The in vogue term for communities of practice in schools is the Professional Learning Community. Based on the work of Rick Dufour (1998), the PLC movement is common best practice for schools engaged in any transformation or reform practice. Like a social network, the professional learning community is made up of individuals connected by some purpose. Unlike social networks, they typically limited to the school site.
One of my favorite resources for school reform is the National Staff Development Council website and they have a very good annotated bibliography on Learning Communities at: http://www.nsdc.org/standards/learningcommunities.cfm
It takes most schools several years to build a culture where teams of teachers collaborate successfully. It is more than ironic that while we take forever to work together, we are now looking at creating learning experiences for students to work together right now. The question is can we help students network with one another, in and out of school and beyond, when we can barely do it ourselves?
Check out this group that has created a learning community of school districts in Second Life
DuFour, R. & Eaker, R. (1998). Professional learning communities at work: Best practices for enhancing student achievement. Bloomington, IN: National Educational Service and Alexandria, VA: Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development.
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