Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators

Editors, Chris Kimble, Paul Hildreth and Isabelle Bourdon
Publisher, Information Age Publishing

As a two volume set:
Hard cover ISBN: 1593118678 , Soft cover ISBN: 159311866X

As separate volumes:
Hard Cover - Vol 1 ISBN: 1593118635 , Vol 2 ISBN: 1593118651
Soft Cover - Vol 1 ISBN: 1593118627 , Vol 2 ISBN: 1593118643

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Volume 1, Chapter 21 - Creating an Educational Ecosystem for Design, Personal Fabrication and Invention

Abstract

This chapter describes Learn 2 Teach: Teach 2 Learn (L2T:T2L), a program mobilizing teens in their out-of-school time to gain knowledge in technology-rich domains and to create their own ways to share knowledge with their younger peers. The program is examined with a Community of Practice lens to show how participants share understandings of designing with technology amongst themselves and with others in their community. Applying such a lens to this community's evolution from 2003 to 2006 reveals multiple, interconnected Communities of Practice that create an ecosystem for engaging youth with hands-on activities related to emerging technological ideas such as personal fabrication in ways that United States public schools, in the main, have not widely adopted. The focus in this chapter on a Personal Fabrication Community of Practice shows how the signature-approach to teaching and learning in L2T:T2L helps promote creativity and critical thinking within tomorrow's technology innovators.

Authors

Amon Daran Millner
Shaundra Bryant Daily

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