1
Virtual Communities
Mathur
Virtual Communities :
Providing engaging environments for learning
Abstract
This paper describes the advantages of virtual communities over virtual classrooms and how virtual communities can help bring more meaning and purpose to an activity for an individual. The concepts of collaborative learning, virtual environments, and Internet use are explored. The value of virtual communities and their goals as a learning tool are discussed. Examples of how virtual communities can help at college campuses are provided and the importance of a network with a common goal is emphasized. The advantages of participant-centered learning are discussed, and ideas for facilitating member interest and commitment are proposed. Suggestions on how to maintain successful virtual communities are provided, such as providing a facilitator,makingresources available that all can share, and developing a sense of trust among members. The challenges of implementing this technology such as costs, lack of technology support, and time investment, are presented as well. Finally, the future prospects for the technology and suggestions for further research are shared.
Introduction
Today’s world is full of instant messaging, cell phones, digital video, and many other communication tools. On college campuses, students often sit on their computer for hours on end, writing emails to friends, surfing the internet, or playing games. The internet has made the world much smaller. Students can access information from all around the world and communicate with people who share similar interests or opinions by just entering a chat room. Also, the internet opens the doors to an immeasurable about of information, articles, and resources for learning that would normally take hours in the library to find. With all these advances in technology, students are able to think of a question and immediately search for the answer on the internet. They can share their ideas with others instantly by chatting, and can gain feedback from professors on their questions easily through emails or discussion threads instead of having to wait for office hours.
All of these aspects of today’s society have changed the needs of students, especially those in college. Sitting in a classroom as the only method of discovery is often too slow-paced for today’s students, and does not engage them in a task that will both have a meaningful lesson and a connection to the student. Educational technology being implemented into school systems is often placed in the classroom without much support or planning. Placing 100 computers in a school will not automatically increase understanding or allow for better resources. The effectiveness of a technology in a particular context must be assessed. John Dewey in 1943 defined the greatest educational resource to be the natural impulses to inquire or to find out things to use language, and thereby to enter into the social world (Bruce and Levin 1997).
This drive to discover things on one’s own is reinforced by the internet and other technologies that allow people to search for their answers on their own, without the instruction of a teacher. Virtual learning environments are appealing because one of their basic empowerment characteristics is the control they offer to the learner (Ahmad, Piccoli, Ives). Virtual environments are unlike traditional classroom environments, in which the teacher stands at the front of the classroom and determines what will be discussed and learned. In virtual environments, everyone can play an active role in the learning process.
Cooperative work and learning has become more and more popular. Teachers and professors have realized the importance of communication and discovery without step-by-step guidance. Professors may assign group projects to encourage a synergy among the group members (Wachter et al. 2000). There is a philosophy of education called constructionism that asserts that people learn better when they are engaged in building personally meaningful artifacts and sharing them with others in a community (Papert 1980 in Bers 2001). In constructionism, people learn by exploring ideas and sharing their opinions with others. A teacher or mentor may help set-up the learning experience, but the student actually discovers in a “natural way” by just working with certain tools and making discoveries on his own. Virtual communities use networked technology, especially the internet, to establish collaboration across geographical barriers and time zones (Johnson 2001). Traditional communities usually include a group of people that live in a particular setting and have a particular way of life. For virtual communities, their shared place becomes the Internet, and their way of life involves working together to discuss a specific idea, or to accomplish a particular task. The key is that the ideas and task along with the rules for coming up with them are all created by the members themselves. In this way, they gain a sense of ownership over their own discovery and have a vested interest in being successful.
Virtual communities have been in existence since the early 1970s when scientists used the Internet and its antecedents to work together on research and exchange messages (Wachter et al. 2000). Today, virtual communities can help students in college participate more positively in distance learning, they can help people find their sense of identity, they can help connect consumers and producers in the business world, they can help discuss current issues and find solutions, and they can do much more. Virtual communities can be formed as educators from fields of academia, training, and business are all using the internet with the shared goal of fostering collaborative learning though community building (Rogers 2000). This paper hopes to introduce the idea of virtual environments, to discuss their uses to people in general, to discuss their value in colleges and in learning environments, to provide specific examples of how they have or can be used, to look at some of the limitations of the technology, and to discuss future directions of study regarding virtual communities.
