Schlager, M. S., & Fusco, J. (2003). Teacher Professional Development, Technology, and Communities of Practice: Are We Putting the Cart Before the Horse? The Information Society, 19, 203. doi: 10.1080/01972240390210046

Mark Schlager is the co- founder of TAPPED IN an online community of practice established in 1997.  Judith Fusco is the project co-director and community director at TAPPED IN.  TAPPED IN part of SRI International’s Center for Technology in Learning.  In this article they discuss the evolution of this online community and the ways in which the use of technology may be “putting the cart before the horse” in terms of maximizing the potential of learning communities at the local level before jumping in with both feel into online communities of practice.  The claim there may be “even greater potential to help support and strengthen local communities of practice within which teachers work.”

Significant research has been conducted on the evolution of this particular online community of practice.  There are a lot of educators involved in this online community, however, whether or not the thousands of users actually constitue a community of practice has yet to be determined.  It appears to be very successful, however more research about the types of knowledge that is shared, the motivations behind the knowledge sharing and the application of the knowledge into actual practice is needed.

References: Lave and Wenger, 1991; Orr 1996, Wenger, 1998, Brown & Duguid, 1991, 2000

Research completed outside the field of education; more sociologically based.

“Communities of practice are viewed as emergent, self-reproducing and evolving entities that are distinct from, and frequently extend beyond, formal organizational structures, with their own organizing structures, norms of behavior, communication channels and history.” (Brown & Duguid, 1991; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Barab & Duffy, 2000; Schlager et al. , 2002)

Exception rather than the rule in K-12 Education.  Why?

Two important questions to consider:

1. Why do education researchers, policymakers, district leaders, and technologists need to understand, nurture, and support communities of practice in K-12 education?

2. What can education technologists do to help nurture and support communities of practice in K-12 education?

Guideposts for Technology Design that Support Systemwide Improvement

1. Learning Processes

2. History and Culture

3. Membership Identity and Multiplicity

4. Community Reproduction and Evolution

5. Social Networks

6. Leaders and Contributors

7. Tools, Artifacts, and Places

8. The Practice

Goal is to return to the local communities of practice to fully understand how they work in order to fully develop online communities of practice that can engage and support teacher learning, resulting in sustained development of best teaching practices.

Barab, S. A., MaKinster James G, Moore, J. A., & Cunningham, D. J. (2001). Designing and building an on-line community: The struggle to support sociability in the Inquiry Learning Forum. Educational Technology, Research and Development, 49(4), 71.

Teachers need to have ownership in a community in order for it to be successful.  Wenger (1998) describes communities of practice as self-generating.  This bottom-up approach to network development is mirrored in the development of online communities This article describes the sociotechnical structures of the Inquiry Learning Forum (ILF), which is a web based professional development tool designed to support math and science teachers and reflects on the components of successful networks and communities of practice in hopes to better understand the structures within the community that allow for it’s development.

We need to focus on a new model for teacher learning; one that is community based.  The problem is that this model cannot be imposed in a top-down approach. Community centered learning must be facilitated and have a great deal of user-driven formation.  Unfortunately teachers do not have the opportunity to discuss, interaction and participate in their communities of practice in the ways that will afford them the opportunity to impact school reform.

(Note: article written in 2001; despite the years that have passed, many of the same problems exist.  New technologies have afforded teachers with greater opportunity to engage in informal types of social learning for professional development, yet large scale, systemic models don’t exist in most schools.)

Inquiry Learning Forum is designed to assist teachers to come together in a virtual space to visit each other’s classrooms to observe and discuss best practices.  The vison of the creators of the website is to create a space that helps teachers make their teaching explicit so that it can be shared with others.

Article describes the design, analysis and development, but I am most interested in the process of supporting sociability.

Communities of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991) activity binds individuals to community; shared practices and experience over time result in learning that is continually evolving through each interaction.  Barab & Duffy, 2000, state that when learning occurs as part of a community of practice, members interacting with this community have access to this history of previous negotiations as well as responsiveness from the current members on the functional value of a particular practice, solution or finding.

