Learning in the Virtual Community Depends upon Changes in Local Communities

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511606373.009

4 - Learning in the Virtual Community Depends upon Changes in Local Communities

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 November 2009

Beverly Hunter

Edited by

K. Ann Renninger and

Wesley Shumar

Show author details

Beverly Hunter: Affiliation:
Piedmont Research Institute 130 Mossie Lane Amissville, VA 20106 [email protected]
K. Ann Renninger: Affiliation:
Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania
Wesley Shumar: Affiliation:
Drexel University, Philadelphia

Book contents

Get access

Summary

In this chapter, a virtual community is defined as a group of people whointeract with each other, learn from each others' work, and provide knowledge and information resources to the group related to certain agreed-upon topics of shared interest. A defining characteristic of a virtual community in this sense is that a person or institution must be a contributor to the evolving knowledge base of the group and not just a recipient or consumer of the group's services or knowledge base. Members and the community as a whole take advantage of information technologies and telecommunications for these purposes, in addition to face-to-face interactions they may have. The notion of learning as applied to a virtual community means that there is a mutual knowledge-building process taking place. Members learn both by teaching others and by applying to their own situations the information, tools, know-how, and experiences provided by others in the virtual community. In contrast, a local community is a group of people and organizations who have common interests, concerns, and mutual interdependence by virtue of their living and working in a geographic locality under a common government. In both of the case studies discussed in this chapter, efforts were made to strengthen local communities through applications of information technologies and telecommunications.

Learning and change in the virtual community is increasingly interdependent with learning and change in the participants' local institutions and local communities. This is a fundamental difference from earlier virtual communities.

Type: Chapter
Information: Building Virtual Communities
Learning and Change in Cyberspace
, pp. 96 - 126

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511606373.009 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Becker, H. (1996a). The local community can become an important focus of school network activity, [World Wide Web page]. Available: nsn.bbn.com/community/hb_sch_com/sch_com_toc.html [27 November 2001]

Becker, H. (1996b). National School Network Testbed Phase 2: Baseline survey of testbed-participating schools. Report presented for the National School Network Workshop at the National Educational Computing Conference, Minneapolis, MN. Available: www.nsn.bbn.com/resources/research/overview.html [27 November 2001]

Becker, H. (1997). Two years of progress in the national school network schools. Paper presented at TelEd*97, Austin, TX. Available: www.gse.uci.edu/Ravitz/becker_teled97/overheads_explained.html [27 November2001]

Becker, H., & Ravitz, J. (1997). The equity threat of promising innovations: The Internet in schools. Paper presented as part of the Internet and Equity in Education Symposium (Phillip Bowman, Chair) at the 1997 SPSSI Conference of the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Chicago. Available: www.gse.uci.edu/Ravitz/equity.html

Becker, H. J. (1999). Internet use by teachers (Report No. 1). Irvine: University of California, Irvine, Teaching Learning & Computing study, Department of Education

BrownLAB (1999). Electronic collaboration: A practical guide for educators. Providence, RI: Brown University, Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory

Goldman, M. (1997). School–community partnerships: Potential hero in today's transformation in two years of progress in the National School Network schools. Paper presented at TelEd*97, Austin, TX. Available: www.gse.uci.edu/Ravitz/school_community_partner.html [27 November 2001]

Goldman, M. (1998). Telecommunications changes the relationship between schools and their communities. Paper presented at Consortium for School Networking 3rd Annual Conference: K-12 School Networking on the Information Superhighway, Washington, DC. Available: www.gse.uci.edu/Ravitz/MGoldman_CoSN98.html [27 November 2001]

Goldman, M., & Laserna, C. (1997). Building school community relationships: National School Network testbed research [World Wide Web page]. Available: nsn.bbn.com/resources/research/buildsch_com.html [27 November 2001]

Hunter, B. (1992). Linking for learning: Computer-and-communications network support for nationwide innovation in education. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 1 (1), 23–34CrossRef Google Scholar