Virtual classrooms versus virtual communities
It is important to note the difference between virtual classrooms and virtual communities. Virtual classrooms use technology to make communication between faculty and students easier. It allows professors to place lectures and grades up on electronic bulletin boards that the entire class can access from the comfort of their home or laptop. It allows the professor to post grades and progress of students so that there is an updated record of their work in the class. Virtual classrooms are particularly popular for distance education programs so that people all over the world can participate in a course, have access to resources, and communicate with professors. Although this use of technology to enhance the learning experience is beneficial in some cases, it is important to also see the weaknesses of virtual classrooms.
First, instructors for a course usually create their virtual classrooms themselves and thus determine what resources the course will utilize. If a student wants to use a resource that there is no setup for, he or she will have to pursue that technology or method on his or her own. Secondly, student interest and time investment in the virtual classroom may not be very high because courses usually only last a semester. For example, some virtual classrooms have e-mail lists, instant messaging capabilities, or skype (an internet telephony) that are included to promote communication and discussion among classmates. Often, this component of discussion counts for a small part of the students’ overall grade. Therefore, the students view interaction as a tool for the acquisition of a grade. They possess no notion of the construct of community (Wachter et al. 2000). The goal becomes to do what is necessary to earn the highest grade. Within these fixed structures, students must discuss and learn only the materials presented to them using the resources that are available. Additionally, they often engage in discussion for the sake of achieving a task or completing a task, instead of exploring or asking more questions (Wachter et al. 2000). Once the semester ends, researchers have noted that discussion forums do not continue to serve as a meaningful place for students because the course ends, grades are given, and the students move to there next task (Wachter et al. 2000). Having the ability to chat, to interact with websites, and to connect with classmates to complete assigned tasks does not necessarily lead to a sustained investment or interest in a particular learning environment.
Virtual communities, on the other hand, have characteristics that help a community member feel that they have an integral role in the group. Virtual communities include groups of people who have a desire to meet others who have had the same experiences, emotions, and interests. Let us consider the following hypothetical example. Imagine a college student eating her breakfast cereal and reading the morning newspaper. She reads a headline, “Local elementary school parents upset due to lack of healthy food choices for lunch.” The college student is a nutrition major and is very interested in childrens’ health. She proceeds to go on the internet, and search for the menus of the elementary school. She finds them on the school website, and proceeds to see various unhealthy foods. She then researches the internet for a website that explains the fat content and preservatives that exist in many of the foods the children eat. She then emails her friends who are also interested in the same topic. While doing more searches, a few of them find a chat room for “Students against childhood obesity.” The student raises the issue of unbalanced meals in a cafeteria. The group decides they want to write a letter to the principal that displays all the nutrition facts about current menus, and they want to suggest healthier alternatives that can taste great and still stay within budget. Over weeks, the group does research, participates in online discussions, search through different resources, and eventually comes up with a great letter to the school that eventually leads to the changing of the school’s entire lunch system. The students involved in the virtual community where they chatted, exchanged ideas, and created this letter, had all mutually agreed to pursue this project. It was initiated by their own interests and needs, instead of the directions of a teacher. Therefore, they were invested in their progress and truly wanted to succeed.
Virtual learning communities may include those who are interested in answering similar questions, or explaining particular phenomena. According to Wachter et al., successful virtual communities encourage, seek, and support member-generated content so that there is a personal interest in the discussions (2000). They also use networking technology such as the Internet to provide many ways of communication so that members can discuss content and exchange ideas. Also, the communities can “act as organizing agents” by seeking to increase the quality of information, products, or services provided to the members (Wachter et al. 2000). Unlike the virtual classroom, where a professor selects the technology and resources and often leads the discussion topics and tasks, virtual communities are centered more on the needs of the members. Virtual communities can allow those with similar interests to connect with those all around the world. If new topics or questions arise, new virtual communities can arise out of old ones. For example, a virtual community of adolescents who sought to find ways to promote a more positive image of teenagers may have a small group who enjoy discussing how television shows specifically stereotype teenager behavior. They could then branch off from the first community, to form their own community that chooses to only ask questions about television and how it deals with the image of teenagers. The framework of virtual communitiescan be very useful in education and learning, where students can begin with a large idea and branch off to study and discover an area of interest in-depth, much like a doctorate student focusing on a specific topic for their dissertation.
