Authors:
Öberg Hans
1
;
Louise Emanuel
2
;
Alex Bell
2
and
Ralitsa Zhekova
3
Affiliations:
1
Uiniversity of Skövde, Sweden
;
2
University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, United Kingdom
;
3
Varna Free University "Chenorizets Hrabar", Bulgaria
Keyword(s):
Communities of practice, Online learning, Lifelong learning, Social learning.
Abstract:
Online learning using communities of practice as a model for learning is fast becoming a new landscape for educational institutions. In constructing online communities of practice (CoP), the most obvious approach has been for academics to set up the CoP on a university system integrated with a formal teaching programme, located in the same place. We take the view that Place is a social construct, derived from the people that contribute to it and imbue it with meaning. Our position is that the places in which formal and informal learning occur need to be distinct and should have different feelings of ownership, governance, purpose and meaning. Providing for informal learning experiences in a place clearly owned and managed in an academic presence is counter-productive to learning that is intended to be owned by practitioners and located in their work space. We suggest that educators do not belong in communities of practice, do not belong in informal learning communities and that forma
l and informal learning communities need to be distinct in terms of place and membership. In this paper we present an alternative model for Lifelong Learning that we are developing through out Transfer of Innovation project, RE:ACT.
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