Abstract:

Communities of practice are knowledge management tools used to provide collaborative learning in professional practices. A community of practice provides learning in the individual perspective of each participant and in the organizational perspective, that is, it produces interdisciplinary knowledge beneficial to the organization in which it is developed and to its participants. They present themselves in the face-to-face and virtual approaches. The increasing use of digital technologies created the bases for the development of virtual communities of practice - VCoP. Online learning has created the basis for the development of VCoP where participants collaborate actively exploring new areas of knowledge. In this context, we set out to investigate how collaborative learning through a VCoP is capable of improving the management practices of administrative contracts, as well as contributing to the integral human formation - IHF of its members, in the ambit of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Sul - IFRS. In this work we present some trresults from our research, considering the institutional and individual benefits that VCoP can provide in public organizations as well as the relationship between the CoP and the IHF. The methodology consisted of bibliographic research aimed at knowing communities of practice in Brazilian public organizations. The results of the research indicate that all the VCoP investigated provide institutional and individual benefits. Besides, the development of cognitive, ethical, social and affective dimensions of the VCoP participants contributing to the IHF, even if not intentionally. Based on the findings of this research, a VCoP will be conceived at IFRS, with the purpose of providing collaborative learning.

Acknowledgements:
This study was supported by the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Sul (IFRS), IFRS/ProfEPT.

Keywords:

Community of Practice, Integral Human Formation, Public Organizations, Professional and Technological Education.