Individuals with common interests, anywhere in the world, being able to communicate and collaborate with others to develop their interest or move their thinking forward. Individuals getting together somehow to learn; to learn not in a formal classroom and not in isolation, but to learn as part of a community, a community that is enabled and supported by Internet technologies and tools. A community of individual learners, who are happy to share what they know, what they are doing and what they are thinking with others. By sharing their learning they would be stimulating and supporting the learning of others.
Sounds like a good idea, and the good news, web supported Communities of Practice are here today, available to anyone who wants to create one, or join one. But unless someone does something to start a community, nothing will happen, and the community will not exist.
The hard work for the Facilitator and founding members really starts once the community has been ‘set-up’. Somehow other people, who might have an interest in the Community must be identified and invited. Then some ‘pump priming’ discussion or activity, that might interest and engage new members, must be started.
Leigh Blackall http://tinyurl.com/55nx7m suggests that 10 - 20 people need to be actively involved in a group for it to have a life of its own. Assuming that only 10% of a group are likely to contribute and participate most groups would need to have 100 - 200 members.
Unless you have a ‘captive’ community, pulling together 100+ learners takes significant effort. This recruitment stage is critical. Having joined a community, individuals tend sit back and follow discussions before they decide to contribute. If the discussion is not of interest to them they will not contribute. If they loose interest during this early stage they may to move on to something else. Facilitators have a very important role to play in ‘pump priming’ during the early life of a community.
Most individuals need encouragement and support before they will participate and contribute to a discussion either online or in ‘real’ life. They need confidence and a belief that their ideas and thinking have value, and deserve to be shared.
So once the group/community has been created; members have been recruited; pump priming posts delivered; members supported and encouraged; membership has risen to 200, the group/community will have a life of its own. The facilitator can then put his/her feet up.
A ‘facilitator’ must be convinced that there is some benefit to be had from setting up a community, and must have a fair amount of available time. They could, of course, choose a topic that has the potential to engage individuals who already have the confidence to participate. They would need fewer member and less pump- priming posts before the Community takes on a life of its own.
But when would the rest of us get the opportunity to belong to a Community? When would young learners, learn how to participate? I need to do a lot more thinking!
Keywords: communities of practice, ePortfolio, learning
