Brittany's Education Blog

“Community of practice” is a singular term also known as CoP. The term was coined in 1991 by Etienne Wenger and Jean Laves book called Situated Learning.  Nowadays, this term is used as learning networks, pods, thematic groups, tech clubs.

This term, my focus alongside my 3D printing project in Elementary Education has been a theory known as “communities of practice” (CoP). Upon discussing our masters project with our supervisor Michael, he suggested a book. He suggested and lent me a book by Etienne Wenger-Trayner, written in 1998 called Communities of Practice: learning, meaning and identity. This book has been pivotal in our project design especially as we want to make 3D printing more accessible for teachers. Accessibility in terms of teachers feelings, access and community and this book reinforces exactly that. Articles we have read have reinforced the problem of adopting technology in Elementary Education.

Here is a summary of our discoveries which aligns with practice implementation and teacher’s needs. According to Cheng et al (2023), “It is necessary to provide more 3D printers and relevant resources so teachers can print 3D objects more efficiently and also engage students in activities in smaller groups.” (p.202). I chose this quote as it pieces together the need for resources, which extends beyond content to community as started in communities of practice. It is also shared amongst the Barron & Darling-Hammon (2008) “teachers need time -and a community- to support their capacity to organize sustained project work.” (p.12).

As such, these above quotes and ideas have always been within my practice especially as a French Immersion teacher. As a French Immersion teacher, you really create a community where you rely on your colleges. Within every school, I have taught at French Immersion teachers are constantly reinventing the wheel and thinking about solutions that have most of the time been created or discovered in English but not yet there in French. Working as a team and bouncing off ideas in French meetings, conferences or other occasions have been beneficial for my growth and practice. This Friday for our Provincial Pro D day I will continue to foster this idea of community of practice by hosting a collaborative workshop and taking part in a café causerie to support collaboration and French Immersion teaching connectiveness.

Let’s focus a bit more on what I have learnt about communities of practice through Wenger (1998) book. Its simplicity and relevancy is something so intriguing to me, but yet it is something that teaching is often lacking. It is a collaborative workplace, where as teachers you work with so many different professionals; from other teachers, to counsellors, to social workers, principals, learning support teachers, language teachers, community members, parents, doctors and students. All with the goal to best meet each child’s needs. In school there are groups and committees and teams to help create a community to support learning. However, when it comes to resource availability and sharing there is limited communities (you can find some on virtual platforms). However there is no singular place to be like hey teachers I tried out this lesson plan and I want new ideas. I guess you can say that Artificial Intelligence may be making those questions more accessible. Yet that still doesn’t solve the issue of community and communities of practice. You may wonder what is a community of practice.

The teachers framework of an open accessible online repository is a different framework of Teachers Pay Teachers and in 3D printing we are lucky to have Thigiverse which is an open source community of practice that allows for feedback and collaboration. Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) is actively opposing this theory and New teachers who know of Creative Commons are trying to change this and create communities that are constantly being moderated and updated. My Masters project partner, Krystal also discusses the need to step away from TPT here. There are current OER’s accessible such as the BCTF Open Educational Resources, however they are not widely known about or contribute to, Therefore communities of practice as stated by Wenger (1999), encourages contributions and engagement for better learning.

This article further explores the concept of communities of learning https://www.ohr.wisc.edu/cop/articles/communities_practice_intro_wenger.pdf

For Krystal and my masters project, we will address this theory in our literature review. As we know there are benefits to a community of practice specifically related to technology support and 3D printing. Wegner’s University of Wisconsin article posted above stresses that “Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” This aligns directly with our purpose and through our design process of Github,we are planning to insert a collaborative function using Github discussion thread to encourage problem solving and community.

Here is a QuickStart Guide we are currently discovering as we plan for our Chapter 3 project design and learn to navigate the Github system.

The following video is quite interesting as it opens us up to possibilities and reflection on the education system and supports technology can bring in correlation with the Communities of Practice framework.

Example with a Creative Commons License, in my opinion all resources should be creative commons licenced and widely available to align with CoP’s framework. Our resource will be and will even promote discussion and connectiveness.

• https://www.communityofpractice.ca/

All in all I created a poster to encourage educators to participate and engage in communities of practice, especially when adopting new technologies. Communities of practice are everywhere and you are likely already apart of one as stated by Wegner (1999).

The poster outlines some of the process and benefits of CoP’s. Beginning with Professional Development and interest in a specific idea. Example 3D printing. Then moving towards self-efficacy and perhaps being anxious to begin. Therefore join a community of practice can boost confidence, further expand collaboration with others future improvements of shared documents and ultimately expanding teachers skills and core competencies.

Jeff Hopkins is such a motivational and engaging speaker. I am lucky to have been able to visit his school and start to think about his methods early in my career. You can visit my previous blog post here. Having seen the process of the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry (PSII) through my brother experience. I knew it could make a positive impact on students learning. Something that stood out to me was the idea of Individual Educational Plans. In a perfect system and world, wouldn’t be powerful for every child to have an IEP. In Schools like PSII there is No need for IEP as the model is built on it. Ultimately, my brother who has an IEP was very successful as it was his own personalized learning journey. All in all the inclusive design needs no adaptations as it is all personalized within the structure. This model is something, I wish all schools could follow. There are many useful resources such as their competency assessment framework.

This week between Jeff’s presentation and Jesse’s presentation. I also got to attend a session of teacher burnout by Morgane Michael. Morgan is such a inspirational speaker. She gives out strategies of dealing with anxiety and feeling overwhelmed in a busy profession. She brought back basics of 5,4,3,2,1 technique. To simply just making a list of your passions. These exercises although not directly related to my Masters project, helped me in terms of balance. I am currently working 3 jobs, while doing a masters and trying to find time for my passions such as dance. Also I think that with my Masters project on 3D printing, I am really diving into one of my passions and these skills presented in this workshop help me consider some useful exercises that may help ground educators in that overwhelm state and feeling of they can’t do 3D printing. Now I will continue to foster my passions and balance by continuing to read her book “from burnt out to fired up”.

