Academic literature on the topic 'Informal virtual communities'
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Journal articles on the topic "Informal virtual communities"
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Andreatos, Antonios. "Virtual Communities and their Importance for Informal Learning." International Journal of Computers Communications & Control 2, no. 1 (January 1, 2007): 39. http://dx.doi.org/10.15837/ijccc.2007.1.2335.
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This paper deals with the concept of informal learning in virtual communities on the Internet. Initially we discuss the need for continuing education and its relation with informal learning. Virtual communities are next defined and then compared to real communities. Case studies are employed, focused on some specific kinds of virtual communities. We examine how they operate, how their members interact, what values they share and what kind of knowledge they gather. The learning process within virtual communities is then examined. We look at the kind of information and knowledge available in some particular virtual communities, and comment on its organisation. Next, the learning process of virtual communities is compared to that of Open Universities. Finally, we claim that the participation in virtual communities is not only a form of continuing education but also a contribution towards the multiliteracies needed for working as well as living in the 21st century.
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Chunngam, Bunthida, Sumalee Chanchalor, and Elizabeth Murphy. "Membership, participation and knowledge building in virtual communities for informal learning." British Journal of Educational Technology 45, no. 5 (November 6, 2013): 863–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12114.
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Andreatos, Antonios. "On the Definition and Impact of Virtual Communities of Practice." International Journal of Virtual Communities and Social Networking 1, no. 4 (October 2009): 73–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/jvcsn.2009092205.
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The evolution of the Internet has made several Communities of Practice to go online and has brought into life numerous Virtual Communities of Practice. The purpose of this article is: to define and categorize Virtual Communities of Practice; to examine their social impact in general and specifically in knowledge and technology management; also, to examine the contribution of Communities of Practice to informal learning and to relate them to Connectivism and collaborative learning. Several case studies are presented to clarify the presentation. It is expected that Virtual Communities of Practice will play an important role in both learning theory and practice as well as knowledge management during the years to come.
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Martinez-Nuñez, Margarita, Oriol Borras-Gene, and Ángel Fidalgo-Blanco. "Virtual Learning Communities in Google Plus, Implications, and Sustainability in MOOCs." Journal of Information Technology Research 9, no. 3 (July 2016): 18–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/jitr.2016070102.
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Two major educational strengths that MOOCs provide are informal learning and harnessing the collective intelligence of the students and the interactions among other users like former students, future students, business professionals, other universities, etc. These features may lead to the emergence of new sustainable in time educational elements wherein knowledge and learning continue enriching once the course finished. At present, one of the main limitations of the MOOC platforms is the lack of social open tools to enhance and take advantage of the collective intelligence generated in the course. This article proposes a new model to allocate informal learning and collective intelligence in MOOCs using external virtual learning communities through social networks, based on Google +. The main aim of this article is to assess the virtual learning community performance and analyze the interactions and the kinds of learning that take place inside the community and over time. A case of study of a MOOC course with Google + community is presented.
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Dubrovskaya, Tatiana V., and Elmira I. Yuskaeva. "Language aggression in virtual professional communities." Training, Language and Culture 6, no. 4 (December 20, 2022): 62–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.22363/2521-442x-2022-6-4-62-72.
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The study focuses on language aggression as it is enacted in virtual professional communities. With the aim to reveal the dominant forms and mechanisms of aggression in the virtual environment, the authors explore data retrieved from Russian social media. Theoretically, the paper is informed by social identity theory and linguistic pragmatics. Adopting a methodology that draws on an inferential model of communication, the study analyses aggressive utterances and their meanings in situational contexts. The findings distinguish between two principal forms of aggression: insulting aggression and aggression of exclusion. Although both perform the function of social control, they differ in terms of triggering situations, pragmatic mechanisms as well as linguistic resources employed. Insulting aggression makes use of dehumanising, negative evaluation, blaming, social deixis, ‘reductio ad absurdum’ and references to one’s emotional involvement in the situation of conflict. Such mechanisms are enacted through the linguistic tools that convey the semantics of aggression more or less directly. These include pejoratives, depreciative epithets, colloquialisms, informal expressions, lexemes with semantics of emotional state, imperatives, means of deontic modality and a shift in using polite/impolite forms of address. On the contrary, aggression of exclusion involves meanings that require inferential efforts of the recipient. The interplay between literal meanings of speech acts and the underlying intentions results in conversational implicatures. Exclusion is manifested through drawing a boundary between ‘us’ and ‘them’, terminating a conversation, talking about somebody present in the third person. Its linguistic forms comprise lexemes with semantics of exclusion, lexis with negative connotation, interjections, and irony.
