Presentation on Virtual Communities from the ELI Fall Focus Session, September 2008. Discusses online communities and the use of tools and technologies to encourage online community

1. Virtual Communities A place for everyone Shannon Ritter - Social Networks Adviser Penn State World Campus, The Pennsylvania State University

2. http://cyber.law. harvard .edu/questions/ELIFall08

3. collaboration

4. largest collaboration on YouTube participatory interactive 67,000 + views

5. NMC Horizon Report collaboration w/ NMC and ELI Grassroots video Collaboration webs Mobile Broadband Data mashups Collective intelligence Social operating systems

7. One tool to rule them all? Won’t ever happen.

8. Communities are diverse

9. What works for one… may be a disaster for another choice = good

10. learners have: different needs different goals different technology different responsibilities they need options

11. How can we build communities for students that never see each other?

12. Second Life: virtual representation of actual campus spaces academic advising virtual events for students

13. Challenges: “buy-in” it’s a ‘game’ who else is doing it the conversation

14. thon

15. Facebook: student interaction with classmates and staff announcing events more personalized contact

16. Flickr: allows us to capture and share moments with students and their families graduation, homecoming, pep rallies, office events

18. YouTube

19. twitter:

20. Things to remember: choose the right tool options take the risk

21. learning spaces are all around us

22. There’s room for everyone in our virtual communities we > me always

23. demo and questions