Legitimate Peripheral Participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991) state that in order for the community to be sustained, there must be a continual contribution of new members, new ideas, etc.  One of the ways this occurs is for members on the outer edges of the community to participate in small ways, slowly moving towards the center regions of the community.

Hur, J., & Hara, N. (2007). Factors Cultivating Sustainable Online Communities for K-12 Teacher Professional Development. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 36(3), 245-268. doi: 10.2190/37H8-7GU7-5704-K470

In this study of online teacher community called INDISCHOOL in Korea, the researchers examined online postings from the community and conducted interviews.  12 factors were identified as a resulte of this study.  8 supporting factors and 4 factors that were inhibiting. The factors were further categorized into three areas; internal, external and outcome factors.

Existing professional development models don’t meet teacher needs. Often there is not follow up to the one or two day workshops and no time allotted for implementation or discussion of practice.  Often there is a disconnect between what teacher need to learn, what they want to learn and what the school district offers.

Distributed Cognition: knowledge is distributed across people and tools, resulting in collective knowledge which is greater than the sum of individual knowledge. (Johnson 2001; Putnam & Borko, 2000; Salmon, 1993)

Wegner (1998) claims that communities of practice cannot be designed, they are self-organizing depending on the needs of the users.  This could describe the current phenomena of online social networks and their popularity in the educational community.  Traditionally teachers are not afforded the opportunity to engage in discussion, sharing, or learning based on individual preference and need.  Typical professional development models are most offen top-down in nature with the needs of the group taking preference over the needs of the individual. Online communities of practice and online professional development opportunities allow teachers to engage in practice based on their needs, learning styles and areas of interest.

Sustainability: communities need members who are committed and motivated in order to thrive.  Common goals, vision, shared interests and trust are all factors that contribute to the growth and sustainability of a community of practice.  While the vast amount of research lies ahead of us, there is substantial theory (Schalger et. al, 2009; Barab & MaKinster, 2003; Dube,Bourhis & Jacob, 2005; Zhao & Rop, 2002) that the factors that contribute to the growth and development of communities of practices in physical locations will, if replicated in an appropriate manner, contribute to the growth and development of communities of practice that are established online and in virtual worlds.

Methodology:

Single case study; intention is to identify factors influencing the sustainable nature of the online community; wanted to explore this from the teachers’ perspective rather than understand the community as a whole.

Three sets of data were collected; interview transcriptions, archived web postings, and researcher’s observation notes.

Findings

Two categories: Support and Hindrance; divided within each into three subgroups, internal, external and outcomes.

Supporting factors: Internal: Having autonomy, having a sense of ownership, acknowledging values of participation

Supporting factors: External: Providing online and offline interaction, providing an easy way to use tech systems

Supporting factors: Outcomes: helping novice teachers become confident educators, assisting in overcoming teacher isolation, meeting teachers individual needs

Hinderance factors: Internal: Teachers’ lack of confidence, previous negative experience in online communities,

Hinderance factors:External: Lack of technological support, discouraging teacher’s active learning

This study left me with some questions:

As a result in the increase of technological knowledge and expertise, would the hinderance-external factor of lack of technological support be reduced?

How do we create environments for active participation?  Discouraging teachers’ active learning was a hinderance-outcome factor.  Information sharing is a wonderful aspect of the internet. Downside is that some teachers will not actively share, they will just “steal”.  We need to understand what motivates teachers to participate actively, finding a balance between give and take.  My initial thoughts are that that type of outcome exists in current physical environments and for that matter, in most organizations.  There are always people who do more, share more, engage more often, etc.  This may be a factor we just have to accept, all the while working to increase participation for those that might just be apprehensive in trying new things.

