Private (Practice) Meets Communities of Practice

We often think of communities of practices being made up of educators and researchers from land-grant universities. Some communities of practices have members from the military or from government agencies. In this session, we will give an example of how an individual with his own business connected with Military Families Learning Network and Network Literacy Community of Practice and how all involved have benefited. While both communities of practices value contributions of the public, Jerry is regular contributor. We will begin our discussion by explaining how Jerry Buchko first connected to these two communities of practices. Then we will describe how he connects and contributes. We will also explore how his involvement has provided benefits to him, his private practice, and these two communities of practices’ work and activities. We will conclude the session by giving ideas for other communities of practice to open their membership to others outside of education and government.