Building virtual communities : learning and change in cyberspace / edited by K. Ann Renninger, Wesley Shumar.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Renninger, K. Ann.

Shumar, Wesley.

Series:

Learning in doing

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Electronic villages (Computer networks).

Internet--Social aspects.

Internet.

Computer networks--Social aspects.

Computer networks.

Physical Description:

xxxi, 380 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, U.K. ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Summary:

Building Virtual Communities examines how learning and cognitive change are fostered by online communities. Contributors to this volume explore this question by drawing on their different theoretical backgrounds. methodologies, and personal experience with virtual communities. Each chapter discusses of the different meanings of terms community, learning, and change. Case studies are included for further clarification. Together, these chapters describe the building out of virtual communities in terms that are relevant to theorists, researchers, and practitioners. The chapters provide a basis for thinking about the dynamics of Internet community building. This includes consideration of the role of the self or individual as a participant in virtual community, and the design and refinement of technology as the conduit for extending and enhancing the possibilities of community building in cyberspace. Building Virtual Communities will interest educators, psychologists, sociologists, and researchers in human-computer interaction.

Contents:

Foreword: Virtual Communities for Learning and Development

A Look to the Past and Some Glimpses into the Future / Michael Cole xxi

Introduction: On Conceptualizing Community / Wesley Shumar, K. Ann Renninger 1

Part 1 Types of Community

1 The Mystery of the Death of MediaMOO: Seven Years of Evolution of an Online Community / Amy Bruckman, Carlos Jensen 21

2 Female Voices in Virtual Reality: Drawing Young Girls into an Online World / Ann Locke Davidson, Janet Ward Schofield 34

3 Community Building with and for Teachers at The Math Forum / K. Ann Renninger, Wesley Shumar 60

4 Learning in the Virtual Community Depends upon Changes in Local Communities / Beverly Hunter 96

Part 2 Structures and Community

5 Evolution of an Online Education Community of Practice / Mark S. Schlager, Judith Fusco, Patricia Schank 129

6 Building Social Networks Via Computer Networks: Creating and Sustaining Distributed Learning Communities / Caroline Haythornthwaite 159

7 Mask and Identity: The Hermeneutics of Self-Construction in the Information Age / Dorian Wiszniewski, Richard Coyne 191

8 WISE Learning Communities: Design Considerations / Alex J. Cuthbert, Douglas B. Clark, Marcia C. Linn 215

Part 3 Possibilities for Community

9 Reflexive Modernization and the Emergence of Wired Self-Help / Roger Burrows, Sarah Nettleton 249

10 Understanding the Life Cycles of Network-Based Learning Communities / James Levin, Raoul Cervantes 269

11 Learning in Cyberspace: An Educational View of Virtual Community / D. Jason Nolan, Joel Weiss 293

12 Finding the Ties That Bind: Tools in Support of a Knowledge-Building Community / Christopher Hoadley, Roy D. Pea 321

Afterword: Building Our Knowledge of Virtual Community: Some Responses / David Hakken 355

Afterword: Building, Buying, or Being There: Imagining Online Community / Steven G. Jones 368.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0521780756

0521785588

OCLC:

48098551