Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace

Abstract

Building Learning Communities in RENA A. PALLOFF AND KEITH PRATT Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco 1999 Paperback: $33.00 ISBN 0-7879-4460-2 The authors of Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace, Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt, describe the book as Effective Strategies for the Online Classroom. For me, it was the end of a three-year quest into research, journals, books, conferences, workshops, and list serves for a body of wisdom on this topic. It clearly and succinctly encapsulates both a solid research-based theoretical foundation and direct application of those theories through a step-by-step guidance process. Palloff is an assistant professor at John F. Kennedy University and has been working extensively in health care, academic settings and addition treatment for over twenty years. Pratt is chair of the Management Information Systems Program, main campus and overseas at Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kansas. Since 1994, PaIIoff and Pratt have been pursuing their own individual career paths and have collaboratively conducted research and training in electronic distance education. Right from the beginning, the authors build a strong case for saying that the successful course does not just modify and present the face-to-face course in a new form. After discussion of how the new paradigm for involves a more active collaborative, constructivist approach, the authors explain that the learning community is the vehicle through which occurs online (p.29). Most contemporary leaders in the field of education agree that the success or failure of an course is largely based on the degree to which the participants sense connectivity and community that allows participants to feel, when they enter a discussion forum in a course site, that they have entered a lively, active conversation. (p.11) What makes this book stand out is that although the authors are in agreement with the significance of this pillar of distance education, they present a well-reasoned, logically sequenced case of theory based upon research and experience so that the reader will share in their depth of understanding. However, just when the reader might agree but be ready to say, That's too much work or That's not my teaching style; the authors offer easily adoptable suggestions, examples and 'doable' tips which any conscientious instructor would find enticing. The book is divided into two parts. Part One: The Learning Community in Cyberspace is an extremely thorough overview of the issues involved at all levels of teaching and outside the classroom. As this section explores definitions, concerns, psychological issues relating to responsibilities, rules, norms, vulnerability, ethics, even time factors, group size, and managing the technology; the authors' teaching area helps add a refreshing dimension by interspersing relevant comments from their students who are analyzing organizational behavior and their community experiences. …