Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace: Effective Strategies for the Online Classroom (The Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series)

Book Description

1999 Winner of the Philip E. Frandson Award for Literature in Continuing Higher Education, from the University Continuing Education Association

"A must read for anyone involved in or considering involvement in online, networked learning."
--Donald J. MacIntyre, president, The Fielding Institute

"A thorough overview of the online course process, including course selection, design, and evaluation, and many of the technical issues that affect the entire process."
--Kathleen M. Rose, distance education specialist, University of California Extension Online

Written for faculty, instructors, and trainers in any distance learning environment, Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace shows how to create a virtual classroom environment that helps students excel academically, while fostering a sense of community. This practical, hands-on guide is filled with illustrative case studies, vignettes, and examples from a wide variety of successful online courses. The authors offer proven strategies for handling challenges that include:

Engaging students with subject matter
Accounting for attendance and participation
Working with students who do not participate
Understanding the signs of when a student is in trouble
Building online communities that accommodate personal interaction

Based on many years of work in information systems and over five years of experience in online distance education, Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt share insights designed to guide readers through the steps of computer-mediated course design and implementation.

Customer Reviews:

Interested in VCoPs? Buy this book!.......2006-05-29

This book is methodologically sound AND useful. Suggestions and advices are backed up by literature, it's not just the usual collection of "expert opinions". By the same token, suggestions and advices are sound and practical, not just impractical "erudite hypotheses". Perfect for pracademics!

It applies to virtual communities of practice.......2003-08-28

The material in this book can be applied to increase the productivity of virtual communities of practice. It is a book I recommend to those who make a living in the world of knowledge management.

Everything you need to consider for asynchronous learning.......2001-07-22

I have found this book to be very helpful if you are REALLY interested in doing asynchronous work online. The authors are leading edge thinkers about this subject who have earned themselves a place in the world consulting to people who want to do this. The problem is that many, many people only THINK they know what asynchronous learning is and until you actually experience it you won't know. Can't know something until you learn it. Rena and Keith have done a very good job of showing you EVERYTHING you need to know to get the job done. You can use it like a menu, take what you want and leave the rest alone. They spend a good deal of time trying to get people to understand the TRUE nature of an asynchronous world. They are sincerely at the leading edge. I think I know what leading edge is, I think I'm there experiencing true asynchronous learning now at the renowned Fielding Institute. Good book for your reference. You may not need all of it NOW but you will soon!

Big Mac of a book: high calories--low nutrition.......2001-07-13

This book is indeed 'pedagogically sound'; the trouble is: it likes the sound of its own voice, far too much, and plods on around the houses for far too long. It is a Big Mac of a book: high calories--low nutrition. I wasted money buying it, don't you make the same mistake. Buy something shorter, less cack-handed, and trendy.

Learning Communities and Cyberspace.......2001-05-17

The advice given in this books should not be limited to cyberspace. The examples, experiences, and education this book provides are applicable to both the classroom and cyberspace. Learning should not be a one way avenue from master to student, but a dialogue. This book is a stepping stone for learning in the information age.

Building Virtual Communities: Learning and Change in Cyberspace (Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives)

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Interesting but to my mind very uneven

Building Virtual Communities: Learning and Change in Cyberspace (Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives)

Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521785588

Book Description

This study examines how learning and cognitive change are fostered by online communities. The chapters provide a basis for thinking about the dynamics of Internet community building. They consider 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. The volume will interest educators, psychologists, sociologists, and researchers in human-computer interaction.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting but to my mind very uneven.......2002-11-25

I found this to be a mildly interesting collection of papers but rather uneven in focus and range. Several papers tried to reach theoretical heights while others contented themselves by reporting on specific projects, e.g. Math Forum. The volume is quite 'a house divided' but there are cross currents.

The biggest problem with the book is that it has something for everyone. Hence each chapter has some points of interest but nothing of great insight or profundity is elaborated. For instance the theorising on communities is to my mind absolutely primitive. No mention of Hobbes or Locke here. The whole question of the political dynamic of a community is simply not addressed, i.e. power structures. This is serious flaw.

