Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to present a project to develop a web 2.0 community of practice (CoP) on the management of multilingualism at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) on the basis of a learning-by-working paradigm.
The theoretical framework for the project is based on the work on CoP developed by E. Wenger, and work by other authors, such as Nonaka, Hildreth & Kimble, Cross & Baird, Synder, Brown & Duguid, and Rotta.
CoPs are an innovative solution for producing knowledge in the workplace from a social-constructionist view: members of the CoP contribute through their experience, expertise, and their specific situated knowledge to share best practices. carry out proposals and produce guidelines and reference texts. In the case presented here, the CoP is aimed at building up collaboratively productions of knowledge on the management of multilingualism at the UAB, in the context of its Plan for languages: a strategic pledge for multilingualism, approved last July, and to be developed in action plans.
Some examples of these productions of knowledge are: to draw up a guide for teaching staff with criteria or orientation for managing multilingualism in the classroom; to design and disseminate a model that shows the scale of multilingualism at the University; and to make a criteria document available for institutional use in communications.
As for the organization and working methodology, the CoP is designed to be made up of technical staff working at the Language Service of the University, as well as some academic staff who are carrying out research into multilingualism. The CoP has a moderator whose functions are to act as a community facilitator, i.e. to set up the community, provide resources, facilitate the engagement of its members, etc.
The methodological approach is blended learning, with the intensive use of ICT as a medium for communication, learning and knowledge production. Face-to-face sessions are also considered, in order to increase community engagement and cohesion.
A Moodle environment prototype has been designed to be used as an intranet network for knowledge management and learning, an environment where the members of the CoP can collaboratively build up their productions of knowledge and share their experiences. The Moodle environment has been organised by topics, and Moodle modules, activities and resources are used to build up and share knowledge production. Besides Moodle native resources, web 2.0 tools have also been used: UAB blogs, Twitter (microblogging), Mr Wong (social bookmarking), Slideshare (presentations), UABTube (video), most of which are integrated in the Moodle html blocks. The use of these resources in social working methods allows the CoP to reach beyond the UAB. It is an interesting option given the current distribution, complexity and diversification of knowledge production which has resulted in an increasing trend for organisations to learn together and from one another. The resources or products developed using these tools are available online, but they are also integrated in the Moodle environment in order to provide the CoP with a central learning and working environment that includes all the tools and resources used.

Keywords:

community of practice, web 2, 0, moodle, multilingualism.