Borko, H., Whitcomb, J., & Liston, D. (2009). Wicked Problems and Other Thoughts on Issues of Technology and Teacher Learning. Journal of Teacher Education, 60(1), 3-7. doi: 10.1177/0022487108328488

Editorial: Journal of Teacher Education, theme issue: Innovative Uses of Technology for Teacher Learning

Wicked Problem: problem that include a large number of complex variables.

The fast pace of the growth of digital technologies combined with the complexities of teaching and learning has amazing potential, while at the same time, presents difficult and challenging problems.

The authors of this editorial frame the topics outlined in the issue around TPACK, teacher knowledge related to integrating technology, technological pedagogical content knowledge.

1. What are the pedagogical affordances and constraints of digital technologies?

Technology: is the knowledge creation and use of tools and techniques to control and adapt to our environment; includes analogue technologies ie. pencil, chalkboard, microscope as well as newer technologies, digital technologies ie. internet, email, video games. We are only just beginning to realize the academic potential of the newer technologies.

Reasons teachers like them:

• limitless capacity to store information
• accessibility, search and retrieval
• ability to manipulate artifacts to capture the interrelations
• No constraints of time or place (anytime, anywhere)

Potential to:

• Education to reach a large number of people, including remote spaces
• Asynchronous participation in online communities allows for anytime, any place collaboration
• Synchronous participation allows for real time discussions, spanning distances, connecting spaces

Complications:

• Instability: rapid pace of innovation results in continuous change
• Knowledge is never fixed; constantly faced with the need to know more
• Fast to deliver technology = more bugs, less reliability, dependable structure
• Challenges organizational financial and intellectual resources

“As a result, the never-ending process of learning to use advanced information and digital technologies in teaching can be fraught with ambiguity and frustration. (Koehler & Mishra, 2008)

2. In what ways can we use digital technologies in teacher education and professional development?

• Strong impact; can reach large numbers of people, potentially cost-effective
• Technologies can provide individualized professional development and just-in-time learning to meet the needs of busy teachers.
• Video, online social networks and online professional development programs.
• Hatch & Grossman, 2009; Santagata, Sherin and van Es, 2009, explore the use of video
• Online communities like Tapped In (Schlager and Fusco, 2003); update 2009

3. How can digital technologies support teacher’s integration of technology into classroom teaching?

• Not addressed in this issue, but needs to be explored further
• What knowledge and skills must teachers have to use technology effectively in their teaching?
• NETS (National Educational Technology Standards for Teacher)

TPACK is a “compelling conceptualization” of the knowledge teachers need to effectively integrate technology into their practice.  I think that developing technological skills for personal learning that teachers will become more effective teachers, in that they will be able to clearly see the relations between the use of technology, pedagogy, content and knowledge.  The technological knowledge cannot be ignored, however it also cannot be taught through the traditional models of professional development currently in practice.  Teachers need to incorporate it into their own learning.  Just as the NWP’s philosophy of teaching writing challenges teachers to become good writers into order to be good writing teachers, technology skills need to be developed much in the same manner.  Technology is not a content area, but a skill, like reading, writing, computation, that must become ubiquitous in order to be infused into the educational systems.

Lieberman, A., & Pointer-Mace, D. (2009). Making Practice Public: Teacher Learning in the 21st Century. Journal of Teacher Education, 0022487109347319. doi: 10.1177/0022487109347319

Lieberman and Pointer-Mace continue to redefine the field of professional development and teacher learning.  As the ability to collaborate and connect via the web affords teachers with new opportunities, Liberman and Pointer-Mace frame our thinking around possibilities for changing learning environments and protocol for teachers.  As teachers and administrators reach out through the web, the practice of teaching is becoming more and more public.  Teachers are opening up their classrooms in communities of practice that extend beyond the walls of our brick and mortar buildings.  This increased publicity allows a forum of reflection, discourse and analysis of current teaching practices.  No longer do teachers have to rely on their administrators or local intermediate school districts to transport knowledge into their buildings; they are finding more ways to engage in meaningful practice of for increasing their own knowledge base.  Solving problems they encounter in the classroom, from behavior management to methodological approaches to teaching mathematics, teachers are reaching out to their peers for assistance and feedback.  Lieberman and Pointer-Mace suggest we are entering into a new conversation about teaching, “instead of anecdotal venting in the teachers lounge at lunch, we imagin faculty looking closely at a writing workshop conference video and a piece of student work saying, “Wow! Did you notice that?  What do you think?”  This new kind of representation, multimedia representation of teaching, affords teachers with the opportunity to (more easily) record, access and reflect upon teaching practices in ways that haven’t been quite so accessibly before.