The book tends to reflect technocratic stance on community building. At all costs avoid value judgements and the moral dimension. Communities by numbers.

In fact, the communities described in various papers seem to really be fan clubs or hobby clubs which are using the internet to further their purposes. No big deal in many ways. Of course from the authors perspective that would be too simple a reading of the actual value of 'virtual comunities'. The danger is that some readers may simply perceive many of the efforts to elaborate on the digital components of a 'community' as mere psuedo-intellectual twaddle. For example no one speaks of a 'telephonic community' emerging post Alexander Bell. People were more grounded in those days it seems.

There is much emphasis on Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) throughout the book as a significant leap into a new state of togetherness. Much of this is hard to argue with if it was merely stating the obvious, i.e. kids talking about games in chat rooms, parents discussing their kids math progress, etc. However, one can't but feel that the thrust of the book in towards overkill. The internet is in many of these instances is simply a souped up penpal system.

It is easy to be critical of a book like this and see it akin to any other book telling us how much sand is in the Sahara. However, the authors clearly believe that the internet can inspire a new communal modality.

I am not sure I would share their enthusiasm having run several lists and online 'club's over the years. What strikes me as glaringly absent, is an analysis of how one motivates users to remain within a group and contribute. How do you motivate people? Crack that and the world will change. A recent issue of the Communications of the ACM published interesting research from Microsoft showing just how hard it is to get people to come forward socially on the net.

Amazon.com

Editors Smith and Kollock have gathered contributors with a variety of viewpoints to examine both the "legitimacy" of community in cyberspace and to question how it operates. While the authors do conclude that communities in cyberspace are real communities, they explore the sometimes surprising ways in which cybercommunities differ from their geographically based counterparts.

There are four primary issues probed here: the question of online identity in an environment where individuals cannot be seen; the question of social order and control in what is, at least on the surface, a largely anarchic environment; the structure and dynamics of online communities; and the cybercommunity as a foundation for collective action.

There's much here to provoke long discussions both online and off, such as the argument that the screen doesn't eliminate the consideration of racial identity so much as it allows for the development of nonvisual criteria for people to judge (or misjudge) the races of others. This book was compiled to be used in the college classroom, although it's not jargon laden or difficult to read. It will appeal to anyone who is professionally or individually involved with virtual communities. --Elizabeth Lewis

Book Description

As new societies and relationships are formed in the virtual landscape of cyberspace, we are now having to consider the potential consequences this might have on our own community and societies, and reconsider how the concept of community is changing. Leading experts on the internet discuss such issues as race, gender, power, economics and ethics in cyberspace, focusing on four areas: identity, social order and control, community structure and dynamics, and collective action. Clearly written and covering all the main topics, this edited volume is an essential introduction to the internet.

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This wide-ranging introductory text looks at the virtual community of cyberspace and analyses its relationship to the real one as lived out in todays societies.

Customer Reviews:

Really good one for researchers.......2001-07-12

Very good articles above important aspects of virtual communities like identity, gender, sociability and other stuff written by people that really knows about the subject, famous researchers. If you are a researcher, you'll love it.

A good resource for writers and academics.......2001-01-21

This book covers four main areas in regards to online communities: identity, social order and control, community structure and dynamics, and collective action.

Like many other texts on community, this book tends to focus on older technologies, i.e. Usenet, and MUDs/MOOs. That said, it contains a lot of good analysis done in these areas, and can provide good background for writing about online community. Note that the articles tend to be from the perspective of sociology. The strongest articles, in my opinion, were chapter 2, "Identity and deception in the virtual community," chapter 7, "Virtual communities as communities: Net surfers don't ride alone," and chapter 10, "The promise and peril of social action in cyberspace."

If you are interested in building a community or just in the ideas of online communities, this is probably not the best book for you -- it's pretty academic. Check out Jenny Preece's _Online Communities: Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability_ as an alternative.

Lost in (cyber)space?.......2000-03-18

I was introduced to this book because my enlightened sociology prof used it as a text for our discussions of sociology and cyberspace.

