Emergence of online Communities of Practice !

The constant pressure that a governments exerts on teachers to maintain high levels of teaching and learning has forced many teachers to seek alternative ways to remain competent in their profession, as in most cases the professional training programs organised by the education authorities still fail to fulfil their needs and learning preferences. The rise of new technologies has facilitated the creation of social networking sites such as Facebook, which provides a clear example of how teachers currently use online communities to support their acquisition of knowledge. Teachers join Facebook groups for various reasons according to their contexts, but the primary reason is that these groups can provide the support they need to cope with their daily teaching responsibilities and the government demands. The concepts around Communities of Practice, as proposed by Wenger (1998), sustain the creation and development of these online communities that use Facebook as a medium, where members with the same interests, goals and concerns gather together to collaborate and learn in social environments to provide meaningful answers and solutions for the benefit of all members in the community.

There is a strong reciprocal connection between the personal, professional and social aspects of an individual.