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“An Online Community of Practice for Business and Foreign Language Faculty”

“An Online Community of Practice for Business and Foreign Language Faculty”. CIBER Business Language Conference 2010 Mary Risner University of Florida. NOBLE Welcome Page. What is a Community of Practice ( CoP )?.

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“An Online Community of Practice for Business and Foreign Language Faculty”

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  1. “An Online Community of Practice for Business and Foreign Language Faculty” CIBER Business Language Conference 2010 Mary Risner University of Florida

  2. NOBLE Welcome Page

  3. What is a Community of Practice (CoP)? • …group “of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis” (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002, p.4)

  4. Value of A CoP in the Context of Professional Development • Knowledge sharing in informal social networks has proven to be an enabling force to help teachers change their practice (Schlager & Fusco, 2003).

  5. Professional Development (cont.) • This type of PD meets the immediate needs of teachers for knowledge in their area of interest, not by mandate of administrators.

  6. Professional Development (cont.) • “Just-in-time” rather than a “just-in-case” enrichment approaches can help teachers acquire the knowledge and skills they need in an autonomous fashion (Granger et al….., 2002)

  7. Professional Development (cont.) • According to Hiebert, Gallimore & Stigler (2002), professional development has the most impact on learning when its design is long term, tied to the curriculum of the teachers involved, and collaborative.

  8. Professional Development (cont.) • The design component of experiential learning for teachers in professional development serves as a model for them to implement in their own classrooms after they have felt how it has enhanced their own personal learning experience (Loucks-Horsley, Love, Stiles, Mundry & Hewson, 2003).

  9. Why Have a CoP?

  10. Why Have a CoP? (cont.)

  11. Why an Online CoP?

  12. Why an Online CoP? (cont.)

  13. Why an Online CoP? (cont.)

  14. Need for a CoP in Business Language

  15. Need (cont.)

  16. Goals for the NOBLE CoP

  17. Goals (cont.)

  18. Questions

  19. Questions

  20. Benefits of a CoP

  21. The NOBLE Project Idea

  22. NOBLE-Network of Business Language Educators

  23. Online Spaces • www.nble.org • www.globalworkplaceskills.ning.com

  24. Establishing NOBLE

  25. Member Demographics • From 8 states • Representing 7 languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, German) • Interest in business and medical language • Faculty from foreign language, business, educational technology • Members from secondary, post-secondary, private language institute

  26. Online Interaction to Date on Ning • 19 members registered • Minimal posting • Creation of 5 sub-groups: Business English, Business Portuguese, Online Teaching, Technology Tools, 21st Century Skills

  27. NOBLE Web Portal Activity January -February • 65 unique visits with the majority coming from referred sites • Majority of hits came from the United States • Others from Spain, Pakistan, Japan, Ethiopia, Bulgaria, United Kingdom, Canada, China, and Congo (Ten countries)

  28. NOBLE Web Portal Activity February-March • 186 unique visits with the majority coming from referred sites • Majority of hits came from the United States • Others from 25 countries

  29. Possible Reasons for Slow Start…

  30. Slow Start (cont.)

  31. Slow Start (cont.)

  32. Slow Start (cont.)

  33. Maybe Small is Good… • According to Allan and Lewis (2005), virtual learning communities have a better chance of being effective if their membership is fairly small varying from 5-18 members.

  34. NOBLE Accomplishments to Date • Site and forum launched • Sponsored one K-12 attendee at FIU Business Language conference • F2F Meeting at UF in late February • Skype meeting • Twitter and Facebook accounts created

  35. Accomplishments (cont.) • Strategic Plan drafted • Starter lessons drafted • Article in process on Florida K-12 model • Established committee for Business Language on Florida Foreign Language Association board • Increasing interest in field!

  36. Challenges for NOBLE

  37. Challenges (cont.)

  38. How to Overcome These Obstacles? • Keep working with those involved • Keep recruiting • Keep disseminating information • Keep projects on the horizon

  39. How to Overcome These Obstacles? • Keep shipping! • http://the99percent.com/tips/6249/seth-godin-the-truth-about-shipping • http://the99percent.com/videos/5822/seth-godin-quieting-the-lizard-brain

  40. Upcoming Projects • Summer workshop on learning centers/careers • Video clips with skits on value of global skills • Podcasts with testimonials/cultural experiences • FFLA 2011

  41. Career Wordle • www.wordle.net

  42. Sample Video Clip • http://community.actfl.org/ACTFL/ACTFL/Resources/ViewDocument/Default.aspx?DocumentKey=1397ada6-e9bc-4c56-ab09-0c86afb8fb80

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