Term

Fall 2022

Capstone

Capstone Project

Degree Name

MAED: NSEE

Facilitator(s)

Patty Born

Content Expert

Kimberly Gates

Abstract

Informal educators face barriers in delivering high-quality educational experiences. As they are not formally connected with teacher training programs, they frequently receive more content-area knowledge than pedagogical instruction. Thus, informal educators are challenged to discover and master best practices in their field on their own. Economic and learning theorists indicate that professionals share best practices through various socially mediated structures, such as peer learning, culminating in a spontaneous intragroup support structure which Wegner termed a community of practice. Many informal educators, however, cannot participate in such communities because they are physically located in different sites from colleagues performing similar work. Marketing researchers like McClung and Johnson and others have noted that online tools can supplement the community of practice model for professionals separated by geographical distance. This project curates a podcast, website, and electronic newsletter for informal educators. The podcast contains conversations with dozens of informal educators; the website and electronic newsletter expand on those conversations with connections to pedagogical theory. The project’s goal is for these electronic tools to provide information and communications channels for informal educators, thus facilitating a virtual conversation that will eventually support a community of practice.

Project Type

Podcast, Blog, and Electronic Newsletter

Keywords

Community Building, Staff Development

Additional Files
Charles, Graham Project.pdf (1095 kB)

dc_type

text

dc_publisher

DigitalCommons@Hamline

dc_format

application/pdf

dc_source

School of Education Student Capstone Projects

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