2020 uiguides, 2021 Cohort
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A Community of Practice solidifies a reason to be passionate about knowledge in a subject and serves as an enterprise of collective actions to support it. As described by Wenger below, the degrees of community participation align with my idea of having UIF in the center, but still engaging with entities on campus that supports the goal in providing authentic learning experiences for students at Mines. “Authentic learning is learning designed to connect what students are taught in school to real-world issues, problems, and applications; learning experiences should mirror the complexities and ambiguities of real life” (ACEL)
There are already pathways to innovation and learning defined by the University Honors and Scholars Program. They support students in their interests in learning research, entrepreneurship endeavors, scholarly honors pedagogy, leadership skills, etc. Formal ways to support authentic learning will still be needed in spite of the CoP. This CoP would enhance these efforts and also involve other perspectives from staff and/or alumni who would also like to invest their time and efforts to the cause. Another example of existing efforts is the signature students experience/core curriculum committee who is formulating a new way to approach distinctive learning at Mines. This CoP can be a sounding board for the various proposals being made.
A CoP in authentic learning can be a portal for best practices in academics also by extension a way to curate ongoing students’ projects. Namely projects that are done by UIF-s but also ones done by a number of growing entities on campus who practice and support authentic learning, such as Democratize Creativity. There is also a university committee that aims for a positive culture change and end the notion of “surviving Mines”, and instead for community members to “thrive @ Mines”. Hence, having a CoP like this might seed a conversation about stimulating the love for learning instead of external motivation to study as means to an end.