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Lyon, Louise Ann, and Chelsea Clayton. "Arising of Informal Women's Learn-to-code Communities." ACM Transactions on Computing Education 21, no. 2 (June 2021): 1–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3433167.
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Female-focused, grassroots communities purporting to help women learn to code are popping up in a variety of settings, indicating the motivation on the part of the participants to evade male-dominated settings while learning. However, little is known about how these groups function as an activity system. With current technology enabling the forming of virtual communities and the meteoric rise in use of the Salesforce CRM (customer relationship management) platform, a group of women have formed a coaching and learning community designed to help women move from Salesforce administrators to software developers through learning to code. We used activity systems analysis (ASA) to investigate this real-world instance of the larger phenomenon using an ethnographic approach. We used ASA to organize and make sense of the data by first creating a table listing the points on the activity system triangle (subject, rules, object, etc.) and filling in the points of the triangle based on the design of the coaching and learning group as described by participants; this gave us a high-level view of the activity system. To understand the subjects’ point of view of the system, we then created a new column in the table to fill in themes that emerged from our qualitative data analysis organized by dimension of the activity system. This process enabled us to capture the activity and the voices of participants as well as tensions that had emerged in the system. Findings show a range of outcomes, from participants crediting the group as a kickstart to the journey to successfully landing a job as a developer to members stalling in their progress after involvement. Results also show that purposeful tensions of welcoming novice questions and offering unsolicited verbal encouragement built into the activity system create a welcoming, safe environment for women learning to code.
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Romero-Mas, Montse, Beni Gómez-Zúñiga, Andrew M. Cox, and Anna Ramon-Aribau. "Designing virtual communities of practice for informal caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients: An integrative review." Health Informatics Journal 26, no. 4 (September 19, 2020): 2976–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1460458220950883.
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The main aim of this study is to review the literature to show how ideas around virtual communities of practice (VCoP) offer a model for supporting informal caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients (caregivers) to learn how to deal with caregiving demands. Caregivers are individuals who have a significant personal relationship with and provide a broad range of unpaid assistance to an older person or an adult with a chronic or disabling condition outside of a professional or formal framework. This review will examine the current evidence on the needs of caregivers, identify dimensions to be considered in VCoP design and suggest further directions of research. The investigation is an integrative review that builds a bridge between different areas of work. The outcome is eleven dimensions for the design of successful VCoPs for caregivers: Network Structure, Technology, Moderator, Scale, Alignment, Community Design, Sense of Trust, Knowledge Sharing, Sustainability, Ethics and Evaluation. In addition, we propose a Tree Metaphor to present our research results. Well-designed interventions based on VCoP principles have the potential of addressing caregivers’ needs.
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Sockett, Geoffrey, and Denyze Toffoli. "Beyond learner autonomy: a dynamic systems view of the informal learning of English in virtual online communities." ReCALL 24, no. 2 (April 27, 2012): 138–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0958344012000031.
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AbstractThis article discusses the informal learning of English by non-native speakers with particular reference to the role of virtual communities. The concept of informal learning is presented and related to current areas of interest in the literature such as incidental learning, and dynamic systems theory. Our research investigates how non-specialist language learners use the Internet in their spare time to read and listen to English, and also communicate in English, notably in online communities through social networking websites. The study looks particularly at the dynamics of these phenomena by studying a small number of non-native users of English over a period of two months. The results of this research will be used to question the relevance of the learner autonomy paradigm, which has been a cornerstone of language learning policy in Europe for the past thirty years.
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Morrison, Dirk. "Older Adults’ Use of Online Personal Learning Networks to Construct Communities of Learning." Journal of Studies in Education 10, no. 1 (December 22, 2019): 18. http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/jse.v10i1.16010.
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This study investigated how retired older adults (age 55+) use the Internet and social media tools to facilitate their informal, self-directed learning by creating and maintaining online personal learning networks (oPLNs). The research examined what information and communication technologies (ICT) participants included in their oPLNs and how they used these oPLNs to activate and self-direct their informal learning. Employing the web-conferencing tool WebEx, four online focus groups and four one-to-one audio interviews were conducted allowing for a total of 15 voluntary, geographically-dispersed participants from across Canada to synchronously interact and exchange their experiences and insights regarding their oPLNs. Using a thematic analysis method, the discussion transcripts generated were analyzed to examine learning contexts, strategies to manage learning, motivation to learn and achievement of learning goals, as well as to discover emergent themes. It was clear from our findings that oPLNs provided a virtual "learning community" that supported informal, self-directed learning via learner participation and interaction opportunities fostered by ICT-based tools and processes.
