This slideshow displays examination of the role of on-line Community of Practice (COP) in order to enhance professional development of ELT teachers. It argues the effectiveness of social virtual collaboration to meet the emerging educational challenges presented by new technologies. It was presented at IATEFL 2013 Liverpool

1. Information Superhighway for the
Networked Teachers: Online
Communities of Practice
Aslı Lidice Gokturk Saglam
aslilidice@gmail.com @aslilidice
http://aslisaglam.edublogs.org

2. Why Do We Do Professional Development?
Shulman’s Categorization(1987)
• Content knowledge
• General Pedagogical knowledge
• Curriculum knowledge
• Pedagogical content knowledge
• Knowledge of learners & their characteristics
• Knowledge of educational contexts
• Knowledge of educational purposes, values and aims

3. What Do We Already Know About Effective
Professional Development?

4. Wenger„s Community of Practice Theory (1998)
1. Humans are social beings &Learning
a social endeavor
2. Knowledge within a social setting
means being competent at activities
which are valued within the community
3. Knowing is developed through active
engagement in the community through
participation
4. The goal of learning is to produce
meaning or understanding of the world
and our engagement within it.
Components of a social theory of learning (Wenger,
1998, p. 5)

5. EFFECT OF TECHNOLOGY?

6. Application of community concept to online
learning
«Application of community concept to online learning can be linked to the
paradigmatic shift in education, which reveals transformation in 3 areas:
(a) knowledge transmission to knowledge building,
(b) from teacher centered to learning centered, and
(c) from passive to active learning (Harasim, 2006 cited in Tolu, 2010)».
As a result; innovations in technology played a significant role for the
growth of interest in online community of learning.

7. Coı (=Community + Inquiry)
• Conceptual framework for the use of computer mediated communication in
supporting an educational experience (Garrison, Anderson & Archer, 2000)
• a cohesive and interactive community of learners whose purpose is to
critically analyze, construct, and confirm worthwhile knowledge (Garrison
&Vaughan, 2008, p.9)
• Community; social dynamics, social interaction and collaboration
• Inquiry (intellectual academic interaction & the process of constructing
meaning through personal responsibility and choice.

8. A summary of the CoI elements and characteristics
ELEMENTS CATEGORIES Examples
Open Communication Learning Climate/ Risk-Free
Expression
Social Presence Group Cohesion Group Identity/Collaboration
Personal/Affective Self-Projection/Expressing
Emotions
Triggering Event Sense of Puzzlement
Teaching Presence Facilitating Discourse Shaping Constructive Exchange
Direct Instruction Focusing and Resolving Issues
Cognitive Presence Exploration Information Exchange
Integration Connecting Ideas
Resolution Applying New Ideas
Design & Organization Setting Curriculum & Methods

9. «BUILDING AN EFFECTIVE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY OF INQUIRY FOR
EFL PROFESSIONALS IN AN ASYNCHRONOUS ONLINE DISCUSSION BOARD»
• What makes an effective online learning environment for over 60 English
teaching professionals from 29 different countries?
• Compared two implementations of the same online teacher training course
in 2004 and 2005.
• Results: using these instructional strategies to change teaching presence
caused some increase in social and cognitive presence in one of the
classes, but not in the other.
• Why different? group cohesion through shared language, culture, cultural
inclusivity social bonds, importance of reaching higher phases of the
practical inquiry model and religion and obstacles to Internet access are
discussed as possible explanations.
• The results support and extend Garrison et al.‟s (2000) community of inquiry
model (Kang Shin, 2008).

10. «An Exploration of Synchronous Communication in an Online
Preservice ESOL Course: Community of Inquiry Perspective»
• a qualitative case study: the use of synchronous communication for
creating a community of inquiry and student satisfaction in an online
ESOL endorsement course for preservice teachers.
• Elluminate Live for class meetings & Gmail Chat for impromptu
interactions between a student and the teacher. Online recordings of
live meetings, student written reflections, surveys, interviews, and
teacher/researcher journal.
• The findings: synchronous communication enhances building and
sustaining an online community of inquiry creating a sense of social
presence with trust, comfort, and belonging, and enhanced group work
efficiency.
• “The study highlights the critical role of synchronous
communications to create effective online learning communities,
however it also underlines that the implementation of synchronous
communication tools requires robust pedagogical planning to
enhance student learning”

11. Teacher Learning in On-line Communities
Are you familiar with these?
• CoP
• WIA
• Web 2.0 tools
• EVO
• Worldbridges
• Secondlife
• Virtual round table
• Teacher Challenge
• Moocs
• Coursera

12. WEBHEADS
Online Community of Practice of Teachers and Educators
Practicing Peace and Professional Development through Web 2.0 and
Computer Mediated Communication
1990s
evolutionary & enterprising scholars displaying a deep warmth & dedication to helping others
A world wide, cross-cultural,vibrant online community of educators with a shared domain of
interest
A passion to learn about that domain (web 2. 0 tools in ELT)
Collaborative practice
CoP
http: www.webheadsinaction.org

13. HOW DOES WEBHEADS WORK?
COMMUNICATION PLATFORM : Yahoo
 Participants send messages about various issues,
 ask for help,
 respond to each other‟s questions &
 meet online (live) on a regular basis
 explore the latest communications technologies,
 brainstorm on how to adapt Web 2.0 & Social networking tools.

14. Webheadsinaction.org

15. Learning2gether

16. mooc
• What‟s a mooc?
• Xmooc
• Cmooc
• Some examples

17. #ETMOOC

18. Why join ETMOOC?

19. 1647 registrants
355 registered blogs
851+ blog posts and 1000s of tweets
At the onset!!!

20. TESOL CALL Interest Section
Electronic Village Online (EVO) Sessions
• more social scaffolding
• collaborative spirit of WIA
• EVO & WORLDBRIDGES
• online discussions &workshops varying from
• simple discussions to virtual hands-on workshops,
• discussion of an issue in the field of teaching language to
• experiments with and pedagogy of new technology tools
• Provides invaluable service to teachers all over the globe,
• Brings the convention to those who cannot travel..
• The sessions are again free and open to all interested parties.

21. • 7 year-old community of practice of teacher educators worldwide.
• participants will work collaboratively to:
• use various synchronous and asynchronous web tools to communicate with
colleagues worldwide,
• interact through edmodo, text chat, voice chat, and others,
• reflect on and define their mentoring skills through exchange with peers ,
• discuss possibilities of applying the skills in their work communities.
• enlarge our community of practice.

22. #EVO2013Mentoring

23. TitanPad

24. Edmodo

25. DigiFoot12

26. SecondLife – Avalon Project

27. 6th SLanguages Annual Symposium 2012

28. In Sum
• Promising adult learning environments include:
 exchange of information,
 collaborative work,
 critical thinking,
 active/exploratory/inquiry-based learning, informed decision-making,
 and authentic, real-world context (ISTE &Thomas, 2007).
• Connected learning opportunities on the internet, information superhighway, can
benefit the networked teachers

29. Final word from the networked teachers

30. References
Kang Shin, J. (2008). Building an effective international community of inqury for
EFL professionals in an asynchrounous on-line discussion board, Unpublished
Phd Dissertation, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA.
Tekiner Tolu, A. (2010). An Exploration of Synchronous Communication in an
Online Preservice ESOL Course: Community of Inquiry Perspective,
Unpublished Phd Dissertation, University of South Florida, USA.