Through participating in online communities of practice, the author has gained valuable skills and experience in facilitating online learning. Interacting with other teachers in an online module showed the benefits of collaborative learning and building knowledge together. The skills and knowledge gained through online communities motivated the author and provided opportunities to further their professional development. Participating in online communities also led to awards, developing training modules, and presenting case studies to other educators. The author now pursues research on virtual worlds in education, continuing to learn from online communities of practice.

1. How online communities of practice have influenced my ICT CPD? Dr Katya Toneva’s personal reflection on examples of using online CoP My online discussions with a group of teachers within a module for e-facilitation (run by Dr John Cuthell and Christina Preston, 2004) showed me the real power of collaborative learning and building up knowledge on the basis of mutual support and reflective feedback. The knowledge and skills for e-facilitation I built up working with teacher online communities have motivated me largely by creating conditions that focus my efforts, such as opportunities for further professional collaboration, feedback on student performance and a clear goal.

2. I had the pleasure of receiving JISC South-East “eLearning Award’09” for my Case studies for using online educational forums; I have developed an online module for Naace/TDA based on a practical model for using online educational forums (ICT CPD for teachers); I have run seminars for teachers (S7 Colleges Consortium) to promote my pilot project and case studies on using online educational forums; I was given the opportunity to present my case studies to JISC South-East community of practice using a video-conference. Invitations to disseminate Case studies

3. Screenshots from a video online conference (Adobe Acrobat Connect software) with JISC South-East community. Topic: “Using online forums to enhance students' interaction, reflection and peer assessment”. Presenter: Dr Katya Toneva Conference Presenter Text messenger Conference Host Online Ppt presentation Online Ppt presentaion

4. What next? My new ICT CPD passion is a research on Virtual Worlds in education and I have found the right people and ideas again through MirandaNet CoP. MirandaNet CoP experience has been the most powerful catalyst for my ICT CPD.