Some intellectually stimulating articles, like Jodi O'Brien's discussion of gender. It was very stimulating . . . However, the book was far too focused on issues relating to North America and the West generally. What about the rest of the world?

Book Description

This innovative reader addresses the social, cultural, political, and educational implications of today’s burgeoning information and communication technologies in substantial critical depth. Using three broad human themes—Constructing Identity, Building Community, and Seeking Knowledge—this brief freshman reader engages students in exciting rhetorical issues, including "Gender Online," "The Global Village," and "Information Overload and New Media." In each case, hopeful and optimistic views are balanced with incisive technology criticism, helping to make cutting-edge social issues intellectually coherent and accessible to your students.

Customer Reviews:

Sociology Primer.......2001-08-18

A compendium largely within the boundaries of the liberal social science tradition will be excellent fodder for college-level sociology classes seeking to explore how the Internet challenges modern conventions. Beyond that, look elsewhere.

Good one, but too much superficial.......2001-07-12

It's a good book for students but not so good for researchers. It's very good, academic, but not too deep. In fact, it's a little superficial. I would use this book for my classes but it didn't helped very much my thesis...

no great help here.......2001-03-09

It's a reader for dumb impressionable first year students at best. If you are really serious about trying to understand common internet culture as it is currently evolving, you are going to waste time and money on this book. Even as a reader it lacks academic rigour, I would be quite worried about the callibre of the course for which this sad, sad attempt is prescribed.

Great Book...needs updating.......2000-09-04

While this is one of the best readers on Communities and Cyberspace many of the essays are dated. While many of the essays like "Gender-Bending", "You Make Me Feel Like a Virtual Woman", and "The Heart of the WELL" that deal with messages boards and gender issues still work quite nicely, some of the others like "Identity in the Age of the Internet: Living in the MUD" do not work as well as they once did because networked gaming now goes past MOOs/MUDs and many students don't relate well to the idea of text based games. That appears to be something reserved for academics and die hard gamers of a time long passed.

With the change in computer user profiles over the three years since this text was published a second edition would be welcome. I would like to see what some of the authors in this text would have to say about the fact that studies show women as the internet user majority, the rise in women gamers, the direct correlation between playing video games and the decrease in suicide attempts, the increase of computerized classrooms, as well as (and most importantly) a real addressing of questions of class, race, and computer/internet access.

On a whole I would recommend this book for use in the classroom but be aware of the fact that in many cases there will be the need for supplemental readings to bridge the gap in the technology timeline.

An Essential Reader.......2000-04-21

Although Amazon calls Richard Holeton the author of this book (as, indeed, does McGraw-Hill), he would far more aptly be called its compiler. Not that compiling is any less respectable than authoring; the medieval societies in which the compilatio flourished provided us with such revered compilers as Geoffrey Chaucer, who took stories already known to his contemporaries and provided a narrative framework in which each had its place.

In Composing Cyberspace Holeton provides readers with virtually all the foundational texts for a study of technology and society. Here one finds writers musing on the effects of technology as early as 1909 (E.M. Forster's The Air-Ship) and as late as 1997. Every fundamental short work (with the possible exception of Sandy Stone's "How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Prosthesis") on the formation of a human identity in the age of computers is here, including:
- Sherry Turkle's "Identity in the Age of the Internet: Living in the MUD"
- William Gibson's "Johnny Mnemonic" and "Burning Chrome"
- Julian Dibbel's "A Rape in Cyberspace"
- Howard Rheingold's "The Heart of the WELL"
There are essays, interviews and fiction by such notables as: George Lakoff, Jon Katz, Dale Spender, Jorge Luis Borges, Clifford Stoll, and many, many more. Even Dave Barry has his say.

Composing Cyberspace is divided into three sections: Constructing Identity in the Computer Age, Building Community in the Electronic Age, and Seeking Knowledge in the Information Age. Each section is divided into chapters containing several texts, each of which is followed by a set of "SecondThoughts" for getting the most out of the text. The chapters themselves also have introductions and sets of "Discussion Threads" and "Research Links" for provoking further topical exploration.

