Designing a Community of Practice (CoP) for Sri Lankan Language Teachers:

Lessons LearnedThe University of New Mexico & the National Institute of

Education in Sri Lanka

Contributors:Carrie Main (camain@unm.edu)

Charlotte N. Gunawardena (lani@unm.edu) Linda Barril (lbarril@unm.edu)

What is the Sri Lanka Community of Practice Project?

In 2009, the University of New Mexico (UNM) partnered with the National Institute of Education (NIE) in Sri Lanka to develop an online Community of Practice (CoP) for teachers enrolled in a Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) Diploma Program. The aim of this project was to develop an online learning community and activities the learning community could engage in to develop English teaching skills in Sri Lankan English teachers for whom English is a second language. This CoP project was a collaborative effort involving the Sri Lankan Ministry of Education, Sri Lankan curriculum developers and English teacher trainers, and the University of New Mexico, including a UNM mentor based in Colombo.

Prior to initiating the online CoP, the TESL Diploma Program relied on Google Groups, an online social collaboration site, to provide interaction among Sri Lankan English teachers living in remote areas of the country. Nevertheless, Google Groups did not provide the much needed organization for a Diploma Program, thus, the NIE asked a team of instructional designers at UNM to create a CoP for the diploma program in the Moodle Learning Management System. Transferring the TESL Community of Practice to the Moodle Learning Management System offered an interactive, and collaborative place for the for the Sri Lankan teachers to: complete coursework for the TESL diploma, share knowledge and best practices, access teaching resources, and learn about new technologies such as Moodle.

Some of the global elearning challeges and considerations the UNM instructional designers encountered during the creation of the TESL CoP in Moodle were access to broadband in Sri Lanka, computer literacy of the participating teachers, Moodle literacy, and sociocultural factors impacting learning and professional development.

Werger's Community of Practice Model

These three elements function as a “knowledge structure – a social structure that can assume responsibility for developing and sharing knowledge” (Wenger, 2002, p. 29).

DomainCommunity Practice

Sociocultural Factors in Course Development

Individualism/Collectivism High-Context/Low-Context English as a Second

Language Visual Content Technical Infrastructure

Lessons Learned and Furture Considerations for Global Elearning Design

When working with another culture and English Language Learners, should communication be video conferencing? Does meaning get lost in text communication?

Should UNM have someone there more long-term to follow through/ support for the implementation of the project?

Would a blog been a better fit (transition) for this group of Sri Lankan Teachers? Scaffolding: google groups to blog, then, eventually, to Moodle?

References

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Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice. Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Wenger, E. (2002). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Learning in doing : social,

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