The document proposes establishing an Academic Technology Community of Practice (CoP) at Portland State University. A CoP is defined as an ongoing interaction between people who share goals and practices in a particular domain, like online teaching. The proposed CoP would involve faculty fellows and student internships to collaborate on technology-enhanced teaching. It would provide workshops, field trips, and other events to encourage exploration of teaching practices using technology. Administrative support would manage meetings and communications, and provide training to orient new members and disseminate technologies to a wider audience. The goal is to create a dynamic learning community to support the development and sharing of effective teaching with technology.

1. Academic Technology
Community of Practice
reTHINK PSU
Challenge proposal

2. What is CoP?
A Community of Practice is an ongoing, dynamic interaction of people
who share goals and practices related to a particular domain such as
online teaching. A learning community offers members “richly
contextualized and supported arenas for learning.*”
Communities of Practice allow participation of members at multiple
levels varying in intensity from lurking to active creation of artifacts
and practices that sustain and grow the community over time.
* Reil&Polin, “Online Learning Communities,” in Barab, Kling, Gray
(Eds.), 2004, Cambridge Univ. Press.
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3. Currently
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4. Why a CoP? Our Vision
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5. How would it work?
•Stipends for “faculty fellows” to allow faculty to participate and
collaborate more closely with CoP Support and Technologies teams.
• Internships and stipends for students involved in or developing thesis
projects related to CoP, community development, and community
technologies.
• Face-to-face and online workshops, brainstorming sessions, field
trips, conceptual explorations of technology-supported teaching and
learning, conceptual explorations of technology-enhanced teaching
and learning, and other events designed to encourage exploration and
showcasing of effective teaching practices.
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6. How would it get off the ground?
•Administrative assistance to manage meetings, events, and
communication efforts.
• Training and educational efforts to orient new participants to the
CoP and to existing technologies.
• Training and educational efforts to help disseminate new
technologies and practices to a wider audience.
• Development, purchasing or hosting of community software or
hardware.
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7. The Story Re-imagined
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8. Collaborators
DaneenBergland, daneen@pdx.edu
Leanne Serbulo, serbulo@pdx.edu
Bob Liebman, liebmanr@pdx.edu
Michael Flower, flowerm@pdx.edu
Thom Hines, thines@pdx.edu
Steve Gance, sgance@pdx.edu
Anne McClanan, anne@pdx.edu
Amy Spring, springa@pdx.edu
Amy Hofer, ahofer@pdx.edu
Janelle Voegele, voegelej@pdx.edu
(And any others with an interest in CoP)
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