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Yan, Yalan, Xianjin Zha, and Ming Yan. "Exploring employee perceptions of Web 2.0 virtual communities from the perspective of knowledge sharing." Aslib Journal of Information Management 66, no. 4 (July 15, 2014): 381–400. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ajim-08-2013-0070.
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Purpose – With the development of Web 2.0 virtual communities, the authors see a useful platform for knowledge sharing. However, knowledge sharing in virtual communities still remains a big challenge given the concern of knowledge quantity and quality. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of individual differences on knowledge contributing, knowledge seeking, trust and norm of reciprocity. This study also explores the mean difference between knowledge seeking and knowledge contributing as well as the correlations between knowledge seeking, knowledge contributing, trust and reciprocity so as to provide some guidance for knowledge management practice in China. Design/methodology/approach – Data collected from 430 users of Web 2.0 virtual communities were used for data analysis. The independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), paired samples t-test and correlation analysis were employed. Findings – The independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA present the effect of individual differences on knowledge contributing, knowledge seeking, trust and norm of reciprocity. The paired samples t-test suggests that employees are more likely to seek knowledge from than contribute knowledge to Web 2.0 virtual communities. The correlation analysis suggests there are positive correlations between knowledge contributing, knowledge seeking, trust and reciprocity. Practical implications – Knowledge management initiatives in Chinese organizations are encountered relatively less frequently, compared with western countries. The authors suggest the findings of this study provide useful insights into the informal knowledge sharing in Web 2.0 virtual communities, which is helpful for guiding knowledge management practice in China. Originality/value – Based on knowledge quantity and knowledge quality whose significance cannot be over-emphasized in virtual communities, this study explores employee perceptions of Web 2.0 virtual communities from the perspective of knowledge sharing, which the authors think provides a new view for knowledge sharing research and practice alike in China.
Dissertations / Theses on the topic "Informal virtual communities"
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Wilmott, Deirdre. "What is the value of meaning created through social learning in informal virtual communities?" Thesis, Federation University Australia, 2016. http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/102998.
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This study asks the question ‘What is the value of meaning created through social learning in informal virtual communities?’. By researching how people learn in two virtual communities of practice, based around forums, it endeavours to explore learning in online environments that are unconnected to workplace or educational institutions. Both communities studied in this project are meeting places for peers who pursue a domain of personal interest, hence neither community defines itself as a learning environment but as a social meeting place for people to share similar pursuits. The rationale of this study was to explore in-depth the plethora of resources that forum-based communities offer researchers of learning outside the academy, in order to understand the intricacies of un-facilitated social learning. A research strategy for this study was developed from Crotty's (1998) platform which defines: research methods; a methodology; a theoretical perspective; and an epistemology. Triangulated research methods of interview, observation, and personal participation form the basis of data collection. Ethnography, which incorporates auto-ethnography, was the chosen methodology, and the study is centred on a constructivist epistemology. This study employs an interpretivist theoretical perspective, relying on the approaches of two theorists to analyse the data. Both communities were explored by developing four specific propositions from an in-depth analysis of the available literature on informal learning, virtual environments and communities, together with the theoretical understandings of Wenger (1998) regarding Communities of Practice, and Candy (1991) relating to autodidactic and constructed learning. Two viewpoints were chosen because whilst there are a number of theoretical perspectives that can be applied to informal learning in a virtual environment, there is no one agreed theory which comprehensively explains the complexities of individual and social learning in virtual communities. Despite recognition of the Internet as a major source of many people’s informal learning, there is still comparatively limited research undertaken on how this happens. This study is intended to assist in the reduction of this gap by examining aspects of learning including: the connection between autonomous learners and virtual communities; the effect of the written format of the communities observed on dispersing meaning; and the impact of the virtuality of the community on the process of learning and creation of meaning. By undertaking an ethnographical examination of the nature of learning in two informal virtual communities based around written asynchronous forums, this study is intended to contribute to understanding the worth of informal learning in virtual communities where learning occurs between peers. This study contributes to knowledge through its exploration of the way learning occurs in un-facilitated environments and the legitimacy of the outcomes of that learning. Through this exploration, it fosters an appreciation of the value of meaning created in these social environments, as well as their role in validation of communal and individual meaning. It is able to do this by circumnavigating the difficulties earlier researchers have had in developing in-depth studies of the topic because it does not rely implicitly on the perspectives of those participating, or limited-time observations. The study concludes that for both communities their virtuality greatly influences the way their practice develops, as well as how this practice shapes the way in which their members learn in informal environments. It also concludes that learning in these environments is a very complex, often sophisticated, and sometimes contradictory process that is governed by many different, and occasionally competing, aims of individuals and communities. This study also resolved that because of the very complexity of this learning, these two communities produce some very deep and meaningful contributions to their respective domains. As individuals connected within these communities in order to explore their interest in their respective domains, the communities became: repositories of ideas and resources; places to engage in negotiating and renegotiating meaning; and places to validate personal meaning through testing against established community understandings and peer views. Thus after extensive ethnographical research on both communities of this study, it is considered that this work advances the knowledge of learning outside the academy by providing evidence that people do learn effectively in informal virtual communitiesDoctor of Philosophy
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Cardoso, Maria da Glória Águas. "Comunicação informal e a emergência de comunidades de aprendizagem em contexto de E-Learning: um estudo de caso." Master's thesis, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.2/747.
