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Building a Learning Community Palloff and Pratt recommend seven basic steps for building a successful learning community. These include: clearly defining the purpose of the community, creating a distinctive gathering place for the group, promoting effective leadership from within, defining norms and a clear code of conduct, allowing for a range of member roles, allowing for and facilitating of subgroups, and allowing members to resolve their own disputes. The authors caution that it is possible to develop a community that has strong social connections between the students, but where very little learning actually takes place. Thus, it is important that the instructor be actively engaged in the process and encourages students who stray from the learning goals of the course. Specifically, the authors recommend: (1) engaging students with subject matter, (2) accounting for attendance and participation, (3) working with students who do not participate, (4) understanding the signs of when a student is in trouble, and (5) building online communities that accommodate personal interaction. Indicators of a Successful Learning Community You can tell if the learning community is working when you see: active interaction, sharing of resources among students, collaborative learning evidenced by comments directed primarily student to student rather than student to instructor, socially constructed meaning evidenced by agreement or questioning, with the intent to achieve agreement on issues of meaning, and expressions of support and encouragement exchanged between students, as well as willingness to critically evaluate the work of others. Finally, they suggest that the keys to successful learning communities are honesty, responsiveness, relevance, respect, openness, and empowerment. Palloff, R.M. & Pratt, K. (1999). Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace: Effective Strategies for the Online Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Uma “comunidade de prática” virtual (CdP) é uma rede de indivíduos que têm uma área de interesse comum e sobre a qual comunicam em linha. Estes praticantes partilham recursos (por exemplo experiências, problemas e soluções, ferramentas e metodologias). Esta troca resulta no aprofundamento do conhecimento de cada participante dessa comunidade e contribui para o aumento do conhecimento nessa área de interesse.

Mindomo: Premium versions of this mind mapping tool come at a cost, but you can get access to the basic version for free. It allows you to add links, pictures and text to mind maps and share them over the net.

Moodle: Post and share podcasts with an interactive online community using Moodle. You can not only post your own podcasts but get access to those of others that could provide educational value to you.

Put your notes or classroom information into an audio format with these handy apps.

This presentation aims to address some of the challenges associated with assessment and evaluation in Web 2.0 classrooms. Specifically, it will address how to develop strategies and tools that engage students in the assessment and evaluation process, and help them stay in control of their learning and their progress. Consequently, a strong emphasis will be placed on developing assessment and evaluation procedures and habits that not only complement but also foster the interactive and learner-centric environments afforded by the interactive tools of the read/write web. The presenter will share strategies to assess and evaluate student work on blogs, wikis, and discussion forums.