Based on one of the articles I read, this idea of connection and power to learning is seen through these many ideas of inquiry and personalized learning. Notably “teachers need time -and a community- to support their capacity to organize sustained project work.” (Barron & Darling-Hammond, n.d, p.12). This is true for learning new things and connects to the time and community needed to implement 3D printing. Aligning with twenty first century skills is a key component as well that both inquiry and 3D printing puts forward. Working on problem solving, collaboration and many other BC core competencies aligns with my masters project and the benefits of learning styles that many students have according to this article.  This ultimately makes learning accessible as it is said that “Students who may struggle in traditional instructional settings have often been found to excel when they work in a PBL context.”(p.5).

Finally I wanted to share this youtube video as it discusses the reason Why teachers should bring 3D printers into the classroom. I will discuss this more next blog post but some of his ideas follow nicely with this weeks articles

This slide stood out to me in Jesse Millers presentation as it really values the idea of digital literacy in education. With technology constantly evolving it is important to help children understand media and online environments. Therefore, we as teachers are acting as role models and guidance to give positive communications and values in the world kids grow up in now.

Connecting this quote to my final project, we see 3D printing and self-efficacy of teachers playing a role. However, teachers need to step out of their comfort zones and put aside anxieties to meet students where they are at. That is why in my opinion professional development and learning opportunities for teachers is so important as we all grew up with different experiences and need to meet the new generation and their digital needs as it expands more and more.

When doing this week’s readings, multiple connections were clear to me in terms of our project of 3D printing and technological advancements. Here is the quote that aligned with the Cheng article and Graham and Roberts (2018), article that states

“Online and blended learning environments afford educators the opportunity to extend learning environments beyond the four walls of the traditional classroom, but pedagogical innovation has not been able to keep pace with technological change.”(p.2377).

This change and diversity of devices (3D printers in my focus case), have been difficult to implement as there is no team to help manage and be tech support for the numerous styles.

Finally the other article we read also aligned with our project as we focus on personalized learning. The conclusion of this article really reinforced my connections. Ross stated that “Ultimately, I learned that in order to be an effective teacher, I must, myself, be an engaged learner.” (p.71) as this happens most effectively through personalized learning. The personalization of using “voice, strengths and interests.” Is also prevalent in 3D printing and providing multiple means of communication for students. Students are thus motivated to design their ideas and print it in real life. Ultimately this motivation is what we are hoping to foster in our workshop and all of the above ideas discussed are key aspects to the creation of our project and the implementation of new technology in education.

References

Graham, L., & Roberts, V. (2018). SHARING A PRAGMATIC NETWORKED MODEL FOR OPEN PEDAGOGY: THE OPEN HUB MODEL OF KNOWLEDGE GENERATION IN HIGHER-EDUCATION ENVIRONMENTS. International Journal on Innovations in Online Education, 2(3). https://doi.org/10.1615/IntJInnovOnlineEdu.2019029340

Ross, T (2016). Relevant MEd Project: Making Reflective Practice Visible: Supporting Shifts in Practice Towards Personalized Learning

Jesse Millers Presentation

Blog Post 1:

Looking back at my blog posts and reflecting on where I was a year ago today is interesting to consider. This reflection came to me when Valerie put in the syllabus to watch the Most Likely to Succeed video (2015). Circling back to exactly this time last year is the first time I had ever watched that video in EDCI 565. This time when watching this video, I was able to connect my Masters project I have been working on with some of the pedagogies and ideas they followed at High Tech high. I focused on art in my previous blog past here. Now I can have a similar mindset but with 3D printing and the importance of UDL principles and multiple means of communication. Notably with access to technology we remove barriers for students and with the research of our project we hope more elementary schools will understand the need and benefits of 3D printing in skill development. Cheng (2023), addresses access to technology as first order barriers. Cheng  (2023), further states that “First-order barriers are external to teachers and are related to educational resources (including hardware and software), teacher training, and instructional support” (p.185).

To further enhance this idea of barriers and technology, it connects to a project my brother did during his high school experience at PSII. Jeff Hopkins who uses similar methodology to High Tech High including inquiry, innovation, technology and student centered learning, provided access to tools that my brother wouldn’t have had the opportunity to explore others. He was able to order lights so that he could program them, Arduino’s to help him learn to code. Therefore, learners came up with ideas and not only did PSII make those happens but during the process connected students with experts to help enhance the learning, ultimately removing the idea of first order barriers.

A video I watched that reinforces the Most Likely to Succeed video and book is below: It acknowledges what the 21st century (the innovation era) learner needs and focuses on skills and motivation. He addresses some key considerations of “play, passion and purpose” to improve intrinsic motivation.

This article really stands out amongst those we have used during our literature review. It addresses most of our research questions. Krystal and I can’t wait to .

See our infographic for more specifics related to our project

All in all our learners are all diverse and the more means and diversity we have for them to complete tasks the more engaging and accessible tasks are. Some of the impacts of my brothers and my learning experiences based on our needs has helped me been able to understand and critical think about the needs of my students. As such, Krystal and my 3D printing project in Elementary Education hopes we can address the needs of both teachers who may be experiencing some second order barriers (fear of integrating technology) as well as students and families who wish to experience these tools and skills.

My 3D printing workshop with my grade 1 students allowed me to witness this engagement and skill development first hand, which encouraged my willingness to share and make this project know. See the article of the field trip here on page 5 of the Friends of Library December newsletter.