Learning within a virtual learning community is an evolutionary process enabled by advanced information and communications technologies. It implies virtual teams of learners who are located across time, space, and cultures, facing the challenge of collaborating in meaningful learning experiences in the absence of real-time face-to-face interaction. With the worldwide penetration of the Internet and emergence of interactive collaborative IT (Information Technology) applications, virtual learning communities and organizations have evolved. They provide innovative opportunities to learn and create synergy of effort.

A camera man films an ecnounter in Toronto

These innovative learning organizations have used modern communication technologies to enlarge their membership , and increase their level and range of educational services. By joining their core competence with the different core competencies of other organizations, they create new values and opportunities. The advancement of high speed Internet connectivity, real time video conferencing and provision of IP multi-casting, is radically changing the way we learn, the way we work and the way we view ourselves within the global learning community.

Virtual Learning Communities differ from traditional brick and mortar learning institutions. In their book "Virtual Organizations and Beyond", Hedberg, Dahlgren, Hasson and Olve point out that "virtual organizations are held together primarily by cohesive forces other than those used by conventional companies, such as capital, laws, contracts, customs and traditions. Their principal resources are the people involved in the community and/or the ideas, models and systems that hold the community together. Know-how and competence are more important than the supply of risk capital."

They further point out that "The focus of those who lead is thus neither leadership nor management, but a spirit of teaching - the emphasis is on helping members acquire the capacity to learn from change, to promote innovation and to manage and develop themselves."

The following characteristics are identified as ingredients necessary to develop and sustain a prosperous virtual organization or community:

• A clear and compelling vision
• High-trust culture
• Infromation technology
• The creation of conditions favorable for learning
• Recognition that the principal resources are the people involved
• Considerable effort on all members must be devoted to finding the right incentives for all parties
• The concept of work is based on the assumption that independence is of central importance to all members
• Characterized as knowledge-intensive
• Possess an innovative character based upon a superior concept or model
• Ability to see and create synergies
• Value creation for and with members and partners
• The ability to articulate and communicate the need for change
• See and understand situations in new ways
• Leadership, empowerment, interdependence
• Quality partnerships
• Imagination
• Responsive to members needs and suggestions
• A set of values which in word and deed underscores the desirability of dialogue and diversity.

Four site windows opened by the Isabel conferencing software.

Early Lessons Learned

Preliminary observations and feedback from teachers and students participating in the VirtualClassroom program suggests that in addition to communication on their selected collaborative learning task, early and frequent social communication is important to establish trust and a sense of belonging within the VirtualClassroom community.

Coping with cultural and regional diversity, proximity, technological uncertainty, time zones, choosing topics, division of labor, interdependence, and the generation of substantive and timely communications are issues that have surfaced in the virtual encounters to date. Thus far, student teams have only had the opportunity to access broadband tools to engage in temporary rather than sustained authentic learning relationships. This fact may represent one of many possible explanations for the varied level of engagement amongst participants in the virtual encounters to date. Critical to the success of developing and sustaining virtual learning communities therefore is the research and evaluation into the appropriate design of technology and group processes that facilitate strong interdependence and collaboration within our learning community.