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Dissertação de Mestrado em Comunicação Educacional Multimédia apresentada à Universidade AbertaResumo - Num mundo em permanente mutação, o uso das novas tecnologias tornou-se o motor dessa mudança. E naturalmente que na Educação já começamos a ver o seu impacto: uma nova forma de aprender; uma nova forma de poder estar ligado em rede; uma nova forma de ensinar. Foi neste ambiente virtual que nos propusemos fazer o nosso trabalho. A pesquisa aborda o tema da Comunicação no ensino on-line e a importância das Comunidades de Aprendizagem. E teve como objectivo observar de que modo a comunicação informal é potenciadora da emergência de uma Comunidade de Aprendizagem. A metodologia usada foi a de um estudo de caso, em regime de e-learning. A recolha de dados foi efectuada através da análise do discurso de diferentes módulos da disciplina. Estes dados foram complementados com entrevistas semi-directivas. Nesta análise apoiámo-nos, teoricamente, no modelo de aprendizagem Construtivista de Vigotsky e nos conceitos de Comunidades de Prática, preconizados por Wenger e Lave. Constatámos que a comunicação informal tem um elevado impacto e facilita, estreitando as relações interpessoais e de pertença, não obstante não ser, por si só, suficiente para manter uma Comunidade de Aprendizagem
Abstract - In a world in permanent mutation the use of new Technologies has become a motor of that change and, in Education, we are naturally beginning to watch its impact: a new way of learning; a new way of being networked; a new way of teaching. This was the virtual environment in which we proposed to start our project. The research deals with the topic Communication in the teaching process and the importance of Learning Communities and its objective was to observe how informal Communication can potentiate the emergence of a Learning Community. The method chosen for our research was the e-learning Case Study. The collection of data was carried out through the discourse analysis of different modules of the discipline on which we conducted a discourse analysis and the obtained data were complemented with semi-directive interviews. Theoretically supported by Vigotsky’s model of constructivist learning and by the concepts of Communities of Practice preconized by Wenger and Lave. We notice that informal communication has a high impact on relationships, facilitating and strengthening interpersonal relationships as well as relationships of belonging, despite not being, by themselves, enough to keep a Learning Community together
Books on the topic "Informal virtual communities"
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Dennen, Vanessa L., and Jennifer B. Myers. Virtual professional development and informal learning via social networks. Hershey PA: Information Science Reference, 2012.
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More, Alison. The Western Schism, Observant Reform, and Institutionalization. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198807698.003.0004.
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Despite the regularization that occurred in the fourteenth century, communities of pious women who engaged with the secular world continued to flourish throughout Europe. While canon law still regarded these communities as laywomen, the regularizing efforts of those responsible for their cura meant that they were now enclosed, wore recognizable habits, and professed approved religious rules. As a result, these women were now virtually indistinguishable from traditional female monastics. This chapter explores the changes in the informal association of non-monastic houses with recognized religious orders from the end of the fourteenth century. As with much of the religious landscape at this time, this change was to be affected by both the Observant Reform movement and the Western Schism. In particular, this chapter looks at the continued influence of John XXIII’s Personas vacantes on communities of women in Flanders, Northern France, and Scotland.
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Lamb, Michael. Ethics for Climate Change Communicators. Oxford University Press, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.013.564.
