Call for participation in communities of practice for technical staff
By Jimmy Muldoon, TDN Chair, Senior Technical Officer, School of Chemistry.
The UCD Technical Development Network is initially working to map the University technical space with a view to supporting the development of Technical Communities of Practice, and to subsequently provide training opportunities which will stand to staff as part of their personnel record. We also aim to provide networking for technical groups throughout the University, and to provide an advocacy role for technical staff both internally and externally. This will help to more efficiently engage with existing supports which may be available and to promote our members’ activities, skills and overall contributions to University activity.
In the current educational environment it is more important than ever to build such communities in the Technical space of the University. By fostering collaboration between technical units engaged in similar activities throughout the University, we can achieve a number of improvements. We can more effectively exact the maximum potential from limited equipment and training resources. We can achieve cost savings through sharing of knowledge and abilities. As individuals, we can grow through peer mentorship and preservation of institutional knowledge. We can generate new opportunities for continual personal development in a structured way, with the backing and support of our colleagues in HR and Agile.
Over the coming months we shall develop a website which will outline our activities thus far, and serve as a reference for supports and materials that we provide.
We welcome the participation of all technically-oriented staff, and hope to strengthen, improve and foster the development of the UCD technical network in both an operational and cultural sense in the years to come.
Notes:
UCD Agile has been tasked with improving the operations ecosystem of the University. One of the initiatives undertaken to achieve this goal has been the facilitation of “Communities of Practice”.
A Community of Practice is defined as “a network of enthusiasts who share and create knowledge about a shared interest area.”
Members of a CoP “come together to build and share knowledge, to build and share skills, to build networks, and to build recognition” [1].
A Community of Practice is defined as “a network of enthusiasts who share and create knowledge about a shared interest area.”
Members of a CoP “come together to build and share knowledge, to build and share skills, to build networks, and to build recognition” [1].