ABSTRACT
Lifelong learning is on the rise. All forms of learning contribute to fill the educational needs created by the social expectations of a knowledge society: formal learning in institutional settings; non-formal learning in workplace settings; and informal learning that may happen in any setting. Communities of practice are primarily hubs of informal learning, as demonstrated by Lave and Wenger (1991). For many centuries, they were the place for apprenticeship, but they faded into the background during the twentieth century as formal educational structures developed. Today, there is renewed interest in communities of practice and informal learning. For instance, Human Resources Development Canada is increasingly using the terminology of communities of practice, and a variety of organizations throughout our large country have begun to promote this form of learning using communities of practice in a strategic way. Digital technologies are not immune to these trends of informal learning and collaborative practice. An example of the use of these digital technologies in an informal educational setting is the SchoolNet Canada Initiative (https://www.schoolnet.ca), which has provided a unique context for the promotion of collaboration within and between learning communities. Teachers at all levels of the professional development continuum may potentially benefit from social participation in such a community. Participation in a community of practice is a powerful form of learning (Lave and Wenger, 1991). When expertise is de-localized or distributed, we have found that communities that combine face-to-face and online activities provide more learning opportunities to their members. To enhance teacher learning is important because it ‘reaps learning gains for students, especially in the kinds of more challenging learning that new standards demand’ (Darling-Hammond, 1998).