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Over the last decade, scholars have devoted significant attention to making climate change communication more effective but less attention to ensuring that it is ethical. This neglect risks blurring the distinction between persuasion and manipulation, generating distrust among audiences, and obscuring the conceptual resources needed to guide communicators.Three prevailing approaches to moral philosophy can illuminate various ethical considerations involved in communicating climate change. Consequentialism, which evaluates actions as morally right or wrong according to their consequences, is the implicit moral framework shared by many social scientists and policymakers interested in climate change. While consequentialism rightly emphasizes the consequences of communication, its exclusive focus on the effectiveness of communication tends to obscure other moral considerations, such as what communicators owe to audiences as a matter of duty or respect. Deontology better captures these duties and provides grounds for communicating in ways that respect the rights of citizens to deliberate and decide how to act. But because deontology tends to cast ethics as an abstract set of universalizable principles, it often downplays the virtues of character needed to motivate action and apply principles across a variety of contexts. Virtue ethics seeks to overcome the limits of both consequentialism and deontology by focusing on the virtues that individuals and communities need to flourish. While virtue ethics is often criticized for failing to provide a concrete blueprint for action, its conception of moral development and thick vocabulary of virtues and vices offer a robust set of practical and conceptual resources for guiding the actions, attitudes, and relationships that characterize climate change communication. Ultimately, all three approaches highlight moral considerations that should inform the ethics of communicating climate change.
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Wicks, Paul. ‘They embrace you virtually’: The internet as a tool for social support for people with ALS. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198757726.003.0011.
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People with ALS may feel lonely, isolated, and bereft of information. Although professionals provide support, their time is in short supply and patients only see them periodically. For many decades there has been a tradition of face-to-face support groups to offer help to patients and caregivers in their local communities, but these have limitations. In recent years a new form of community has arisen, the online community. A relatively small evidence base suggests they may help patients and caregivers to be better informed, receive psychosocial support, and regain a peer network even as their ability to communicate and be physically active in the world diminishes. There are risks, however, such as misinformation, vulnerability to scams, and harms that might arise from becoming too involved in the disease at the exclusion of other facets of their lives. As mainstream social networks such as Facebook become dominant, the landscape will evolve rapidly.
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Macaskill, Grant. The New Testament and Intellectual Humility. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198799856.001.0001.
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This book examines how the New Testament scriptures might form and foster intellectual humility within Christian communities. It is informed by recent interdisciplinary interest in intellectual humility, and concerned to appreciate the distinctive representations of the virtue offered by the New Testament writers on their own terms. It argues that the intellectual virtue is cast as a particular expression of the broader Christian virtue of humility, which proceeds from the believer’s union with Christ, through which personal identity is reconstituted by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Hence, we speak of ‘virtue’ in ways determined by the acting presence of Jesus Christ, overcoming sin and evil in human lives and in the world. The Christian account of the virtue is framed by this conflict, as believers within the Christian community struggle with natural arrogance and selfishness, and come to share in the mind of Christ. The new identity that emerges creates a fresh openness to truth, as the capacity of the sinful mind to distort truth is exposed and challenged. This affects knowledge and perception, but also volition: for these ancient writers, a humble mind makes good decisions that reflect judgments decisively shaped by the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. By presenting ‘humility of mind’ as a characteristic of the One who is worshipped—Jesus Christ—the New Testament writers insist that we acknowledge the virtue not just as an admission of human deficiency or limitation, but as a positive affirmation of our rightful place within the divine economy.
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Hamidaddin, Abdullah. Tweeted Heresies. Oxford University Press, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190062583.001.0001.
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How should we understand religion in Saudi Arabia? To what extent does religion control the various aspects of Saudi life? Why are more and more Saudis and generally Muslims leaning toward heresy? Why are many others exhibiting an indifference toward religion? And how does our understanding of the state of religion in Saudi Arabia inform us about the state of religion in other Islamic communities? This book explores the emergence of nonbelief and the response to it from the Salafi-Wahhabi religious institutions of Saudi Arabia. While previous studies have focused on particular institutions and their role in religious change, this study focuses on individuals that have criticized religion by taking advantage of the virtual space of social media. In doing so, they have questioned the most fundamental aspects of Saudi society: politics, religion, social justice, gender, sexuality, and the future of the country. Just as importantly, these individuals, who emerged first on the Internet, have mounted a frontal challenge to religious orthodoxy, whether through calls for religious reform or, even more provocatively, through debates over concepts of deity, duty to Allah, and morality.
