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Using Virtual Spaces for Learning Communities to Facilitate Project Development and Collaborative Learning

Authors:
Katya Toneva
Kathy Doncaster
Darryll Bravenboer

Keywords: online community of practice (CoP); Google Apps; Web 2.0; social constructivism; interaction; collaboration.

Abstract:
With the extensive expansion of the Information and Communication Technologies in the learning, business and home environments it is becoming apparent that there is considerable opportunity for increasing collaborative interaction if a framework is developed to coordinate the activities of the individuals across the different sectors. As a possible way of achieving this objective, we present the online Community of Practice developed and presently being in trial at the Institute for Work Based Learning, Middlesex University. In this paper, we describe our approach for developing and utilising of this Community of Practice. We will describe the benefits of the educational software tools we have used in the implementation process. Through case studies we will present two ways in which the online Community of Practice is being currently applied. We will outline the main advantages and some challenges of using the newly created Community of Practice.

Pages: 111 to 115

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2012

Publication date: January 30, 2012

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4367

ISBN: 978-1-61208-180-9

Location: Valencia, Spain

Dates: from January 30, 2012 to February 4, 2012