Monday, December 7, 2009

Communities of practice




Communities of practice: Flickr


Community of practice (CoP) is a term that describes a group of people who share an interest, a craft, and / or a profession. It is through the process of sharing information and experiences with the group that the members learn from each other, and have the opportunity to develop themselves personally and professionally.
On the net we may find some communities (CoPs) such as: facebook, twitter, edmodo and flickr. People can join these sites and share their profiles, hobbies, interests, pictures and so on.

What is Flickr?
Flickr, created by Ludicorp in 2004, is an image and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by blogger to host images tat they embed in blogs and social media. Flickr offers two types of accounts: free and pro.


Educational uses of Flickr
It is a powerful application which holds enormous educational potential (Ricardson, 2006). Flickr is commonly cited as an example to define Web 2.0. Participation in social networks will allow learners to use the intrinsic motivation which lies within all students. Since many language learners may fear participation whether oral or written, here are a few examples of how Flickr can help to overcome linguistic barriers and begin to promote visual literacy skills: commenting on flickr, blogging with flickr, digital storytelling, bubbling comic dialogue and trading cards, among others.

References:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flickr
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_practice
http://design.test.olt.ubc.ca/Pedagogical_Uses_of_Flickr

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