Book chapters on the topic "Informal virtual communities"
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Colazzo, Luigi, Andrea Molinari, and Nicola Villa. "Formal and Informal Lifelong Learning in a Virtual Communities Platform." In Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 291–300. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2011. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20539-2_31.
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Kontolemakis, George. "Virtual Communities." In Encyclopedia of Multimedia Technology and Networking, Second Edition, 1512–19. IGI Global, 2009. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60566-014-1.ch204.
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In recent years, computer-mediated communication has been the enabling factor for connecting people to one another and establishing “virtual relationships” (Igbaria, 1999; Johnston, Raizada, & Cronin, 1996). Virtual communities evolved as users of the early networks utilized them mainly for informal rather than business-related communication. These communities were not planned development in the sphere of computer networking. As this form of interaction increased, the users began to demand better and improved technology and functionality which would assist them in their interactions. “Virtual Communities describe the union between individuals or organizations who share common values and interests using electronic media to communicate within a shared semantic space on a regular basis” (Schubert, 1999). This was one of the first definitions of Virtual Communities. Nowadays, in considering companies that are building or trying to build virtual communities, it seems that the up-to-date definition of Virtual Communities is that these “involve establishing connections on electronic networks among people with common needs so that they can engage in shared discussions that persist and accumulate over time leading to complex webs of personal relationships and an increasing sense of identification with the overall community” (Hagel, 2007).
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Tarsiero, Rosanna. "Facilitating Social Learning in Virtual Communities of Practice." In Virtual Technologies, 1155–76. IGI Global, 2008. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-59904-955-7.ch073.
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This chapter introduces communities of practice as a means to explore human computer interaction in online collaborative environments. Through a wide review of the literature on communities of practice and their virtual counterparts, it argues that the focus for successful interaction design in these communities lies on those sociability and usability aspects that allow greater participation in social learning. It also argues that the facilitator assumes a fundamental role in guiding a virtual community of practice to accomplish work-related informal learning activities in a climate of trust and collaboration. The author hopes that understanding the special opportunities provided by virtual communities of practice will advocate for their widespread routine use.
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Yakavenka, Hanna. "Developing Professional Competencies through International Peer Learning Communities." In Virtual Professional Development and Informal Learning via Social Networks, 134–54. IGI Global, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-1815-2.ch008.
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This chapter utilizes a peer learning community as an example to explore whether and how information exchange, learning, and knowledge creation occur when students undertake professional internships. Observation and analysis of the learners’ views on their interaction are conducted by studying peer-generated blogs to determine if learners working in companies worldwide, but connected via an informal virtual community, can communicate effectively and produce a useful pool of information, thus creating meaningful knowledge and expertise to assist in future career development. The objective is to utilize the lessons learned to incorporate effective elements of the peer learning experience into formal programs of study and so increase the employability focus of business education.
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Guido, Gianluigi, M. Irene Prete, and Rosa D’Ettorre. "When Is a Duck Not a Duck? When It Is a Euro! Trust-Based Marketing Communications in Virtual Communities." In Virtual Technologies, 680–702. IGI Global, 2008. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-59904-955-7.ch043.
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This chapter tries to evaluate the effects of the propagation of a trust-based marketing message through selected below-the-web technologies, which are those particular types of information technologies different from websites – such as e-mails, discussion lists, BBSs, Newsgroups, Forums, Peer-to-Peer, IRCs, MUDs and MOOs – that allow for the creation of virtual communities. A preliminary experiment on informal marketing communications, carried out over 12,000 accesses to below-the-web communities and regarding the proposal to use the term “Ducks” for “Euros”, in view of its similarity with the term “Bucks” for Dollars, showed that below-the-web technologies can be an appropriate tool for building trust amongst participants when four conditions for the existence of virtual communities are met: 1) a minimum level of interactivity; 2) a variety of communicators; 3) a virtual-common-public space; and 4) a minimum level of sustained membership.
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Wasko, Molly McLure, and Robin Teigland. "Distinguishing Work Groups, Virtual Teams, and Electronic Networks of Practice." In Virtual Technologies, 1477–79. IGI Global, 2008. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-59904-955-7.ch093.
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Communities of practice are promoted within organizations as sources of competitive advantage and facilitators of organizational learning. A community of practice is an emergent social collective where individuals working on similar problems self-organize to help each other and to share perspectives about their work practice, resulting in learning and innovation within the community (Brown & Duguid, 1991; Wenger, 1998). Recent advances in information and communication technologies have enabled the creation of computer-supported social networks similar to communities of practice, where individuals are able to discuss and debate issues electronically. Given the success of communities of practice for facilitating knowledge exchange, both electronically and in face-to-face settings, management has recently focused on how to formally duplicate these networks and gather their benefits in work groups and virtual teams. However, with the evolution of new technology-enabled organizational forms, theoretical development is needed to distinguish between these different types of organizational forms since there are significant differences in the dynamics of formal vs. informal membership groups and between electronic and face-to-face interactions (Hinds & Kiesler, 2002).
