Communities of Practice

I thoroughly enjoyed researching, writing about, and presenting on Communities of Practice (CoP). It is my favorite theory that we've reviewed so far in the course. I like that CoP's can be completely organic. They can just evolve out of a small group of like-minded people interested in a specific area of practice. I think the group only truly becomes a CoP when they cross the line from just talking about individual experience to actively collecting, sharing, and mapping their collective knowledge.

I keep going back to my quilting bee, but it just fits in perfectly to so many aspects of what we're learning. The group is a CoP, because it's all about sharing information and experience with each other so that everyone learns and develops personally, but also develops the collective knowledge of the group. People start out on the periphery - like me! When I first joined up, I sat quietly and observed and listened and did as I was told, soaking in as much as I could from our guru instructor and all the women around me with varying degrees of experience. Slowly, I am moving closer to the center of the group. I am by no means a pro, like the women at the very center and our guru instructor, but I am learning and my experience is deepening, so that I have something to share now rather than just being and observer. It's exciting! 

Another thing that excites me about learning this theory, is that I can now see CoP's everywhere and I can see where they would be useful, too! I think I just didn't have a name for them before, but they are truly all around us. I'm coordinating a women in technology and engineering group for my company and without even realizing it until now, I've been coordinating an CoP this whole time. Now that I know and have more tools to make it better, I'm really excited to push us into new territory.

YEAH!