occur because you have a common interest; they occur because of the level of engagement and discussions they have with one another.

In this class I believe the domain is our interest for using technology as an academic resource and tool. I feel as if we are all interested in knowing how to use online tools and electronic gadgets to make learning more meaningful and engaging for students. Since technology seems to be improving day-by-day, students interest in technology is increasing. Thus, we need to know how to appropriately use it in our classroom. The community in our class can be described as the students in our class but also the faculty, cooperating teachers, and the people we follow who are also interested in our domain. Although we may not interact with them constantly, we are learning from one another. The practice component will then be when we apply what we learn, see or hear from our other community members.

The source I found that disagreed with communities of practice was Internet and Higher education by C.M Johnson. In this article he argued that although virtual communities are groups with a shred interest they are not a community of practice. First because a “virtual community does not guarantee that a community of practice will arise because an underlying task-based learning need must exist”. Secondly, in order for members of the community to communicate and collaborate, knowledge of technology may pose a challenge for some of the members. Lastly, since this virtual community does not have ace to face contact “cultural differences, superficial discussion content” and timely responding pose a challenge to enhance community development.