KM&EL 2011 - Special Issue on Creating, Supporting, Managing, and Sustaining Virtual Learning Communities

Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An International Journal (KM&EL)

Special Issue on

Creating, Supporting, Managing, and Sustaining Virtual Learning Communities

Guest Editor

Xun Ge, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Instructional Psychology and Technology

Department of Educational Psychology

The University of Oklahoma

U. S. A.

Email: xge-AT-ou.edu

We are living in an information-rich digital age full of wondrous
power, capabilities, and possibilities of emerging technologies. Web
2.0 technologies, characterized by participatory information sharing
and collaboration and users generating content and creating knowledge
in virtual communities, have opened our eyes to a new open world
(Bonk, 2009). Examples of web 2.0 include social networking sites,
blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, virtual worlds, and digital object
repositories. These emerging technologies have provided us numerous
possibilities for learning and instruction and for creating engaging
and optimal learning opportunities and alternative and innovative
instructional experiences for K-12 education, higher education,
corporate, government, and military training. The world has entered
into what Bonk (2009) describes as “We-All-Learn” trends, which
encourage open participation and compel educators to reflect on
learning and instruction from a new perspective. Learners are no
longer passive information recipients, whose role is to memorize or
consume information, but rather active participants, whose role is to
direct their own learning, construct and create knowledge, and
contribute to a virtual community; whereas teachers are guides,
coaches, and mentors to facilitate learning.

However, the potentials of the emerging web 2.0 technologies have not
been fully recognized and tapped. Often we find online instruction
simply duplication of face-to-face lectures, in which technology is
simply an appendage to education instead of playing a more central and
transforming role. Many instructors have not changed their mindset to
accommodate the participatory culture and the new paradigm of learning
and instruction; and little has been done beyond posting syllabi,
assignments, and grading to a learning management system or a web site
that is supposed to be used for collaborative learning. It is argued
that new technologies not only make us more productive, but also help
us become more reflective and creative.? Most importantly,
technologies have afforded us with tools to accomplish goals we would
have not been able to without them. As early as in the 80s, Pea (1985)
argued that technology should not only be used to amplify our thinking
but also to reorganize our mental functioning. Therefore, we are
prompted to fully take advantage of web 2.0 affordances to develop
innovative learning environments and build virtual learning
communities that will motivate and engage learners meaningfully and
interactively in their learning experiences and focus on developing
the 21st century skills that emphasize innovation, creativity,
communication, collaboration, critical thinking, decision making, and
problem solving.

Yet, using emerging technologies to build a virtual learning community
(VLC) is a multifaceted innovation. It not only involves the use of
new technologies, but also new method of learning and new ways of
thinking of learning and instruction. It presents multiple levels of
challenges to both learners and instructors. Subsequently, there are
many issues awaiting to be examined, studied, and addressed, including
learners’ perceptions, motivation and identity when participating in a
VLC, strategies and methods of designing, building, managing, and
evaluating a VLC to develop students critical thinking, problem
solving, and creativity, and teachers’ beliefs about participatory
culture of a virtual learning environment.

This special issue of the KM&EL international journal is dedicated to
the building of VLCs using emerging technologies. In this special
issue, a VLC is defined as both informal, such as one that supports
ongoing professional development, and formal, such as one as found in
a formal course setting that lasts a semester. In this call, we invite
manuscripts that report empirical studies (both quantitative and
qualitative studies) of investigating issues and challenges related to
the building of a VLC, the use or design of tools scaffold the growth
of a VLC, and methods and efforts to create, build, manage, sustain
and evaluate a VLC. In addition, this special issue welcomes
manuscripts discussing conceptual frameworks or theoretical constructs
related to VLC building.

Recommended topics of interest include, but not limited to:

Impact of a Virtual Learning Community

Learners/members' perceptions and their impact on their participation in a VLC
Learners/members' motivation in a VLC
Learners' identity development in a VLC
Teacher or a facilitator's role in a VLC
Role of a VLC on critical thinking and problem solving skill development
Impact of peer interactions on metacognition and self-regulation in a VLC

VLC and reflective learners

Designing and Evaluating a Virtual Learning Community

Tools and strategies to build, manage, and sustain a VLC
Tools and strategies to promote identity development in a VLC
Tools and strategies to facilitate peer interactions, collaboration
and other VLC activities
Tools and strategies to facilitate reflection and self-regulation in a VLC
Tools and strategies to support complex problem solving in a VLC

Tools and methods to evaluate the effectiveness of a VLC

Conceptual Frameworks or Theoretical Constructs about a Virtual
Learning Community

Community of learners and practice
Community of inquiry
Types of communities and their characteristics (e.g., task-based,
knowledge-based, and practice-based, etc.)
Various constructs and factors influencing the success of a VLC

References

Bonk, C.J. (2009). The world is open: How Web technology is
revolutionizing education. Jossey-Base.

Pea, R.D. (1985). Beyond amplification: Using the computer to
reorganize mental functioning. Educational Psychologist, 20(4),
167-182.

Important Dates

Submission due: 20th August, 2011

Notification of decision: 20th October, 2011

Finalization: 20th November 2011

Publication schedule: December 2011

Submission Instructions

Manuscripts should be sent by email to the Guest Editor, Dr. Xun Ge
(xge-AT-ou.edu).

Papers must not have been published, accepted for publication, or
presently be under consideration for publication elsewhere. A standard
double-blind review process will be used for selecting papers to be
published in this special issue. Authors should follow the
instructions outlined in the KM&EL Journal Website (see
URLhttp://www.kmel-journal.org/ojs/index.php/online-p...)

For more information about the KM&EL Journal, please visit the web site:

http://www.kmel-journal.org/ojs/index.php/online-p...