Hunter, B. (1993). NSF's networked testbeds inform innovation in science education. T.H.E. Journal, October

Hunter, B. (1994). Overview National School Network testbed [World Wide Web page]. Available: www.gse.uci.edu/Ravitz/overview NSNT.html [27 November 2001]

Hunter, B. (1995a). Learning and teaching on the Internet: Contributing to educational reform. In B. Kahin and J. Keller (Eds.), Public access to the Internet. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 85–114

Hunter, B. (1995b). Internetworking and educational reform: The National School Network testbed. Paper presented at the 1995 INET Conference in Hawaii. Available: www.isoc.org/HMP/PAPER/065/html/paper.html

Hunter, B. (1997a). Fostering collaborative knowledge-building: Lessons learned from the National School Network testbed. In B. Collis & G. Knezek (Eds.), Teaching & learning in the digital age: Research into practice with telecommunications in educational settings. Eugene, OR: ISTE. Paper presented at the Annual Telecommunications in Education (TelEd) Conference, Austin, TX. Available: http://nsn.bbn.com/dissemination/docs/Hunter_TelEd97.html

Hunter, B. (1997b). Learning in an internetworked world. In Institute for Information Studies (Eds.), The Internet as paradigm. Queenstown, MD: Institute for Information Studies

Hunter, B. (1998). Internetworking and educational reform: Are these different subjects? Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Committee on School Networking (CoSN), Washington, DC. Available: www.gse.uci.edu/Ravitz/cosn98.hunter/

Math Forum. (1999). The Math Forum [World Wide Web page]. Available: www.mathforum.org [27 November 2001]

Moore, G. (1991). Crossing the chasm: Marketing and selling high-tech products to the mainstream customers. New York: Harper Collins Business

Newman, D., Bernstein, S., & Reese, P. (1992). Local infrastructures for school networking: Current models and prospects. BBN Report No. 7726. Cambridge, MA: BBN Corporation

NSN Newsletter 16, (1996), Available: nsn.bbn.com/news/newsletters/index.shtml [27 November 2001]

Ravitz, J. (1997). What do Internet-using teachers say about their Internet use? Paper presented at Tel*Ed97 in session titled Two Years of Progress in the National School Network Schools, Austin, TX. Available: nsn.bbn.com/nsn_learnings/iut.html [27 November 2001]

Ravitz, J. (1998). Conditions that facilitate teachers' Internet use in schools with high Internet connectivity: Preliminary findings. Paper presented at the annual meeting of Association of Educational Communications and Technology, St. Louis. Available: www.gse.uci.edu/Ravitz/Ravitz_AECT98.html

Ravitz, J. & Serim, F. (1997). Summary of first year evaluation report for the Online Internet Institute. Proceedings of the Edward F. Kelly Evaluation Conference, State University of New York, Albany. Available: copernicus.bbn.com/Ravitz/oii_summary.html

Spitzer, B., Wedding, K., and DiMauro, V. (1994). Fostering reflective dialogues for teacher professional development. Cambridge, MA: TERC. Available: www.terc.edu/papers/labnet/Guide/Fostering_Refl_Dialogues.html [27 November 2001]

TEECH (1997).Teacher Enhancement Electronic Communication Hall [World Wide Web page]. Available: teech.terc.edu [27 November 2001]

Toward universal participation in the NII: Phase 2 of a National School Network testbed. (1994). Proposal submitted to the Program on Networking Infrastructure for Education, NSF 94–5, National Science Foundation. BBN Proposal P94-STD-354, April 1994. Available: www.gse.uci.edu/Ravitz/TB2_proposal.pdf [27 November 2001]

Vanguard for Learning (1999). All Vanguard reports [World Wide Web page]. Available: learning.bc.edu/vanguard [27 November 2001]

Book contents

4 - Learning in the Virtual Community Depends upon Changes in Local Communities

Summary

Access options

References

Save book to Kindle

Save book to Dropbox

Save book to Google Drive