Book Description

Community in the Digital Age features the latest, most challenging work in an important and fast-changing field, providing a forum for some of the leading North American social scientists and philosophers concerned with the social and political implications of this new technology. Their provocative arguments touch on all sides of the debate surrounding the Internet, community, and democracy.

Customer Reviews:

A philosophical discussion of how community is changing .......2004-11-10

If it's a philosophical discussion of how community is changing in the digital age that is needed, you need go no further than Andrew Feenberg and Darin Barney's collection Community In The Digital Age: it updates and extends debates about who we are when we're online, discusses differences between online and offline realities, and provides critical assessments of the Internet's relationships to public life. A challenging survey of one of the fastest-changing relationships in modern times, Community In The Digital Age should be required reading.

Health Online: How to Find Health Information, Support Groups, and Self-Help Communities in Cyberspace

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Face-to-Face Is Not Enough

Health Online: How to Find Health Information, Support Groups, and Self-Help Communities in Cyberspace
Tom Ferguson
Manufacturer: Addison Wesley Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0201409895

Customer Reviews:

Face-to-Face Is Not Enough.......2000-11-16

Between 7:00pm and 1:00am is a good time to get answers to a health care system moving from the traditional office face-to-facing with doctors to self-managed lay medicine online. A good way to surf these Internet health and medical resources is by signing up with a computer network, such as America Online, CompuServe, Delphi, eWorld, Genie, Microsoft Windows 95, Prodigy, The Well, or Women's Wire. Self-helpers can then access such biomedical databases as the HealthNet Reference Library, Information USA/health, and Medline; Internet mailing lists, such as HMATRIX-L's popular and professional resources for laypeople and professionals; the Medical Support Bulletin Board; the Medical Matrix gopher site; the MedWeb free medical library; and USENET newsgroups. Such directories and search engines as InternetSleuth, the Multimedia Medical Reference Library, and the Whole Internet Catalog of Health can find relevant web sites ranging from Good Medicine alternative and mainstream medical practices, to Internet Vet, PharmInfoNet, Traveler's Choice worldwide health conditions, and Yahoo/health.

Book Description

Virtual Politics is a critical overview of the newùdigitalùbody politic, with new technologies framing the discussion of key themes in social theory. This book shows how these new technologies are altering the nature of identity and agency, the relation of self to other, and the structure of community and political representation. The principal theme of Virtual Politics is that electronically and digitally simulated environments offer an important metaphor for understanding social relations. This volume focuses on how virtual realities effectively extend space, time, and the body, showing how technologies such as the automobile and environments such as the movie theater and the shopping mall prefigure cyberspace. It also examines the loss of political identity and agency in cyberspace and identifies a disembodied consumer in anonymous control of a simulated reality. Virtual Politics will be required reading for students of sociology, social theory, and cultural studies.

Customer Reviews:

Social Structures on the net.......2002-03-12

Virtual politics - Identity and community in cyberspace, is a collection of academic writings from American, New Zealand and predominantly Australian academics on the topic of virtual reality and it's implications in society. The book was published in 1997 by David Holmes who is a senior lecture in sociology at Griffith University on Australia's Gold Coast and is an associate at both Melbourne and Edinburgh university's.

The book itself is form a series of books called Politics and Culture which is described as `A theory, culture and society series' dealing with major paradigms in politics, philosophy, international relations and tries to gain an understanding of citizenship, rights and social justice with a particular broad focus on globalization throughout the series.

One of the key themes of the book is that `electronically and digitally stimulated environments offer an important metaphor for understanding social relations' addressing sexuality, community and many social and communication issues, and often describes the internet and virtual reality as an extension of existing social structures.
The book has varying articles which range from Cyberdemoracy dealing with The Internet and the public sphere to Disembodiment in new virtual worlds provided by virtual reality. however the book is divided into two sections Part one `The self, Identity and body in the age of the virtual' and part two `Politics and community in virtual worlds'.
I found the book quite difficult to read and quite indepth and very theoretical. Much of the book is predicting the way in which virtual reality is going to affect society. In the areas of virtual community this book very much explored options to create academic debate and did it from a social science perspective which made the book often hard going for an undergraduate such as myself, also the change in conributors every chapter made it difficult to get use to the stlye of any one contributor.

