Do you know of any authoritative articles/references that can support the usefulness of virtual learning communities.
I am interested in potential benefits for teachers sharing their experiences in math and science teaching.
Here is some shamelessly self-serving and probably political info about sharing in communities from the no-longer boycotted Univ. of Haifa... Hope it helps. Most of the stuff is available (online on my home page: Rafaeli, S. and Raban, D.R. (2005) Information sharing online: a research challenge, Int. Journal of Knowledge and Learning (IJKL), Vol. 1, Nos. 1/2, pp.62 Rafaeli, Y. Dan-Gur and M. Barak (2005) Finding friends among recommenders: Social and "Black-Box" recommender systems", International Journal of Distance Education Technologies (IJDET), Special Issue on Knowledge Management Technologies for E-learning: Exploiting Kowledge Flows and Knowledge Networks for Learning. April-June 2005, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 30-48 Rafaeli, S., Ravid, G., & Soroka, V. (2004) De-lurking in virtual communities: a social communication network approach to measuring the effects of social and cultural capital, Proceedings of the 2004 Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 37) Collaboration Systems and Technology Track. Copyright 2004 IEEE. Published in the Proceedings of the Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences, January 5 8, 2004, Big Island, Hawaii. Barak, M. & Rafaeli, S. (2004) Online Question-Posing and Peer-Assessment as Means for Web-based Knowledge Sharing in Learning, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies Vol 61, issue 1 pp 84-103 Rafaeli, S., Barak, M., Dan-Gur, Y. and Toch, E. (2004) QSIA - A Web-based environment for learning, assessing and knowledge sharing in communities, Computers and Education Volume 43 Issue 3 pp. 273-289. Rafaeli, S. & Ravid, G. (2003) Information sharing as enabler for the virtual team: an experimental approach to assessing the role of electronic mail in disintermediation. In Information Systems Journal, Vol. 13, pp. 191-206 Rafaeli, S., Barak, M. Dan-Gur, Y., Toch E. (2003) Knowledge Sharing and Online Assessment, E-Society Proceedings of the 2003 IADIS conference IADIS e-Society 2003 pp. 257-266 Prof. Sheizaf Rafaeli Graduate School of Business Administration and Director, Center for the Study of the Information Society University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel, Haifa, 31905 Tel. +972-4-8249578, Fax +972-4-8249194 sheizaf@rafaeli.net, http://sheizaf.rafaeli.net