Virtual learning communities
Virtual learning communities are virtual communities where the shared goal or purpose of the community members is learning (Augar, Raitman, Zhou 2004). Again, by becoming a part of the community, students can have a greater sense of control over their learning, they can direct their focus, they can raise their own questions, and they can work together to find solutions. A community of learners is participant-driven. In other words, knowledge is not just delivered from teachers or experts, but constructed by participants’ team works and/or group discussions (Jin 2002). Together, the group clearly defines the community’s purpose and defines norms and a code of conduct (Johnson 2001). By having a standard way of approaching disagreements, the group can work through problems as a group in a way that all members are comfortable with. Another advantage of virtual learning communities is that novices and experts can be connected and can work on solving similar problems in the same environment. (Jin 2002). In this way, a sharing of ideas and experiences can occur, and a novice can hear advice and gain feedback from an expert as they both work through a problem. As Augar, Raitman, and Zhou assert that by sharing a common learning goal and interacting socially over a period of time, learners develop and share a sense of belonging and shared purpose (2004). Thus, a virtual community encourages its members to maintain membership because it is continually adapting to their needs.
Developing virtual learning communities in the presenteducational system
After a comparison of three different sources discussing virtual communities, common requirements for implementing this form of learning into education systems were found. It is important that students in a virtual community develop a social context that includes spirit, trust and interaction (Rovai 2002 in Augar, Raitman & Zhou 2004). Within this context, students will feel confident to share their experiences and thoughts, and will be able to form social bonds that will help make the community stronger. Wenger discusses how a virtual learning community must support mutual engagement of all members towards a negotiated activity (Wenger 1998 in Rogers 2000). Shared activities, to Wenger, are what make virtual communities different from a network of individuals connected on the Internet. Also, he mentions a “shared repertoire” among community members that refers to the resources they use and the resources they contribute. These resources make-up a point of reference that they can all access. Rovai also points out that the technology should be easy-to-use and reliable (2002). Wachter also mentions that having a technology manager is important for troubleshooting and it is important to make sure everything runs smoothly so that the community will not be held back by technological glitches (2000). The last component, which must be carefully carried out in an educational setting, is the role of a facilitator or moderator. The goal of this person is to make sure that the task agreed upon by the group is being completed appropriately (Augar, Raitman, Zhou, 2004). Additionally, the facilitator must provide prompt feedback to questions, concerns, or conversations. He or she must model appropriate behavior online, and make sure goals are being reached. In other words, he must keep the community productive and on-task. As one can see, simply having the technology, the members, and the learning resources does not automatically create a successful virtual learning community; many other factors such as social context, shared learning goals, technology and technology support, and facilitation must be considered.
The current value of virtual communities in a college setting
There are many advantages to using virtual communities in a college setting.
Distance Learning
The first advantage is in distance learning. Many students need to take courses offered at universities far away from their homes, or need to take classes from home because they have families to care for. Often students that take courses online feel isolated from their classmates, their professor, and do not have much of a connection with the material because they are simply reading electronic lectures and taking electronic quizzes without any interaction. A sense of community can help distance learners overcome feelings of isolation, reduce student attrition rates and enhance their learning experience (Lanham 2002, Rovai 2002, both in Augar, Raitman, and Zhou 2004).
Connecting to alumni
Wachter et al. pointed out that in virtual communities, the community and its architects create the space, information, and services which provide value to the members. Those who find value in this construct will maintain association with it, and most likely will become active contributors to the community’s evolution (2000). After they graduate, alumni usually spread out all over the country and world. They start new jobs and lives, and many do not maintain much connection to their undergraduate school. Unfortunately, their role as a valuable resource vanishes and leaves the remaining undergraduates to tackle the process of applying to grad schools, find internships, and think about careers without sufficient advising. By using virtual communities to link former and present students, the educational institutions can offer a great resource to its constituencies (Wachter et al. 2000). The present students can ask questions about courses, advising, internships, etc. and the alumni can offer their viewpoints and wisdom. Since alumni in the community want to share their experiences and to help other students that are currently attending the same school they attended, and current students respect the opinion of those who graduated from the same school, both parties are invested in the common goals of the community.