Collaboration

Understanding the Principles of Collaborative Learning
In our opinion, collaborative learning leads to establishing successful learning communities.

In //A Guide to Managing Knowledge: Cultivating Communities of Practice//, Wenger, McDermont and Synder (2002) define communities of practice (COP) as having the following characteristics:
 * Groups 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 interaction on an ongoing basis
 * Typically share information, insight and advise; help each other solve problems; discuss situations; their aspirations and their needs; ponder common issues; explore ideas; and act as sounding boards; may create documents
 * They are informally bound by the value they find in learning together
 * The value they derive is not merely instrumental but also adds to the personal satisfaction of knowing others who share/understand your perspective
 * Their sense of identity is created through interactions and exchanges over time, which continually combine the personal/social and instrumental/business concerns of members
 * They may create a "body of knowledge, practices and approaches" (5).
 * Their tangible outcomes,which include reports, documents and improved skills, usually links them directly to their legitimacy. However, their intanglibles such as sense of trust; increased ability to innovate; relationships and intimacy they build amongst people; sense of belonging they create; spirit of enquiry; professional confidence;identity they confer to members;pockets of support created; ability to transcend multiple boundries both within and outside one's organisation, become especially important towards building a sense of community among participants.

Important to note is that COP are:
 * important sites of **knowledge development and accumulation**
 * house and support the **living nature of knowledge**
 * provide a **different approach to providing knowledge**
 * value is derived from **learning both formally and informally** from each other
 * have both **tangible and intangible outcomes**
 * over time, can develop a **sense of identity**

For more information about this topic, please consult the Collaborative Learning Sourcebook from which this material was quoted.