Information Technology Reference
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committed to ongoing professional education,
mentoring, advocacy, and policy development.
The question arises: how can all ranges of TLs
inform and support each other? How can local
library programs and the profession as a whole
advance?
Some school districts provide mechanisms
for TL-domain professional development: dis-
trict centers of professional materials, district
telecommunications channels by job function,
periodic meetings of all TLs, in-service workshops
for TLs, on-site visits by district librarians, and
money for individual conference attendance and
online professional development. Professional
associations also provide continuing education,
which requires that TLs proactively join such
groups and participate.
Several technology-based techniques have
been used in these professional development
avenues: special interest groups (SIG), listservs,
online “chats,” nings, blogs and wikis.
CoPs can be effective mechanism to accomplish
a variety of activities:
•
to
inform:
through
email,
discussion
boards, blogs, wikis, online chat
to gather data: through surveys, focus
•
groups, discussion boards
to assess: through peer review, joint rubric
•
development, critical supervision
to stimulate ideas: through discussion, dis-
•
semination of provocative readings, social
networking tools
to contribute knowledge: through dis-
•
cussion boards, web 2.0 applications,
repositories
While CoPs have a social dimension that fos-
ters interdependence, their chief raison-d'etre is
organizational or professional improvement.
Usually, a CoP includes both new and veteran
members, the idea being that each has unique
perspectives and experiences; newer members
may have current training or insights garnered
from other organizations, and senior members
bring a collective history and sagacity about
organizational culture. In a virtual environment,
CoPs start small because the contributions are
limited to the number of people involved, but
as the group grows, the impact correspondingly
increases (Metcalfe's Law). For this reason, bas-
ing a virtual community on existing professional
affiliations is a way to jump-start this impact.
Critical features of a CoP include:
need for Collaboration
Cunningham (1998) emphasized the effectiveness
of workplace learning through interactions with
other learners and experts, reinforcing social-
interaction conceptualization. The TL is one person
in the teaching profession that has the mantle of
promoting and supporting meaningful collabora-
tion among teachers. Paradoxically, collaboration
among TLs is less frequent and more difficult to
do. In most school settings, only one TL serves
the school community. Particularly since school
librarianship demands constant service and su-
pervision, finding the time, the people, and the
resources for professional development can be
daunting.
Increasingly, school districts and professional
organizations have advanced the use of commu-
nities of practice (CoP). Basically, a community
of practice begins with members with common
values and goals, a model that applies well to both
face-to-face and online learning environments.
•
A system of socializing new members to
form a group identity
a “flat” system so that everyone can learn
•
from each other
meaningful tasks that draw upon group
•
wisdom and challenge members to learn
more (Wenger, 1998).
Cox (2008) recommends the following actions
as CoPs form:
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