The Connected Community of Practice in Educational Technology: A Model for Future Networked Professional Development?
While intentionally created communities of practice have continued to grow within the higher education context, simultaneously an organic ‘networked’ community has grown amongst those involved in researching and implementing educational technology interna
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The Connected Community of Practice in Educational Technology: A Model for Future Networked Professional Development? Jason M. Lodge and Linda Corrin
Abstract While intentionally created communities of practice have continued to grow within the higher education context, simultaneously an organic ‘networked’ community has grown amongst those involved in researching and implementing educational technology internationally. This global community, which we refer to as the “educational technology community”, represents a new and emerging type of community of practice (CoP) that is not bound by geographic location or a need for synchronous contact between members. This chapter will examine this organically evolving educational technology community as a model for future networked CoPs. This analysis will lead to a possible model for future networked CoPs which will align with current thinking about networked learning and professional development (e.g. Sloep in Technology-enhanced professional learning: processes, practices and tools. Routledge, New York, 2014). The overall aim of the chapter therefore is to explore possible future methods of professional development through networked learning in higher education.
Keywords Educational technology Networked learning Community of practice
25.1
Introduction
The introduction and widespread growth in the use of educational technologies in higher education has led to deep and lasting changes in the way that students access and use content and the ways in which academics teach. Many studies (e.g. Gosper et al. 2013; Lodge 2010) have documented the increased use of digital devices by university students in the last decade with no signs of this trend slowing down in the J.M. Lodge (&) L. Corrin Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education, and ARC-SRI Science of Learning Research Centre, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017 J. McDonald and A. Cater-Steel (eds.), Implementing Communities of Practice in Higher Education, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2866-3_25
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near future. Similarly, albeit on a slower time-scale, universities are also implementing more electronic and digital devices in physical classrooms as well as creating larger and more elaborate digital learning environments. The affordances provided by these new technologies are taking some time to be realised in the university setting (Conole 2012) and it is not uncommon to still see the classical on-campus lecture and tutorial instructional approach being used despite the apparent ineffectiveness of the associated didactic methods (Venema and Lodge 2013). This context has created the foundation for a paradigm shift in the way that higher education is designed and delivered worldwide. In order for the shift to occur, however, both the skills that teaching academics need and the support they require are fundamentally changing (see for example Laurillard 2013). The community of people at the vang
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