Elearning Community
Overview
Communities are the core of a progressive and developed society. Through communities, innovators share ideas, practitioners share success stories, and newcomers learn the "trade" by observing, challenging, and debating with existing members.
Elearning (as we know it today) is still a new field. Communities have formed, but most are not very active. I personally found the lack of a vibrant community very frustrating when I first started pursuing online learning. I discovered a fractured industry in its infancy...still trying to develop it's personality. Searching for resources and opinions involved visiting dozens of sites and listservs. I'm still looking for the ideal "one-stop" elearning site...soon perhaps?
| Elearning blends two previously separate disciplines - education and technology. The differences of opinions, and growing elearning into a mature, viable field will require much debate and discussion. Communities are areas where these foundational concerns can be discussed...An industry without community is an industry without a future. |
Resources
Kairosnews
"A News Site and Online Community for Discussing Rhetoric, Technology
and Pedagogy."
Elearningguild
A fairly new site, but they boast rapid growth. Has many of the core concepts
in place to grow into a vibrant community.
Quote: "The eLearning GuildTM is a Community of
Practice for designers, developers, and managers of e-Learning. Through
this member driven community, we provide high-quality learning opportunities,
networking services, resources, and publications."
eCLIPSE
- Community
A password required "center" of the eCLIPSE
site. In case you care...if you bookmark only one elearning site - it's
a toss up between this one and Stephen's
Web.
LearnScope
Excellent elearning resource community...featuring guest presenters, resources,
articles, etc.
Elearning
Leaders
Excellent discussion group hosted with Yahoo. Very informative, thought-provoking
discussions. It is a closed community, however, so you'll have to wait
a day or so to get access after you submit your information. The value
of the discussion is well worth the wait!
Online
Facilitation
"The onlinefacilitation listserv is for discussion about the skills,
techniques and issues around online facilitation in a variety of Internet
online environments and virtual communities." A Yahoo group.
Apple
Learning Interchange
"Apple has developed an online educational environment to facilitate
the interchange of ideas among teachers, education leaders, visionaries,
and innovators."
AT&T
Learning Network
Very resource rich. The Virtual
Academy lists useful resources geared to the teachers/developers.
Yahoo
Education
Not geared only to online learning, but still a useful site.
Teachers.Net
Good example of what a community of like-minded people looks like...
Concourse
Project
"The goal of the Concourse Project is to provide a long-term dynamic
environment wherein educators, researchers, administrators, technicians,
engineers, authors, publishers, students and advocates can come together
to exchange innovative dialogue and materials on topics related to the
broadly defined Instructional Technology and Educational Technology field."
Wellspring
" It is devoted to the needs of Distance Educators using the World
Wide Web to deliver post-secondary courses to their students."
The
Well
Probably the best known web community. Worth a visit to see how effectively
people can communicate using technology.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License