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De Maggio, Marco, and Francesca Grippa. "An Integrated Methodology to Detect the Evolution of Virtual Organizational Communities." In Virtual Community Building and the Information Society, 50–74. IGI Global, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-60960-869-9.ch004.
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The proposed methodology has the potential to enable the analysis of virtual communities’ overall composition, evolution and social structure, characteristics and organizational behavior of the “project related sub-communities”, informal members’ roles and their contribution to the development of project’s task.
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Hur, Jung Won, Thomas Brush, and Curt Bonk. "An Analysis of Teacher Knowledge and Emotional Sharing in a Teacher Blog Community." In Virtual Professional Development and Informal Learning via Social Networks, 219–39. IGI Global, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-1815-2.ch013.
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The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the findings of a research study analyzing knowledge and emotional sharing in a self-generated online teacher community. Although active informal learning occurs in online communities of teachers, scant information is available about the knowledge and emotions teachers share in these communities. The authors conducted a content analysis of 1,709 entries in a self-generated blog community and examined the types of activities teachers were engaged in. The data revealed that over 29% of entries were related to lesson plans or teaching resources. In addition, over 17% of the postings addressed teachers’ positive or negative emotions. The authors argue that teacher participation in online communities should be promoted and encouraged since online communities help teachers with informal learning and emotional sharing.
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Senges, Max, and Marc Alier. "Virtual Worlds as Environment for Learning Communities." In Knowledge Networks, 181–98. IGI Global, 2009. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-59904-976-2.ch013.
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his chapter discusses the potential of three dimensional virtual worlds as venue for constructivist learning communities. To reach a balanced answer to the question whether virtual worlds are likely to evolve into satisfying eductional instruments (1) we retrace the historic trajectory of virtual world development and computer based learning, second we describe how (2) learning communities function in general and how virtual worlds in particular can be exploited for collective educational experiences. With this basis, we then present (3) a structured analysis of the strenghts, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) found to bound the potential of SecondLife for institutionalized learning based on our expertise from working and teaching in virtual worlds. In conclusion we argue that a critical but optimistic approach towards virtual learning environments (and SecondLife in particular) is adequat. In our assessment virtual worlds bear great opportunities for educational purposes, however most of today’s educational institutions will be challenged to encompass the informal and holistic learning scenario.
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Corbeil, Maria Elena, and Joseph Rene Corbeil. "Creating Ongoing Online Support Communities through Social Networks to Promote Professional Learning." In Virtual Professional Development and Informal Learning via Social Networks, 114–33. IGI Global, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-1815-2.ch007.
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Professionals who want to remain competitive in their fields are turning to Web 2.0 to learn the knowledge and skills they need in order to do their work more efficiently and effectively. Through a detailed description of how one instructor transformed his online graduate courses into dynamic, interactive, ongoing online learning communities that extended beyond the classroom, this chapter provides academics and practitioners a model for establishing a professional network that learners can participate in, and replicate in their workplaces for their professional development and informal learning. An overview of the role of social networking in creating professional development and informal learning opportunities for cognitive apprenticeship, knowledge brokering, and ongoing online support communities, as well as the results of a survey conducted on students’ perceptions of the impact of the social networking strategies and tools on their professional development and informal learning in and out of class will also be discussed.
Conference papers on the topic "Informal virtual communities"
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da Silva, Rogerio F., Itana M. S. Gimenes, and Jose Carlos Maldonado. "Assessing Virtual Communities of Practice in Informal Learning Environments." In 2020 IEEE 20th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT). IEEE, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/icalt49669.2020.00042.
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Casagranda, Milena, Luigi Colazzo, Andrea Molinari, Sara Tomasini, and Nicola Villa. "Lifelong learning implementations in virtual communities: formal and informal approaches and their impact on learners." In 2011 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON). IEEE, 2011. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/educon.2011.5773279.
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de Munnik, Marloes, and Osama Al-Mahdi. "DIGITALLY CHANGING TEACHING PRACTICE ENVIRONMENTS: AN EXPLORATION OF CONCEPTS AND IMPLICATIONS." In International Conference on Education and New Developments. inScience Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.36315/2021end050.
