Week 1
12.
CoP THEORY
I
created a theory overview site at http://sites.inka.de/manzanita/cop
Would you all mind checking it out? I
would appreciate your comments a lot.
Thanks a million!
I plan on linking each quick
definition to more detailed info and putting my bibliography
at the bottom level for the real diehards.
Christopher
::::::::::::::::
Chris,
Great diagram and the definitions are
also easy to comprehend. However, I'm having
problems understanding the arrows (in the CoP Theory Overview). The
positioning
of tree that represents the Community of practice is good, as it
shows
that it is the epicenter, and according to your definition has three
components,
knowledge, practice and community. Now, the arrows only tells me
that
there is one component and that is, Knowledge, and that it has two other
subcomponents,
practice and community. There should be three arrows from the
the
CoP tree pointing to each individual component. What do you think?
Should there be an arrow that links
community and practice? I think that there should
be one. Evonline 2002 Webheads is an epitome of CoP, members take on the
roles
of students and teachers, and we practice what we've learned and what we
preach, and we gain additional
knowledge as we evolve. And as we continue to participate
in this community, practice then becomes imbedded in our almost
daily
interactions.
You have done a marvelous job, Chris.
Aiden
p.s.I liked the 'tree of knowledge'
the most;-)
::::::::::::::::
Hi
Chris,
Just a few words to say Thank You for
this wonderfully illustrated mindmap of
the oak tree as a growing community and all the little acorns and sprouts
making
growth possible. Remember to mouse over the different ares to find
the
related short definitions on new pages.
I love this garden metaphor a lot. The
idea of a "knowledge tree" triggers
my
own imagination so well. And Inspiration is a cool software for this!
Forgot where I have most recently seen
a good definition of the difference between
seeing virtual learning environment as a building and a garden – but
I
think I can reconstruct the argunemtation - in the building you suppose
walls
and places to frame the interaction (often between a teacher at the
board
and students at their tables), while the gardener can only prepare the
soil,
plant and nurture the seed, fertilize and hope for a good outcome. In
your desgin, I also see more new trees
in the future, indicating that NEW communities
of Practice may grow up and some day make a whole forest :-)
Hugs,
Sus
::::::::::::::::::::::
Dear
all,
I would also like to complement Chris
on exactly the sort of graphical information management interface that I was
championing in my last post. As a newcomer to WIA I really wish there were
something like this as a front-end for all the text pages. I'm not saying this
to in any way devalue the Herculean efforts of all those people who have built
WIA from the ground up -- but rather just to register my reactions as a newcomer
to the WIA universe.
--Don
:::::::::::::::::::::::
Hi
Aiden,
Thank you very much for drawing my
attention to the arrows. I changed them so the
3 main concepts (Knowledge Domain, Community, Practice) point to each other
bidirectionally,
and the are arrows pointing to each other from the CoP tree:
http://sites.inka.de/manzanita/cop/
I like your comment about "tree
of knowledge". I was looking at it all from an
organic
point of view, and "tree of knowledge" fits that mold well.
I also learned a bit doing this:
1) Original diagram done from
Inspiration 7.
2) Saved as a gif file.
3) Saved diagram as an HTML site.
Automatically generated hot spots to the other pages.
4) Tweaked the hot spots to get rid of
the hot spots that referred to the green circles
in the diagram and deleted those pages.
5) Uploaded the monster.
6) Per Aiden's suggestions, added
more/different arrows, but did not want to go
throught
generating a new Web site again. So I saved the diagram as a gif
again.
Hotspots stayed where they were because I only added arrows.
7) Uploaded the gif file. Done.
Thanks again, Aiden. It was a cool
learning experience as well.
Chris
::::::::::::::::::::
Dear
Chris,
Great work! Congratulations on a very
enlightening and explanatory overview.
It
has helped me clarify ideas through a simple and to-the-point
explanations
in a clear and imaginative layout. I see WiA represented in all
the
concepts you refer, thus, I sincerely think it is an invaluable starting
point
for that book we are all thinking about.
Thank you!
BTW, I'm planning to talk very briefly
about WiA in my annual APPI(Portuguese teachers of English) conference
presentation and then to have the audience
chat with Webheads. Will you allow me to show or link to this
theory
overview?