p. 3  “In Japan, Singapore, and South Korea teachers spend 35% of their time teaching students, while the rest is spent on a variety of activities to enhance their practice, including having shared office space where teachers have access to materials and to each other for large portions of the day. (Kang & Hong, 2008)

Ken Frank spoke to us about his observations in Finland.  Students are outside for 15 minutes of every hour.  In addition to the obvious health and learning benefits for children, this allows teachers to talk, to share, to collaborate 15 minutes of every hour in the school day.  It is a consistent and sustainablemodel of professional learning.

Teachers, Writers, Leaders

Lieberman and Friedrich capture the essence teacher leaders.  Much has been written about leadership, defining, what it takes to be a leader, lead a company, a project, a group; yet leadership in education is different.  The authors proclaim that teacher leaders are the key to school reform.  If this is truly the case, and I believe it is, then it would be a wise undertaking to understand what it takes to be an effective teacher leader.

Leadership among teachers is well defined and credit for school reform falls squarely in the laps of the teachers who establish those roles.  However, the intricate details of how teachers take on these roles is something that needs more attention.  The National Writing Project studies many aspects of teaching and learning.  Included in their research was a close look at teacher leadership.  They explored whether participation in the NWP Summer Institute along with guided exploration of leadership opportunities enabled them to lead in different ways.

Participation in the Summer Institute is often the first time teachers engage in learning within a collaborative context.  The structure of the NWP SI model enables teachers to reflect, honor their own knowledge, practice their skills and explore creating ownership in learning through a community building experience.  The authors asked participants to explore their leadership through writing.

It is risky to take a stand, sometimes outside of what is considered “normal” or “traditional” in your school environment.  Paul Epstein, a participant in the study, says, “It is one thing to stand up in front of strangers…and ask teachers to try something they’ve never have tried…It is quite another thing to get up in front of your coworkers and tell them they should teach differently.”

Building community is a central belief of the National Writing Project.  Teachers in this study agreed that relationships and collaboration were important factors in their ability to lead.  It is important for teacher leaders to create a forum for teachers to come together in collaboration.

Key Quotes:

Even claiming the identity as a teacher leader seemed to carry an element of risk.  (p. 2)

“When the group redefined leadership as making a commitment to students, taking responsibility for contributing beyond one’s own classroom and working collaboratively, teacher showed greater comfort in claiming the mantle of leadership.” (p. 2)

Learning from others is a powerful way to expand your teaching skills.  It is when we open up our minds to all that there is to know that we are given opportunities to learn and grow.  Seglem makes it clear that this experience alone was not entirely responsible for her success, her hard work, determination and intelligence had a great deal to do with it, but the confidence and courage she garnered from working within this community made it possible for her to expand her learning and reach out for new and different avenues in education.  The National Writing Project’s model recognized the expertise teachers bring to the table during professional development activities.  Typical models of PD in the schools often are structured in an expert-learner way where the person presenting the PD is the expert and those in the audience are learning.  The NWP model not only recognizes the importance of teachers as experts, the SI model encourages and facilitates the teacher-as-expert role and understands the importance of teachers recognizing these traits within themselves.

Seglem’s reference to an “eclectic group” is another key component of the NWP model.  Many times during a typical PD event, schools are organized and divided up by grade level, subject area and so forth.  The cross curricular, K-12 cross section of teachers creates a dynamic learning environment. So many times lessons presented at one grade level lead to discussions of how they can be tweaked and altered to fit into another; same goes for curricular areas.  By opening up learning to include a variety of discourse, we allow ourselves to pause and reflect on our own teaching in new and different ways.

