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Web 2 is all about people sharing knowledge and experiences by creating communities of practice (CoP). This group is an example of creating a community of learning around the use of Web 2 and ICT for learning and teaching in schools.

How can communities help teaching and learning?

Learning theories like Social Constructivism and situated cognition all support learning in a social context.

Some Reading:

• Becoming a Learning Community

How do I create an online community?

Easy capeasy:

• Pick a tool (platform)

  • Yahoo groups

    • Message distribution collected in a threaded way, file uploads and folders, Polls, calendar, link section

  • Google Groups

    • Wiki-like interface (members can change pages), comments, discussions, pages

    • Open a "How To" Document

• Make your pages / start off the discussion with an e-mail message to the group which then automatically is send to everybody who are subscribed

Some worthwhile online communities

• FET User group  (South African)
  This is an e-mail discussion group for all South African Mathematics teachers seeking support in the implementation of the new FET mathematics, mathematics literacy and additional mathematics curricula. It is a moderated group and you need to register before being able to submit messages and resources to the rest of the community. To co to the community click here: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/maths_fet/
• Maths literacy teachers community   (South African)
  This community belongs to ML teachers and endeavours to create a community where we can learn, interact and reflect on our teaching of ML. We can help and support each other in a non- threatening, online environment, share resources and experiences and implement best practices. A Maths Literacy Group has been created at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mathsliteracy (where it will be till we have our own community tools up and running). Any ML teacher or interested party can register to become part of this community. To download an information document with instructions, click here. For more information on Maths literacy, go to the ML area
• CAT group. For more info and to be added to the group, contact Julie at julfla@michaelhouse.org
• Mathforum  (International)
  Very useful forum to belong to as a maths teacher. Here you can find out about new software tools at Mathtool, talk to other maths teachers across the world, share ideas as well as ask questions and get help from the ever-popular Dr. Math , ask questions about teaching maths in the Teacher2Teacher  forum and lots more.
• LearningTechnologiesSIG· IATEFL Learning Technologies SIG
  The SIG is concerned with the applications of new technologies to English language learning. The SIG includes among its interests the use of corpora and concordancers, multimedia, computer mediated communication, text-based software, authoring, the WWW, Interactive Whiteboards and also the more technical issues Any and all of these, of course, have powerful uses in the many contexts which are EFL, from Young Learners, Independence, ESP, Business English, Teacher training, and indeed for all of the other SIGs.
  

Other:

• http://www.learningtimes.net/
• Professional Development for Educators: Tapit in