Building Communities of Practice with Mark Otter

IMPACT LEARNING

Production team:

Host : Maria Xenidou

Producer: Julie-Roxane Krikorian

Introduction Voice: David Bourne

Contact us:

[e-mail]

Music credits:

Like Lee performed by The Mini Vandals

Transition sounds: Swamp Walks performed by Jingle Punks

Where to find Mark Otter and Participate:

Participate

Participate on LinkedIn

Twitter @participate

Mark on LinkedIn

Twitter @markjotter

Mentioned in this episode:

Participate Learning (formerly VIF International Education)

InSide Out Initiative

Moodle - Open-source learning platform

Bit Space

Transitioning Between the Inner and Outer Loop by Simon Terry

Empatico - Connect your Classroom to the World

Listen to this episode and explore:

Childhood: Watching his parents study alongside their children to advance their education (2:57)

Studying evolutionary biology in college and becoming a teacher (5:29)

Mark's international teaching career (7:30)

Being a teacher in different countries: Canada, USA, UK (8:29)

Leaving teaching to become a researcher for VIF International Education (11:34)

Climbing the ladder at VIF from researcher to Chief Operating Officer (12:39)

Participate is born: how VIF became Participate Learning (14:22)

Participate: what it’s for and who it’s for (18:36)

What are the communities of practice (21:12)

Participate’s role in building and growing communities (26:06)

How Participate helps engaging members: Community personas and proven tactics (28:00)

The leaders of communities of practice (31:15)

The benefits of communities of practice vs other communities (33:01)

The benefits of time-bound learning experiences (35:47)

The people that Participate serves (40:01)

How the community helps the learners: being clear on the WHY behind the community (41:55)

Customized learning tools on the Participate platform (44:29)

The potential use of the Participate model for learning and development for corporations (47:14)

The importance of building communities with people, not for people (49:57)

The difference between cooperative learning and collaborative learning (52:27)

The biggest challenge: finding the right people who want to join these communities of practice (55:18)

What Mark sees as the future of learning and work (56:31)

What Mark wants to leave his Mark on during his lifetime (58:09)

Where to find Mark and Participate (1:00:59)

Maria's takeaways related to communities of practice (1:02:05)