Web 2.0 is a platform that is constructed and enriched by users through inter-human connectivity and interaction. Online communities allow users with shared interests to collaborate. An online community is a group of people who come together online for a purpose and are governed by shared norms and policies. Virtual communities provide access to collaborate and interact with people worldwide without leaving home. They allow learning new topics, playing sports, and attending courses through virtual reality with just a click. For online communities to be effective, they require limiting influences, stability, and an e-moderator to guide experiences and build on contributions while enabling openness.

1. Aplicaciones de Informática Educativa a la Enseñanza del Inglés - Comisión 4-691 – UTN
Course Final Written Assignment
Teacher: Paula Ledesma Student: Mariana Chiarella
The Role of Community Formation in Learning Processes
What we need to bear in mind when referring to the term Web 2.0 is that it is nothing
but a platform to be constructed, modified, changed and enriched by the users
themselves. The focus is on inter-human connectivity. It is the interrelation and
interaction of the users that make the Web 2.0 an extraordinary tool.
Depending of the user’s interests, the web offers online communities for him to work
collaboratively with other users who share the same purpose. Therefore, an online
community has been defined as a “group of people who come together for a purpose
online and who are governed by norms and polices” (Peece, 2000). It can also be
described as a virtual place where “we (the author refers to “us” as “users”) chat and
argue, engage in intellectual discourse, perform acts of commerce, exchange knowledge,
share emotional support, make plans, brainstorm, gossip, feud, fall in love, find friends
and lose them, play games and metagames, flirt… we do everything people do when
people get together, but we do it with words on computer screens, leaving our bodies
behind… our identities commingle and interact electronically, independent of local time or
location” (Rheingold, 1994).
Schank (1993) affirms that e-learning lowers and even removes the two biggest
traditional barriers to a workforce’s continuous learning and improvement: time and
money. Nowadays, people around the globe find it very difficult to attend courses,
conferences and meetings which discuss their interests within the restrains of their busy
schedule. Money is also a reason to be taken into account when deciding to take up an
intellectual activity. But another thing that should be considered is the location. Virtual
communities provide the users access to work collaboratively and interact with people all
around the world without having to leave the comforts of your warm and cozy living room
or even your bedroom. With the use of these new technologies, people are able to learn

2. Aplicaciones de Informática Educativa a la Enseñanza del Inglés - Comisión 4-691 – UTN
Course Final Written Assignment
Teacher: Paula Ledesma Student: Mariana Chiarella
Japanese, play a sport, chat and even attend courses in Rhetoric and Composition in a
virtual reality without so much as a click (Dudeney and Hockly, 2007).
Since the system allows an easy access and exposure to large amounts of information,
many users will find this “openness” overwhelming and will start viewing virtual
communities with a cautious and apprehensive attitude. In order to avoid this feeling of
aporia, online communities work under policies and norms which are set by the
community itself, giving it a specific identity. Garrison and Anderson (2003) also explain
that in order for effectiveness to take place “…there must be limiting and stabilizing
influences if e-learning is to maintain a sense of community and purpose”. Thus, there has
to exist a person responsible for guiding and organizing the experiences dealt with within
the community. This person is kwon as an e-moderator – or e-educator, e-facilitator. The
e-moderator is “the person responding to and building on the contributions to an online
conference and should prompt, encourage and enable openness, while also
acknowledging the personal experience as well as acting as a companion in the
democratic online learning process” (Salmon 2001).
The future is just a click away
Nowadays, technology plays a central role in the life of professionals all around the
world. The use of wikis, blogs and Web 2.0 tools shortens the distances between writer
and reader and enables them to interact and to share information for a specific purpose.
As developed in the previous topic, virtual communities permit people from all around the
globe to participate in conferences, take courses – through VLE, CALL, m-learning – teach,
learn, explore, develop a friendship and even fall in love. With internet and e-learning, we
are no longer bound by time and space to convey our messages and share it with the rest
of the world. All we need is just a click of the mouse. We, as teachers, should bear in mind
that technology, like language, is dynamic and ever-changing.

3. Aplicaciones de Informática Educativa a la Enseñanza del Inglés - Comisión 4-691 – UTN
Course Final Written Assignment
Teacher: Paula Ledesma Student: Mariana Chiarella
Works cited:
 The Role of Community Formation in Learning Processes by MargaretRasulo,
Universityof NaplesL’Orientale,Italy.
 Salmon, G. (2000). E-Moderating, the key to teaching and learning online. London:
Kogan Page.
 Preece, J. (2000). Online communities: Designing usability, supporting sociability.
West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons.
 Garrison R., & Anderson T. (2003). E-Learning in the 21st Century: A framework for
research and practice. London: RoutledgeFalmer.
 Schank, R. (1993). Learning via multimedia computers. Communications of the
Association for Computing Machinery, 36(5), 54-56.
 Rheingold, H. (1994). A slice of life in my virtual community. In L.M. Haraisim(Eds.),
Global networks: Computers and international communication (pp. 57-80).
Cambridge, MA: MIT.