Slide: Levels of participation
Click here for an updated version of the slide on this page. Communities of practice usually involve multiple levels of participation. Because involvement can produce learning in multiple ways …
Month: December 2011
Feeds for communities?
What use are feeds for a community? Feeds, such as RSS feeds, are used in two ways. They enable communities to: Distribute content beyond the people who visit their website. …
Blogs and communities?
How do communities use blogs? Communities use blogs, such as Blogger or WordPress, in two ways: individual blogs and collective blogs. Individual blogs give people a personal voice as contributors …
Wikis for communities?
How do communities of practice use wikis? Wikis, such as MediaWiki used by Wikipedia and Wikispaces which is popular for Educators, are used by communities of practice to create and …
Organizational culture?
Do we need to change our organizational culture first? Organizational culture can work against communities of practice, if it is individualistic, competitive, and focused on the short term. Changing organizational …
Knowledge is power?
If knowledge is power, why would anyone want to share it? Knowledge is indeed a source of power; but hoarding knowledge is not necessarily the best way to benefit from …
Power in organizations?
What about power? Wouldn’t communities become a threat to the organizational hierarchy? Existing across an organization’s formal structures, communities of practice rarely derive much power directly from positions in formal …
Assessing value creation?
Should communities of practice attempt to assess or measure the value they create? The issue of measurement and assessment is a controversial one when it comes to communities. Some see …
Task and expectations?
What about tasks and expectations for communities of practice? Communities of practice that have high expectations about what they can achieve tend to be energized. And yet misplaced tasks and …
Institutionalizing communities of practice?
Should organizations institutionalize communities of practice? Because of this tension between vertical and horizontal processes, integrating communities of practice in an organization is an exercise in paradox. Organizations tend to …
