Two Summaries: History of CALL and Online Communities of Practice

Zeynep BAŞER


History of CALL

CALL began in 1960 with mainstream drills and practice materials, but it was ignored until the spread of microcomputer into education in the early 1980s. Thanks to the HyperCard, Apple Macintosh had an important place in late 1980s and early 1990s. Although HyperCard and The Mac were easy to work with, they did not support colour and were more expensive. The commercial programs like Windows were prepared for PCs. During this period, teachers used the computer especially for the interaction of the learners efficiently. With the help of increase in language learning based on computer and web, CALL started to have a significant place in language learning area.


Online Communities of Practice

What are communities of practice?
They are the group of people who come together to share their knowledge and interests. However, all the group of people who come together are not a community of practice. It includes these three characteristics:
1. Domain (a common, shared point)
2. The community (interaction between the members, learning together)
3. The practice (shared practice)

What do communities of practice look like?
Communities of practice which are also known with several names are in everywhere learning happens together. They have a variety of forms such as small or big, face to face or online. They use lots of activities.

Where does the concept come from?
The term communities of practice refer to a complex set of relationship between journeymen and apprentices.

Where is the concept being applied?
This concept has found lots of application area such as, organizations, government, education, associations, social sector, international development and the web.