Early in this section of the book we encounter the virtual community which is said to contribute to the speedy rise of the globalisation of information the book tries here to explain the virtual or cyber community specifically on the internet in relation to the social, political and technical conditions in info communities. One definition of a virtual community is that they are `Social aggregations that emerge from the net when people interact for long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace' creating a global village in a way as described by Marshall McLuhan. Largely in the first few chapters the authors agree that there is a general social trend towards abstract communities and that human association is becoming increasingly abstract, With globalisation on the rise the likelihood in the business world for the need for more face to face meetings occurs and with migration and accessible world travel we may suppose the opposite of abstract global communities however because of the occurrence of these intercultural meetings in real life the need to stay in touch and keep up contact results in more of a abstract virtual community or relationship within which
a culture of its own develops and it becomes a real communitiy influencing society....

Virtual communities are real communities of a new type.......2001-06-23

This book is a collection of articles, but each is essential. The main discussion in this book is that of the concept of community. It is no longer, in cyberspace, what it used to be : people meeting at the same time, in the same place with common interests. It has to be redefined and discussed : the casual meeting of people from different places at the same time (though it is not the same clock time for each one of them) with no immediate and environmentallly-imposed common interests but with common intesrests that are selected by them and having to do with the topics each one of them is interested in at that moment of meeting. But this is a real community. And many articles show how the exchanges between these casually-meeting people can mutually influence the definitions they have of the topic, clarify the understanding they have of the stakes of the topic, and even modify their points of view and hence their attitudes in society when they get out of cyberspace. Cyberspace communities are thus becoming a permanent school based on exchanges, discussions and direct influence from one cybernaut onto the other or others. This has a direct influence on the definition of the individual and therefore on the definition of politics, because debates and information become the basis of the elaboration of one's political ideology and positions. Cyberspace is democratic in that way even if it is not based on voting but on confronting and exchanging. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.

Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace.(Book review): An article from: Training Media Review

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Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace.(Book review): An article from: Training Media Review
Barbara Fillicaro
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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This digital document is an article from Training Media Review, published by Thomson Gale on November 1, 2006. The length of the article is 702 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace.(Book review)
Author: Barbara Fillicaro
Publication: Training Media Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Page: NA

Article Type: Book review

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Commentary: "Cyberspace in Prison".(V. Cyberspace in Prison: Communication, Community, and Human Rights): An article from: Social Justice

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Commentary: "Cyberspace in Prison".(V. Cyberspace in Prison: Communication, Community, and Human Rights): An article from: Social Justice
Sharon Luk
Manufacturer: Crime and Social Justice Associates
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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This digital document is an article from Social Justice, published by Crime and Social Justice Associates on June 22, 2003. The length of the article is 1210 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Commentary: "Cyberspace in Prison".(V. Cyberspace in Prison: Communication, Community, and Human Rights)
Author: Sharon Luk
Publication: Social Justice (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 2003
Publisher: Crime and Social Justice Associates
Volume: 30 Issue: 2 Page: 150(3)

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Cybercommunity versus geographical community standard for online pornography: a technological hierarchy in judging cyberspace obscenity.: An article from: Rutgers Computer & Technology Law Journal

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Cybercommunity versus geographical community standard for online pornography: a technological hierarchy in judging cyberspace obscenity.: An article from: Rutgers Computer & Technology Law Journal
Gyong Ho Kim , and Anna R. Paddon
Manufacturer: Rutgers University
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Culture | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Rutgers Computer & Technology Law Journal, published by Rutgers University on September 22, 1999. The length of the article is 8810 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Cybercommunity versus geographical community standard for online pornography: a technological hierarchy in judging cyberspace obscenity.
Author: Gyong Ho Kim
Publication: Rutgers Computer & Technology Law Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 1999
Publisher: Rutgers University
Volume: 26 Issue: 1 Page: 65

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