But how can we get better value from the various communities of practice and learning networks we choose or are guided to join?

It helps to know that there are many different types of communities of practice and learning networks for a start; and that a considerable body of research in recent years has helped identify the characteristics and practices that make such learning experiences more meaningful and useful to teachers and other involved in education.

The course Maximizing Value from Professional Learning Networks sets out to introduce participants to the most interesting and in some cases surprising findings on how networks actually work… and how we can tell the better ones from the rest.

The course aims to help participants become more ‘network aware’ and so gain a better appreciation of the collaborative and active nature of the learning that takes place in good networks and how to take advantage of this. It also introduces a framework that can be used to help gauge personal learning and development within a networked community or network – which will be useful to teachers thinking about setting up their own learning networks whether local to a school or reaching far beyond a single geographical setting.