Networks as learning communities - Shaping the future of teacher development

As technology transforms the institutions of society, changing the way that people work, communicate, and learn, schools must accommodate and adapt to these new conditions. Unfortunately, schools and school systems organized bureaucratically have difficulty changing. Educational reform networks are particularly well suited to making use of new technology and institutional arrangements. By their very nature, they are flexible, borderless, and innovative; they are able to create collaborative environments,focus their efforts, and develop agendas that grow and change with their participants. Studying reform networks, collaboratives, partnerships external to schools, and communities inside schools has taught a great deal about the organizational conditions and practices that support and sustain teacher learning over time. Teacher educators who collaborate with, learn from, and make use of the knowledge created by these networks are helping to recreate the meaning of scholarship itself, not only for teachers, but for themselves as well.