When
being reflective of my communities of practice, I have identified I belong to
many CoP. Three main groups being my school – Taupo Intermediate School, our
e-learning team and MindLab. As Wenger, McDermott & Snyder (2002) state CoP
are “groups of people who share a concern or a passion or about a topic, and
who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interaction on an
ongoing basis”
My Community of Practice – e-learning team
The CoP I have chosen to reflect on is my school e-learning team which was created to engage and prepare our staff for the one-to-one laptop program we undertook three years ago. Our shared domain of interest was formed under the understanding of creating a 21st-century learning environment for our students and preparing them for the digital needs and experiences they will face in the future. Our CoP engaged in regular meetings, with team members taking on different roles – choice of laptops, accounts and organisation of the program, PD for staff on what programs will be used throughout this process, staff support for issues they may face - to name a few. We did a lot of research on what programs would best fit our school. Our team also visited a school in Palmerston North to see firsthand the benefits of laptops over BYOD. We provided staff with the professional development to upskill and used the variety of skills we all had to make this vision successful. As Knox (2009) mentions in his video “successful communities of practice create excitement, relevance, and value to attract and engage members.” Looking back, we had a great team of motivated staff who achieved what you would believe the impossible, possible. I believe our CoP produced a positive induction into what it takes to lead a laptop innovation within a school.
As an e-learning team member, it was my job to inspire those within our staff to follow us in this digital innovation. Although at times it was hard, it was extremely rewarding and I am learning a lot about what the future of education may look like and how we can best support our learners for the future ahead.
References
Knox, B. (2009, December 4). Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making Them Grow. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMPRZnRFkk
Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
My Community of Practice – e-learning team
The CoP I have chosen to reflect on is my school e-learning team which was created to engage and prepare our staff for the one-to-one laptop program we undertook three years ago. Our shared domain of interest was formed under the understanding of creating a 21st-century learning environment for our students and preparing them for the digital needs and experiences they will face in the future. Our CoP engaged in regular meetings, with team members taking on different roles – choice of laptops, accounts and organisation of the program, PD for staff on what programs will be used throughout this process, staff support for issues they may face - to name a few. We did a lot of research on what programs would best fit our school. Our team also visited a school in Palmerston North to see firsthand the benefits of laptops over BYOD. We provided staff with the professional development to upskill and used the variety of skills we all had to make this vision successful. As Knox (2009) mentions in his video “successful communities of practice create excitement, relevance, and value to attract and engage members.” Looking back, we had a great team of motivated staff who achieved what you would believe the impossible, possible. I believe our CoP produced a positive induction into what it takes to lead a laptop innovation within a school.
As an e-learning team member, it was my job to inspire those within our staff to follow us in this digital innovation. Although at times it was hard, it was extremely rewarding and I am learning a lot about what the future of education may look like and how we can best support our learners for the future ahead.
References
Knox, B. (2009, December 4). Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making Them Grow. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMPRZnRFkk
Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Jess, I have found it challenging to motivate staff members who are happy with the pedagogy they hold. How did you over come the barriers teachers had around introducing the laptop programme? Have all of the interventions been successful?
ReplyDeleteI have found that I have had to start with the more motivated teachers, those we found to be called "early adapters" to be able to ensure successful adoption of new innovations. However, the laggards are still hanging behind, did you have this issue? How did you overcome it?
Hi Bridget,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all thanks for taking the time to read my blog post and leaving me a comment. I apologise for the late reply.
In terms of the barriers when implementing the laptop programme, we had very few. We have a reasonably young and motivated staff who have an understanding the the education we know of is becoming a thing of the past. This was also the understanding for our more 'mature' staff members. Needless to say, we did/still have a few 'laggards' but as we have learnt their will always be those people.
We have taken on the notion that this is now our school philosophy and the way of the future for Taupo Intermediate School so come and ride the 'waka' or essentially be left behind.
We have done a lot of PD especially in the initial stages of the implementation. This was about making things easier for our staff so the transition would be a smooth one. The PD began with ability based groups where we would meet regularly to go over any needs of the people in that group. Like many discoveries on this course it has shown the ability based grouping isn't the way to go and we now understand our teachers who were in our 'low' ability group got further and further behind other staff members due to the pace and eagerness to get involved. A positive area of learning for us all.
I believe we will never totally overcome the issues of laggards in our schools. It is up to the lead team/management to give them the adequate support to be able to effectively run an IT programme within their classrooms however, this requires full engagement from staff members. This is their professional responsibility as a teacher.