Diffusing Wenger

While reading Wenger, one question repeatedly arose in my mind, in several forms: Does one need to learn in order to be in a community of practice? In other words (Wenger is fond of this phrase), does practice imply learning? Can communities of practice exist where learning does not? This view is somewhat antithetical to my usual views on learning (that it is ongoing, permanent, omnipresent; that almost anything can be considered "learning"), but Wenger defines learning more in a sociohistorical sense (social theory of learning: that we learn from/through/with/because of others). Let's take Wenger's claims processing example, and say we have the same group of five claims processors who have all been there for a period of time (i.e. no newcomers) who have been working with the same forms for that time (i.e. no revisions or new software). Although the individual claims processed change, one might say these five people have fallen into a "routine," and they all know each other well enough that they have their niches in this community. What are they learning, and how? If they are not learning, are they no longer a community of practice? (I think I know how Wenger would answer these questions, but I'm curious to see how you think and whether you agree with Wenger.) I also wonder if Rogers's (I don't know why "Rogers's" is coming up as a spelling error, because it is not!) "groups," "social system," etc. would also be considered communities, because the way Rogers describes them makes them sound like accidental communities. This is how I would have defined communities before this class; we added "interaction" as one of the necessary components of a community.<rant> Rogers mentioned socioeconomic status as one factor affecting diffusion [of technologies]. HA! I mean, I agree. The other factors mentioned should also affect the way we view learning communities: We have [already begun] to re-think the way we diffuse information in our classrooms, because students' backgrounds, cultures, etc. affect the way they will take to (accept or reject) innovations (new information). Teachers can't walk into a classroom with their white upper-middle-class attitudes and teaching styles and expect all their students to walk away fulfilled.</rant>