Key Quotes:

Many experts in PD point out–the most successful professional development is sustained over time.  (Grossman, Wineburg and Woolworth, 2001; Lieberman and Miller, 1999)

The possibilities for individual teacher learning increase greatly as professional communities move from individualistic or “balkanized” cultures to “collaborative cultures” and towards what can be described as “learning communities”.
Darling-Hammond and McLaughlin, 1999, p. 381

Teacher Learning that Supports Student Learning, Darling-Hammond

In her article, Lieberman highlights the power of teacher learning networks, reminding us about the energy that is created when a group of committed, trusting, and collaborative individuals are focused on common goals.  She proclaims that the National Writing Project “is perhaps the most successful national teacher network”.

NWP sites repeat, summer after summer, an experience for teachers that promotes continuous teacher learning, the development of self-confidence, and an feeling of belonging through the establishment of community.  Lieberman outlines the ability of NWP to be sensitive to diversity, understanding the differences between urban, rural and suburban schools and the networks’ ability to “both build and sustain the concept of community”.

The continuity factor that is so deeply ingrained in the model of the National Writing Project is an important component in the development of teacher leaders within the field of education.  The connections formed within the network provide opportunity for ongoing, sustained professional development which engage teachers in the process of improving programs and practices.
Quotes I like:

p. 222
Professional community meant that teachers pursued a clear and shared purpose for all student learning, engaged in collaborative activity to achieve that purpose and took collective responsibility for their students’ learning.

p. 222
began to see that teachers who took risks and were continually inventing ways of working with their students were, at the same time developing a positive learning community with their peers and creating norms of openness and colleagueship.

p.222
They were rethinking change, engaging students and sharing what they were doing with each other as well as supporting each other in their learning.

p. 222
Networks have become a significant force for teacher development and school change.

p. 223
Keeping  a balance between inside knowledge (the experiential knowledge of teachers) and outside knowledge (knowledge created by research and conceptualization is a hallmark of successful collaboratives.

p. 224
Teachers come to feel that they belong to a community that cares for them as people and as colleagues and that shares their passionate concerns for the success of their students.

p. 225
It was apparent from our observations and interviews that the support teachers had found and continued to enjoy int he NWP had renewed their excitement about teaching, contributing significantly to their connection to their students and to their effectiveness as classroom teachers.

p. 226
The failure of traditional professional development for teachers has been well documented (Little, 1993) Teachers have been considered as passive receivers of prescriptive programs, given little time or incentive to integrate these new programs into their classroom practice.  Networks, in contrast, involve their members in a variety of activities that reflect the purposes and changing needs of their participants.

p. 226
Teachers become members of a community where they are valued as partners and colleagues, participants in an ongoing effort to better the learning process for themselves and their students.

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) is a framework for educators to develop an understanding of how technology can be incorporated into current teaching practices.  It is not a step-by-step model for integrating technology into the classroom, but rather a way of thinking about how the intersection of teacher technology knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge form a new area of expertise, an educator that is able to view all of these areas as a different, highly complex, area of study.  It is not just enough for a teacher to be an expert in the field they have studied, nor is it enough for them to be a master of methodology.  Technology skills are necessary, but they alone will not provide educators with the skills needed to be successful.  Educators much have a full understanding of all three areas and be cognizant of the ways in which they interact with one another. I believe TPACK provides a guide for teachers to begin to understand and engage in the discourse of the complexities involved in the use of technology in education.

