Web-based Learning Solutions for Communities of Practice

Using Storytelling as the Pedagogical Model for Web-Based Learning
narrative form is that we can reconstruct our experiences
as new narratives in new contexts, and
derive new meanings from them.
Storytelling is such a powerful means of communication
because it can fulfill a basic need
of all human beings, i.e. to have their emotions
engaged and moved. As a corollary, only stories
that can engage and move human emotions can
succeed (Sharda, 2005).
Need for a New Pedagogy
A new pedagogy is required because the traditional
pedagogy has proven to be ineffective at many
levels. We are social beings and have learnt a lot
from social interactions; however, the lecture
oriented pedagogy does not recognize this fully.
Wenger (1991) poses the rhetorical question:
Why is it then that we always think of learning
in individualistic terms of acquisition of information?
We associate it with lecturing teachers,
with orderly classrooms, with didactic training
sessions, or with lonely evenings of homework.
We think of individual capabilities judged in
standardized terms of intelligence. And we think
of books, assuming that information exists on
paper or in words, there to be acquired by individual
minds?
We need to move away from such purely classroom
and lecture oriented pedagogy and device
a new pedagogical model. This new pedagogy
has to provide the opportunity to all for learning
on-demand, i.e. free from stringent time and
location constraints. Some of the challenges that
predicate the need for this new pedagogy included
the following.
Most industries need to tackle increased competition
in the modern globalised economy. Moreover,
today technological advances take place at
an unprecedented rate, and this demands ongoing
retraining of staff and management. Developing,
organizing and running formal courses is very
expensive. If the employees have to be sent away
to a training centre at another location, the cost of
transportation and accommodation, and the loss
incurred due to their absence adds to excessive
cost for retraining.
Increased competition in the industry also requires
that employees become more creative and
innovative. In today’s business world, a company
can gain competitive advantage over its rivals
mainly by creating new innovative products, and
by marketing these with innovative campaigns.
Creativity and innovation require the ability to
make connections between different domains of
knowledge and experience (Stevens, 2007). And
often, as we hear someone else’s experience,
we connect it with our problems and get new
insights for solving the problem in some innovative
manner.
These days no one has a job for life with one
company, or in just one area of expertise. This
demands that we all become lifelong learners.
How should this lifelong learning take place,
and be available when we want it and where we
can afford to access it? How can we learn about
the latest technology when the traditional teachers
have not yet had the opportunity to learn it
themselves, let alone create good course to teach
the same?
Such questions have led to the development
of communities of practice, i.e. groups formed to
share knowledge and practical experiences in a
specific domain of business or personal life.
Communities of Practice (CoP)
Even though the term Communities of Practice
is a recent coinage, the idea is as old as humanity.
In fact, it predates the development of formal
models of learning. Even in the modern world
people have been using informal communities
of practice for sharing problems and devising
solutions: around the cooler, in the dining hall,
and over a cup of coffee.
Nickolas (2003) defines two types of CoPs:
Self-Organizing and Sponsored. Self-organizing
CoPs are started by a group of members inter-
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