Cheers, Teresa
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Dear
Chris,
This a fantastic graphic metaphor of
our WIA CoP. I enjoyed the links to the concepts. I second Tere's idea that it
may be the starting point for our WIA CoP book. I would even suggest the graphic
for the book cover.
Thanks for such a great job!
Daf
:::::::::::::::::::::::
Hi
all
I really liked the schematic and I
think it's great the way Chris explained all the
concepts in hyperlinks. This is indeed an excellent way to introduce a
topic
or, as Don says, organize a web page (though I'm afraid creating graphics to
introduce each page even on a web site as modest as WIA would take me into my
next
lifetime; a great idea but the time!)
In fact I liked the graphic so much
that I made sort of a logo out of it. May I
have permission retroactively to use the graphic in reduced logo form in the
way
that you see it presented here?
http://www.vancestevens.com/papers/tesol/baltimore2003/week4.html
Also on this page you see illustrated
a way of presenting threads so that each contribution
is associated with a face. This is one of our community building
techniques
and is one reason we like to get photos from as many of you as
possible.
The reason I chose the thread in question is not only that it gives
me
an opportunity to illustrate this technique but also that it is a good
example
of how our community interacts ...
- Chris spontaneously producing a
definitive diagram
- Aiden giving feedback, acted upon by
Chris
- Teresa indicating that it suggests
to her a starting point for an eventual publication
- Dafne suggesting this would make a
good cover graphic for the book Tere is visualizing
- and Don chiming in to indicate that
this is a good model for object oriented organization
of web pages
I'm working on this page
http://www.oocities.org/vance_stevens//papers/tesol/baltimore2003/week1.html
and I'll be back in touch when I'm
done.
Vance
::::::::::::::::::::::
Dear
Christopher and all,
I found your new page with graphics
about CoPs to be excellent. In fact,
I was so impressed, I'm wondering where the best place is to put it in our Yahoo
Groups. In week 2, we talk about "What is a CoP?" It would seem to fit
there, so I'm wondering about making a link to it from the assignments page in
week 2 as a way of better explaining the paper you helped me write.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads/files/2003/week2-an27feb2/assignment_week_2.htm
Chris Jones
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
I
think Chris's diagram is something we'll find useful throughout our session in
framing our discussions in the context of some of the copious literature on
communities of practice, and we are fortunate to have Chris among us as he is
immersed in this literature at
present.
Accordingly I've used the logo form of
Chris's diagram (as a graphic link to his interactive version, I trust with his
permission) in my Week 1 (this week) web page at
http://www.oocities.org/vance_stevens/papers/tesol/baltimore2003/week1.html
Furthermore, I have made a LINK to it
from our YahooGroups portal site.
Vance
:::::::::::::::::::::::
Dear
Webheads,
Thank you all very much for your kind
words. I didn't realize that this diagram could
be so useful in so many areas. I am honored that anyone would want to use
it
as a book cover or a logo (thanks Vance, Daf, & Tere). That's great!
I see the diagram as belonging to
Webheads in Action, so please use it and link
it as you'd like. It would be great to
see how many directions we can go withit.
Vance - logo- cool!
Tere - presentation of WIA to her
Portuguese colleages - great!
Chris - Week 2 - fine! ..... but in
other weeks and uses as well (e.g. Week 4).
(Just a quick question about Week 2:
Assignments page? Is someone being
instructed
on what a CoP is?)
Sus - Feel free to add any metaphors
you create.
I liked Vance's idea about framing
discussions with it. I had that in mind with a live
discussion in Week 4. Please frame any discussions with the diagramas you all
see fit.
Like Don, I like diagrams and
graphics, too. Tere has a great WIA page, which
is very useful for finding things (I
love her page). Vance gathers all of our
activities and organizes, catalogs,
arranges them, etc. One of us can do the
graphic diagrams and front ends.
One word of caution: I believe the
diagram represents a summary of the main theory
components, and not a live or existing CoP (at this point). Perhaps
someone
could find some concrete examples of each attribute that is
representative
of Webheads (or is that what we is going to happen in Tere's
book??).
I would be happy to link it all up.
Chris