Key Quotes:

In one sense there is no such thing as pure content, pure pedagogy or pure technology. It is important of teachers to understand the complex manner in which all three of these domains–and the contexts in which they are continually formed–co-exist, co-constrain and co-create each other. p. 401

Each instructional situation teachers find themselves in is unique. it is a result of an interweaving of these independent factors” p. 401

We argue that this discrepancy between a vision of transformative uses of educational technologies and the more prevalent efficiency and extension applications can be traced to the nature of how technology use in the classrooms has been conceptualized and supported… p. 394 vs. the transformative uses of educational technologies (see list of 5 traditional approaches)

<Technology should> transform the nature of a subject at the most fundamental level.

p. 395 Different disciplines have differing organizational frameworks, established practices, ways of acknowledging evidence and proof, and approaches for developing knowledge (Koehler & Mishra, 2008)

p. 395
Understanding that introducing new educational technologies into the learning process changes more than the tools used–and that this has deep implications for the nature of content-area learning, as well as the pedagogical approaches among which teachers can select–is an important and often overlooked aspect of many technology integration approaches used to date.

p. 400
Effective teaching requires developing an understanding of the manenr in which subject matter–specifically, the types of content-based representations that can be constructed within and across disciplines–can be changed by the use of different technologies.  Teachers must understand which technologies are best suited for addressing which types of subject-matter, and how content dictates or shapes specific educational technological uses, and vice versa.

p. 402
Using the TPACK framework to frame the development of teachers’ knowledge does not necessitate a rigid or algorithmic adherence to a single approach to technology integration.

Thus the development and demonstration of teachers’ TPACK knowledge requires flexibility and fluency–not just the curriculum-based content, but also with pedagogy, technology, and context–remembering that each influences the other in pervasive ways.

My initial thoughts:

Student success is directly linked to teacher quality. Many teachers aren’t fully comfortable in a classroom until their experience level reaches between five and seven years. If school districts are to retain quality instructors within the field of education, then they need to develop meaningful, continuous, engaging forms of professional development; a critical aspect of school reform. Teachers need to connect with other teachers.   Unfortunately, teaching is a profession of isolation where you go to your classroom and spend the day teaching; interaction with peers and other professionals is limited. Current models of professional development within many school districts are disconnected. Teachers are often given one dose of a prescription with no follow-up time for exploration or continuity. This is not effective, often resulting in poor use of time, disengaged participants, and no application.
Teacher networks and professional learning communities have been shown to be very effective models for encouraging teacher professional development.  These networks are successful due to the relationships teachers build, exposure to inquiry based research and the continuity of the professional development projects.  Now there is a new phenomenon: the use of technology to enhance the notion of developing a personal learning network. Technology, in particular social networks, empower teachers to connect with other professionals who have the same interests and issues in a continual learning environment. The digital environment allows for customization of professional development in an efficient and fiscally responsible manner.
Here is a snapshot: An author releases a text to Heinemann, The Digital Writing Workshop.  The author has created a social network via a free collaborative website,www.ning.com.  In this environment, the author provides links to all the digital references in the book, develops discussion forums for each chapter and provides links to videos that support the philosophies behind digital teaching and learning.  He (and his colleagues) promote the book and the companion website via social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.  A webinar is held via the National Council for the Teachers of English and a series of podcasts are created in conjunction with the National Writing Project involving the teachers highlighted in the book.  These projects are archived and accessible to teachers who purchase the book and/or those that join the Ning.  The digital connections teachers are able to make through the purchase of this text are abundant.  A very different process than just purchasing a text and reading it in isolation.

Critics may ask:
Where will the time and money will come from to train people?
What will happen if we give teachers access to these tools? Will they abuse the privileges?
Are teachers able to develop the concepts needed to learn within the digital environments?

Questions

• In what ways can social networking and other online collaborative technologies enable teachers to develop effective professional development programs or personal learning networks?

• Creating a sense of community through a teacher network provides an environment where teachers feel connected and comfortable and want to contribute.  How can this be enacted through online technologies?
• In what ways could this help teachers create their own personal networks and then translate these ideas to students?
• If we help teachers to create these social learning networks within their schools and they see the power in connecting with others, in what ways will that transform into a paradigm shift and allow them to see teaching and learning in a different way?