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This paper proposes using different concepts for guiding institutional practices in times of digitally changing professional teaching work environments. This paper draws upon our previous research and offers a first step of a framework, to understand and explore the new digital changes for professional teaching and learning practice, while engaging in online and virtual work and learning environments. Thereby focusing on the notion of a professional and the social implications of digital work technologies that are used for teaching and learning. The theoretical paper is structured around concepts we identified in our previous work and its potential of adopting them in the context of digital communities of professional practices. Addressing these objectives can hopefully help us to understand, what the effects of digital professional teaching work environments on teaching practice and for teacher’s professional responsibility are, their social effects in everyday teacher work and their practice related knowledge? What capabilities, features or skills are enabling teachers to do so and what guidelines can help them to cope with the current changes? And ultimately, how workplaces, schools and universities can benefit from these ideas? We focus on both human social factors and digital material factors as being inherent to professional teaching and learning practice. We hereby build upon concepts derived from socio-cultural and socio-material theories which are currently not commonly used in the same context, such as: communities of practice which is popular in socio-cultural learning theories whereby the understanding of human development relies on the social world; and extending the community of practice with materiality whereby human development also involves the material world. We contribute with this paper by suggesting that our framework, drawing on concepts of two different but related learning theories is useful for further research, such as on the institutional and individual response to digital change in teaching and learning practice. We believe that our theoretical informed conceptual approach enables to inform an increased professionality of teaching professionals in times of digital work change, activates thinking about different concepts, a change of mindset or at least provide the guidelines for an improved understanding among those involved in teaching practice.
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Njue, Teresa, Stanely Simiyu, and Francis Murage. "Effectiveness of Open and Distance Learning Approaches in Community Based Learning for Girls and Women in Kenya - A Human Centered Approach." In Tenth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning. Commonwealth of Learning, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.56059/pcf10.7900.
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Open and distance learning continue to play fundamental role in contributing to the construction of knowledge societies in a lifelong learning context. Despite educational challenges of the 21st century, and notably the Covid-19 global disruption in the education sector, open and distance learning concept has achieved notable recognition. It has had substantial impact on all education delivery systems. The objective of the research project was to assess the impact of open and distance learning approaches on education and empowerment of girls and women in Kenya’s Maasai nomadic community. The project was implemented during a fellowship program re-imagining African education in the wake of Covid-19. The research project was carried out in a formal, informal and non-formal setup. Community-led alternative learning model advocates for education practices that match and reflect the needs and circumstances of the excluded/disadvantaged populations. The model integrated open and distance learning concept in a community based learning. The project targeted six local Maasai women groups on house construction skills through purposive sampling technique. Human centered design approach was intensively employed in co-creating and co-designing the ODL-Community based learning approach. Key processes were triggering the community, ideation, prototyping, feedback, iteration and implementation. The instruction and assessment was facilitated virtually (80%), guided by a local translator and site visit by TVET instructors (20%). A community of learning was established with 10 local champions enrolled in instructor support training through blended approaches. Data was quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. Findings underscored that open and distance learning significantly reduced the constraints of time and place, reduced educational bottlenecks experienced in the traditional face-to-face system. It has significantly shifted knowledge, attitudes and perceptions in girls and women education. There was increased demand for learning and explored flexible and blended learning opportunities in disadvantaged and hard to reach areas. The project recommended affordable technology and digital learning strategies to improve equity and inclusion in education. Strengthen partnerships between communities, public and private sector for an enabling environment that includes digital infrastructure and digital skills user.
Reports on the topic "Informal virtual communities"
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Kennedy, Mary Lee, and Cynthia Hudson Vitale. Identifying Collaboration Priorities for US-Based Research Data Organizations: Questionnaire Results. Association of Research Libraries, November 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.29242/report.researchdataorgscollab2022.
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The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has released the results of a questionnaire, developed with the US National Committee for CODATA, intended to identify potential areas of synergy and interests among US-based research data organizations. This report is a first step in building community among US-based research data organizations. The report will inform the US National Committee for CODATA’s plans for a series of virtual convenings to discuss shared interests among cross-sector research data organizations, culminating in an in-person US Research Data Summit. The aim is to create a shared agenda that reduces duplication of effort within the United States and that positions research data organizations from the US to engage effectively in international discussions. The questionnaire was distributed to 80 organization representatives with national and international research data goals, including organizations that are cross-functional, disciplinary, representative of scholars, government, industry, nonprofit organizations, and underrepresented communities.