1.2 CoI, FRP, AHE – description and engagement
Communities of Interest (CoIs) involve people from different Communities of Practice (CoPs) with various domains of knowledge, different practices, and diverse perspectives who share a concern or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and develop joint expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis [1] (Wenger et al., 2002, p. 4). For instance, a team that cooperates for designing Learning Analytics for educational exploratory applications, comprising teachers, university students, educational researchers and developers, can be considered as a CoI. By bringing different CoPs (Communities of Practice) together, CoIs provide a context rich in opportunities for transcending individual perspectives, cultivating social creativity and supporting the common interest that links them (Fischer, 2001; Kynigos & Daskolia, 2021).
TransEET proposes that structuring and mobilising a CoI can be supported by two elements: a) a continuous Flow of Rapid Prototypes (FRP) and b) the cultivation of Actors with Hybrid Expertise (AHE).
The ‘Flow of Rapid Prototypes’ (FRP) is a continuous co-creative process where research ideas and digital productions are co-evolved through the exchange of rapid prototypes, “primitive representations or versions of a product that a design team or development team typically creates during the design process (Smith, 2019). The goal of a prototype is to test the flow of a design idea and gather feedback on it—from both internal and external parties—before constructing the final product (Smith, 2019). In this context a prototype is “usable” meaning it is ready to be used and tested. In this sense it can be intended as complete. However it is always “improvable”, i.e. under discussion and re-design. The state of a prototype is fluid as the team revises the design iteratively based on user feedback.
In this line during the FRP within a CoI, a CoI member can take the role of either a designer or a reviewer of a RP. In both cases, they can collaborate with another CoI member, or with a small group of CoI members. Thus, the FRP process includes both the design and the review processes. In the context of the TransEET project, prototypes are always under discussion for extension, based on the CoI members’ views. This process involves practices of decision-making, problem posing, inventiveness and creativity.
Even though in the context of industrial manufacturing, the term ‘Rapid prototyping’ refers to any process that produces prototypes quickly focusing on productivity, in the context of a CoI the term “rapid” remains dependent on the context, encompassing processes that can generate prototypes overnight or within a week or more. Rapid prototypes involve improvable boundary objects; i.e., artifacts that fulfill a specific function in bridging intersecting practices within a CoI, in other words “crossing boundaries” (Bakker & Akkerman, 2019). Crossing boundaries is connected to encountering difference, entering into territories in which we are unfamiliar and, to some significant extent therefore, unqualified (Suchman, 1994). As members are engaged in boundary crossing, they become actors with hybrid expertise (AhE) as they combine knowledge and skills from diverse scientific fields (e.g., computer science and math, arts and engineering) promoting a transdisciplinary approach to research.Together, the three elements of CoI, FRP and AHE (the “Co.F.E. elements”) compose the TransEET methodological scheme for helping you to forge a sustainable twinning aimed at producing added value in research excellence and impact in the education sector.