A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF EDUCATIONAL COMMUNITY
IN VIRTUAL TERMS AS IMPLEMENTED IN EDUCATIONAL
INSTITUTIONS
THE POTENTIAL OF VirCom-LT
Christos Karageorgopoulos
Managing Director VirCom
Vaios Karabinis
Web Developer VirCom
Ioulia Rapti
Cited as:
Karageorgopoulos, C., Karabinis, V., & Rapti, I. (2004). A new understanding of
educational community in virtual terms as implemented in educational
institutions. The potential of VirCom-LT. In the Proceedings of the 5th ICICTE,
International Conference on Information Communication Technologies in
Education, Samos, 7/2004: INEAG, University College of Fraser Valley, Canada
pp.157-161
Abstract
The purpose of this project is to redefine the concept of educational community and the
learning potentials that it provides. To achieve this, it is crucial first to determine the
characteristic features of such a community in virtual terms, that is, by means of
technology which would reflect the educational theory on which it is based. It is also
crucial that this educational model is used in the framework of, and according to the
needs of, an educational institution. VirCom-LT is flexible enough to allow the creation of
learning teams, action groups, multiple users’ roles, and a continuous discussion of the
learning subject within the community.
Introduction
An educational community is an environment which integrates traditional
learning activities in a new framework, such that it allows for interaction
and collaboration of the following kind. The member of such a community
is asked to play a variety of roles, such as the novice, the advanced
learner, the expert, or the critic. In such a way the member avails of the
different approaches used by the other members, and she is guided to
cultivate a learning consciousness. This, however, cannot be achieved
unless all members participate in equal terms to the learning process.
Crucial for the success of this project is the choice of the adequate
technology. This should enable not only various ways of communication
but especially should support a learning process based on the exchange
of roles, on critical evaluation, and constructive interaction. Further,
technology would cultivate skills which are necessary in the information
society. The educational institution that chooses to implement the virtual
learning community model should redefine its structure and way of
operation so that it can meet its specific educational aims.
Theoretical Background
We take it that the principal aims of an educational community should be
to impart to its members of a certain mentality, to equip them with skills
and to help them acquire knowledge. This can be achieved through
establishing various kinds of links among its members. And technology
should promote the establishment of such a community by creating the
conditions in which this can flourish.
Educational Communities
There are many ways to define a community. It can be defined in terms of
the common aim, the common orientation, or the common space shared
by the members (Scholer, 1996; Jones, 1997). However justified these
definitions may be, they do not fully bring out the potential that can be
evolved within a community with educational purposes. An educational
community cannot come about unless we first define its aims and the
environment which can accommodate it. By “aim” we do not only mean
what is to learn, but also the way in which should be learned. And by
“environment” we do not only mean the place, but also the structure and
organization. The community should aim to introduce its members to
basic subjects of study, to modes of thinking and action which pertain to it.
In such a way all members of a community would be able to share the
same mentality. The idea is that the community should learn and make
progress as a whole. To achieve this, all members should be placed in the
same framework, which would recast the community’s modes of thinking
and action. In this sense learning ceases to be an individual project and
becomes the project of a community. This has to become clear to
members and may add to their motivation. Members become fully
involved in a community when they assume responsibility and distinct
roles of action. Such a variety of roles and activities would inspire to
members a more vivid participation in the community. This can be realized
by means of establishing a common mentality and a common conception
of knowledge. In order to arrive to this common conception, we must allow
for constructive interaction between the members. By this we mean the
study of an issue in many ways, its discussion from different points of
view, and the undertaking of different roles by the members who
participate in the process of learning.
Learning
An educational community exists in order to create the conditions in which
learning can take place. The environment of such a community should
allow the constitution of smaller teams which can be homogeneous or
heterogeneous depending on the background and the skills of the users
(Novak, 1998). The participants would be invited to interact and exchange
useful information (Bruner, 1985). Within such teams all participate and
learn in equal terms, including the leading members of the community. It
may well be the case that some participants take more initiative than
others, yet this should be monitored and supervised and roles should
change. As regards the content of learning, this far from being
crystallized, should be subject to research, modification, and discussion,
and can be considerably enriched if some members happen to take more
active interest in it (Palloff & Pratt, 1999). Thus not only exchange of
views takes place, but, more importantly, a common source of knowledge
comes about.
Technology
The application of technology has changed the way of human
communication has multiplied our contacts and has enhanced our access
to information. A successful combination of technology and educational
practice can boost the learning experience of the participants of an
educational community (Holmes et al., 2001). Many interactions would
remain incomplete if the use of technology would not guide them in such a
way that they acquire an educational value and become transformed in
learning experience. The use of technology would determine also the
attitude of the participants and would affect the development of the
community (Lazar & Preece, 2002). The appropriate use of technology
would also assist in imparting to the participants the necessary computing
skills. Such skills concern not only the use of technology as such but also
the ability to communicate, to collaborate and search for information
(Papert, 1980). The upshot of this is that the role of technology does not
only consist in providing the community with virtual means, but also to
constitute a certain kind of community, which would enable specific kinds
of interaction.
