Communities of practice

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(2006) defines a community of practice as “a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly”. Those people are engaged in a process of collective learning and in a shared domain of human endeavor. There are three characteristics of a community of practice:
Domain: It refers to the identity defined for the commitment for learning for each other and also to the collective competence and share competence that people have.
Community: it refers to the interaction of the members of the group that way of sharing information and building relationships in order to learn together.
Practice: it refers to the shared practice for building the community own repertoire of resources according to the experiences, stories and tools they have used.
For professional development, community of practice is really useful given that it allows teachers to develop pedagogical discussions in order to solve problems in the classroom or in the educational environment, it also allows share experiences for having different suggestions from others in order to develop better resources, provide and receive meaningful feedback, adapt or adopt other’s successful methodologies, resources, activities or approaches. Besides, sharing experiences teachers have the possibility to be innovative by implementing different resources or technological tools.
For language learning, I consider that the most important issue is that it is possible to increase knowledge challenges, organize educational experiences and connect those experiences with the actual practice outside the classroom and out of the school which allows lifelong learning and social learning.

Social Networking in Plain English

Teachers around the world are increasingly using online social-networking tools in order to complement their classes and also to avoid the traditional isolation of the classroom. This help to develop more professional sharing in order to find better and new strategies for teaching practices will allow overall improvement in teaching and learning processes.
Social Networking is helpful to share with other in casual after-school conversations the different experiences that in different ways can help to improve others practices given that they can apply the same methods shared but taking into account the possible mistakes that can be avoided before the implementation of an activity.
Social Networking also allows teachers to discussing ideas with colleagues, sharing experiences, and getting answers to questions. It also helps to enhance teacher learning and career satisfaction by gathering suggestions on getting the most out of online collaboration.
Tools like Moodle, Ning, Twitter, blogs, wikis, podcasts and micro blogging have opened up a wealth of opportunities for teachers to learn from others - and each other.

Informal Learning

FORMAL LEARNING VS INFORMAL LEARNIN

In Formal Learning there is a High level of instruction and events imposed by others. the learning process is given in classroom classes, and directed conferences.

In Infromal learning people can learn from others by finding their own path and trying by themselves. The Learning is social and environmental because of that Informal learning is very important, due to the fact that it is the way in which people can share knowledge and also can learn from the different experiences, in tha way their performance is much better to face the ever-changing world given that they are prepared to assume roles and take risks, they are also ready to learn from erros by trying again and againg.

Sometimes the informal learning is hidden because education is shown as an institutionla issue, and the school could lose credibility and participants if they realize that they can have further learning by discovering themselves the nature of the things and the actions, due to the fact that "people is natural lifelong learners" (Cross, 2003). Besides in our country the system of education is organized according to Governmental conveniences.

Informal learning is associated with the next concepts:

Active learning
Collaboration
Community - based (Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory)
Curiosity
Good Connections
Lifelong Learning
Self - directed learning
Trial and Error

Informal and Formal learning can be supported each other, because not all the learners are ready to face their path by finding by themselves the resources, so with formal learning, learners can be guided to find the purposes of learning, and with informal learning, students can explore and aply what they are learning from other's instruction.

References:

Cross, Jay (2003) Informal Learning – the other 80%. Retrieved from
http://www.internettime.com/Learning/The%20Other%2080%25.htm [Available as
an E-resource]