Forum Higher Ed & Training Forum: Academic Communities of Practice


 
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15: Academic Communities of Practice
In response to 5 09/18/06 07:03 PM
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Yes ... it's true. I've conducted some research in the past on Communities of Practice. Educational CoPs always seem to have trouble generating interest. A colleague of mine debated thi with me for some time, and we came up with two somewhat disturbing propositions, which can, in part explain this lack of participation.

1. We debated whether or not education is a discipline. If not, it would be difficult to sustain interest in participation. We thought it could be more of an application of other discipline. Of course, we are only postulating.

2. Academic pursuits tend to be personal, to the point of being selfish. Individuals want to be published. Individuals often ask 'what's in it for me'. If I do more work, I don't get any more money. This selfish outlook towards their (our) profession makes it difficult to stimulate a vibrant CoP.

Any thoughts on these two somewhat disturbing ideas?

Posted by Mark Lamontagne

16: Re: Academic Communities of Practice
In response to 15 09/19/06 11:09 PM
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Hi Mark,

Thanks for the thoughts. Regarding the first point, my sense is that K-12 school educators think of themselves usually first as educators, then second as specialists in their disciplines; whereas in higher education, it is often the other way around (although noting that those working in e-learning and academic support in higher education often think of education as their discipline!). So although it may be hard to sustain general educational communities of practice with discipline experts in higher education, my sense is that there are still many others who could be hoped to participate. I think the Moodle community illustrates that online educators communities can work at scale.

A related issue is that when you look at the raw numbers of postings in online education communities, many of them are technical - this is true of Moodle, Sakai and LAMS. Is this just a natural outcome of the development needs, or is there more to this?

Regarding the second point, again my sense is that while this may be true of some, there are others who are happy to contribute for altruistic reasons. My sense is that the biggest limiting factor is time - every educator I know is so busy, it is hard to find time for "extra" tasks like participating in online communities.

As the education side of the LAMS Community has been somewhat quieter over the past month or two, I'm keen to hear any thoughts on his general issue, and whether there is anything we can do to foster further discussion.

Posted by James Dalziel

17: Re: Re: Academic Communities of Practice
In response to 16 09/20/06 12:01 AM
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Hi,

I think too in these sorts of communities, from the educational point of view, there is a lot more reading than posting.

In the technical area people have specific issues or difficulties that need instant resolution, and the community is a good place to take questions in order to find an answer.

Educational questions, however, can be very broad and may never have an answer, or be debated for decades. So there is not the urgency to respond - maybe this is a contributing factor to the different pace of discussion or rate of posting. ??

Posted by Robyn Philip

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