Description of the VirCom
The software VirCom-LT has been designed to constitute an environment
which would accommodate an educational community. As such it
constitutes an example of how educational practices can be conveyed in a
virtual environment. To create this software, which we have been
constantly revising, we used php and mysql, and we made it from scratch
with the exception of the editor, a version of which has been found in the
site www.interactivetools.com, where it is at everyone’s disposal. We have
modified, however, its code so that it can be integrated with the rest of the
environment. For the time being, the logismic is fully functional only on
Internet Explorer 4 and above, but we have been trying to make it
compatible also with other browsers.
Design
The software VirCom-LT constitutes a structure that allows the
performance of a variety of actions and activities. The chief
administrators, once they become familiar with the environment, they are
then invited to organize it according to their preferences and with a view to
their aims. Initially they should determine the kind of internal communities
in which the participants would be classified. These communities would be
homogenous and heterogeneous at the same time in the following sense.
One community of specialists would include all members working on the
same subject matter, e.g. language or physics, while a community of
status would include all members with the same status, e.g. students or
teachers. There can come about as many communities as the
administrator thinks necessary. Once they come about, then the
administrators can subscribe the would-be members. This order of action
is necessary to be followed because the board of membership would not
be complete before the constitution of communities. While subscribed,
members would be granted specific rights by the administrator. He or she
can subscribe other administrators, moderators, or mere users. The
difference between the last two groups is that only the moderators can
create closed action teams involving members of their own choice aiming
to carry out a special project, or to study a particular subject in depth. The
same member can act as mere learner in one environment, as a
moderator in another, while she can also play a leading role in learning
activities.
Communication within teams and communities would be
asynchronous. Only the moderators are entitled to make public the results
in the special notice-boards of the teams and of the entire network. The
administrators are responsible for specifying the subject matters of the
entire community. At the same time there are chosen the members to be
responsible for the materials. By means of an editor we can create
websites, the placement of material in them, the creation of internal links
between any websites and the creations of external links too. In such a
way the subject matters are not presented in isolation but in an
interdisciplinary mode. The fruits of research and discussion or knowledge
that is produced in the framework of the community can be placed in the
websites and stored in the library of the community for future use. Those
teams which have completed their activities can either be eliminated or
can be preserved as examples of successful practice.
Adjusting an educational community to educational institution
Most educational institutions try to upgrade their services by taking into
account modern educational theories which supposedly would promote
the cultivation of new learning skills and the modification of educational
strategy on the whole. Yet while they are employing technology to achieve
this, they also seek to provide virtual learning facilities. This combination,
however, is not always successful, but often has as a result a virtual
environment which is modelled on outdated ways of learning.
Plan and Structure
To avoid this, an educational institution must first work out its structure
and then recast it on virtual environment. This means that above all an
educational institution must have a clear plan and educational strategy
regarding the kind and the quality of the education it means to provide.
Our proposal is that there should be created educational communities
within an educational organism. These communities would aim to promote
collaborative learning, would redefine the material in question, and would
constitute a network of knowledge which would exhibit the educational
proposal of the administrators of the educational organism.
The logismic VirCom-LT enables the heads of an educational
institution to determine its operating modes. A school-rector, for instance,
may prefer to bring about communities of pupils, teachers, parents, and
external scholars-consultants, while the head of a vocational institution
may wish to bridge the gap between the education of the students and the
requirements of the job-market through the creation of communities. His
decision may be affected by factors like the following: what the students
should know, how they should learn it, where they can apply it, what they
can do after receiving their degree (would they proceed to the next
educational level or would try to join the job-market?). Administration of
material and specification of roles would be determined by the heads of
the institution. The most important advantage of this procedure is that it
would fortify the educational institution with a certain educational identity
and orientation. Hence the renewal of the personnel would not affect its
way of operation. Further, the training of the personnel would be confined
to familiarizing them with some basic skills necessary for their integration
in the structure of the particular educational institution, but this would not
necessarily be time consuming (Salmon, 2002). Such a process of
familiarization would be further facilitated through rendering available to
new members the results and the experience of the past years.
Conclusion
In this paper we tried to redefine the structure of an educational
community and to describe the interactions which this community
cultivates. Individual actions within the community are to be defined by the
administrators.
References
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Author Contact Information
Christos Karageorgopoulos M.Sc
Managing Director Vircom
7 Athanasiou Diakou
41222 Larissa, Greece
Telephone: (+302410) 535605
E-mail: ckarageo@vircom.gr
Vaios Karabinis
Web Developer VirCom
5 Garefi
41222 Larissa, Greece
Telephone: (+302410) 531522
E-mail: vkarabinis@vircom.gr
Ioulia Rapti M.Ed
55 31st Augoustou
41221 Larissa, Greece
Telephone: (+302410) 281889
joulia_rapti@hotmail.com