Angela

=This is our brainstorming place for our Final project= = DISCUSSION BOARD SYMBOLIZES EFFECTIVE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE = Angela Franklin

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The discussion board has been an excellent initial step into working as a dynamic, focused, interactive Community of Practice. The concept of working as a community of practice has allowed many of us to shake the classroom culture that asserted individual learning. As a COP we have a shared mission and shared resources. The discussion board serves as a communal space for a long term collaboration with each participant sharing knowledge, suggestions, new ideas, contributing to problem solving and most important ongoing inquiry. It is exciting to see how one comment can initiate a chain reaction that leads to 10 other responses. The responses can be mere statements of appreciation, suggestions to watch a video that supports what was said, a link to a good article to read and more. =====

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Most important the discussion board continues to grow due to our commitment to move in a direction that is trusting and allows each participant to offer alternative opinions that are respected within a shared direction. =====

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As we grow to know each other the dialogue becomes richer and through this dialogue we have begun to understand each other better. It is important to note that we are now moving into a space where we are really becoming self-directed. As a community discussion has become integral to our knowledge building. So now…..we are talking in class and it has made the experience much richer! =====

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BUT remember when it was not always so acceptable to “talk in class” or worse work in groups?. For most teachers the classroom theme is always “NO talking in class”. Giving students the chance to talk in class is often perceived as a moment when students will become too loud, unruly, unfocused……Traditional learning equaled = //teachers talk and students listen// and this format is largely followed from Kindergarten through university studies. =====

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Most teachers are not shy about stating their greatest classroom expectation … QUIET! Students often received double messages that ultimately told us to creative, dynamic, and more as long as we did it quietly and ultimately did it the way we were told to do it! ===== = **//Does this sound familiar? //** = = = And sometimes when given a moment to speak in class it was often not as a collaborative process but as individuals requested to share thoughts and ideas. The results could often be disastrous! //Does this bring back a bad memory?//



The fact that we came together as a small group was a benefit to everyone as it was easier for: each learner understand basic tools for the discussion board, overcome initial fear or shyness share ideas and all of this contributed to our functioning as an effective COP yet stand true to individual opinions. Over time each person has or is starting to move forward to be more pro active and independent yet seek guidance and support from each other when needed.

Fortunately, for everyone we have avoided long awkward moments of silence that could even be potentially dangerous due to the guidance of our facilitator/instructor also known as the creative manager.  **BALANCE** - Working in collaboration with Hind and Randa was made easy using Wiggio which is an excellent group collaboration tool. Wiggio enabled us to easily communicate as a group on a day to day basis and also allowed for access to a shared calendar along with tools to create group polls and was also effective in assuring that valuable resource information was quickly updated. Because adult learning is collaborative wiggio allowed our group to have valuable dialogue each day in every interactive manner! If I had to define wiggio in one word it would be BALANCE because by working with wiggio each individual voice, idea or resource became part of a collective whole. Each person played a valuable role and this is the essence of working as a Community of Practice.

**Angela Viva Presentation** media type="youtube" key="EAkFd90roLc?fs=1" height="385" width="480" align="center"