(FLCs) are formed by teachers to address teaching, learning, and developmental needs so as to reduce the isolation, fragmentation, stress, and neglect in the academy. Teachers can propose topics to the FLC program director to address special teaching and learning needs, or issues.
Published in Chapter:
Learning Community and Networked Learning Community
Shuyan Wang (The University of Southern Mississippi, USA) and Hongbo Song (Yantai University, P.R. China)
Copyright: © 2008
|Pages: 7
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-881-9.ch084
Abstract
A community is socially organized around relationships as a result of seeking a common ground that builds upon “community by kinship, of mind, of place, and of memory” (Sergiovanni, 1994, p. xvi). Participating in the activities of others and contributing to cooperative doings may reveal identity construction in the social process of forging a community. Such a communitybuilding process is further reinforced by its members’ increased belonging and shared identity, values, norms, communication, and supporting behavior. However, along with the rapid postmodern technological developments, the notion of community has changed as current community involves “virtual as well as actual, global as well as local” (Palloff & Pratt, 1999, p. 25). As a result, a relationship-focused rather than place-based community has expanded the parameters of community concept, as is the case with networked-learning community. Seen in this light, this article examines the notions of community, of learning community, and of networked-learning community that is related to technological developments. A discussion of trends, issues, and strategies that can be used to foresee, solve, and maximize learning outcomes in the networked online learning environments will also be addressed.