Learning Communities + Technology = Connectedness?
Alan Levine, MCLI

As colleges are developing new courses and programs for delivery via world wide networks, such connections appear to offer the potential for building electronic learning communities. Shared spaces, such as the MariMuse and Pueblo created by Phoenix College's Jim Walters and Billie Hughes, have set the stage for intricate, learner-defined environments. However, as we become more "connected" via the net, a paradox reveals itself. Those with the resources to be electronically linked may not always be a community of learners or truly connected to each other. As we become more "connected" via the net, do we become less connected to each other?

The on-line of HotWired features "Brain Tennis"- where every two weeks an issue is "served" up to two opposing experts and they carry out a heated on-line discussion. Readers can find related articles via search engines and can also participate in a discussion area. In the second week of September 1996, the theme was "Virtual Communities: Is the Well Dry? ... are on-line communities edifying spaces or bogus biospheres?" Here are some of the discussion "lobs":

"Are there good reasons to dial in to an online community? Or are they, as Ana Marie Cox believes, about as exciting as "a fractious PTA meeting?"

"Yesterday, Stacy Horn said that online conversations change you and make you think. Today, Ana Marie Cox says the discussions are like existentialist plays because they don't develop."

You may see the rest of the match at: http://www.hotwired.com/braintennis/96/37/index0a.html

How do we then build learning communities that enhance and support human dynamics and intellectual development? How can technology accentuate connections and learning rather than promoting monotonous, single-minded diatribes (no matter how snazzy the graphics)?

In this issue of the Labyrinth we explore some of the issues related to building learning communities that take advantage of technology. MCLI Director Naomi Story highlights the issue of human connectedness. Dean Stover describes the use of both Internet and groupware for an integrated block at GateWay Community College. Pete Facciola shares his ideas on the potential for computer technology and applications in the Dynamic Learning program at South Mountain Community College. Also from South Mountain, Mary Long describes how she can see Internet videoconferencing integrated into her combination of Contemporary Cinema, History of World Religions and Introduction to Sociology. Margaret Hogan from Chandler-Gilbert Community College and David Schwalm of ASU East describe the collaboration for building a physical learning community at the new Williams campus. Karen Schwalm of Glendale Community College reflects and shares her perspective on how the Electronic Forum establishes learning communities. Karen McNally, a doctoral intern, describes an MCLI project in which faculty-student teams designing and developing a multimedia project were in essence each a learning community.

This year we are introducing a feature column by Jon Lea Fimbres, a former counselor from Paradise Valley Community College. Via e-mail, she shares her experiences as she embarks upon a three year stay in Egypt. Jon Lea will be working with MCLI to develop an electronic learning space connecting Phoenix to Cairo, and back as well as points unknown. We encourage you to establish an electronic learning experience as we have.

-t h e   l a b y r i n t h-

URL: http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/
     labyforum/Fall96/laby1.html