Being Part of a Virtual Community: An Intentional Learning Experience

In this week’s readings, we looked at the downfall of a major media platform that’s elements haven’t totally died out, a growth of a new gender-equality in virtual reality, and how to intentionally use the internet to form communities for people who share similar interests and beliefs. We looked at how the usage of virtual communities can be considered a bright new start to bringing new learning experiences.

Chapter 1 – The Mystery of the Death of MediaMOO

When I first read the title of this chapter in Building Virtual Communities, I wondered to myself, “What in the world is MediaMOO? Some form of website that is meant for cow enthusiasts?” I, then, came to find out that MediaMOO refers to “a text-based virtual reality environment designed to be a professional community for media researchers” (Renninger et. al. 2002, page 21). From what the chapter described of MediaMOO, it sounded a lot like a website similar to that of Instagram and Tumblr in that it brought people of varying/diverse backgrounds together to share what they have found in their own research and collaborate. It sounds like the “mysterious death” of MediaMOO took place in the late 90’s, which makes sense why I wouldn’t have heard of it; I was only a wee toddler who was too focused on playing with my dolls.

According to Renninger & Shumar, despite MediaMOO being popular for its time, there were multiple reasons for its demise, such as changes to the Internet, lowered enthusiasm by the creators/leaders, choices in target population/audience, and other factors. The rest of the chapter discusses each factor in greater detail and discusses how it connected to the downfall of MediaMOO. Thinking about websites I use now-a-days for collaboration, I think about these factors. For example, we see websites, such as FaceBook, constantly updating and changing elements of the website to help make its audience happy enough to still use it. One thing I was bit confused on though during this reading was trying to figure out whether it seemed like they were trying to bring MediaMOO back? I’ll explain what I mean when discussing Chapter 2.

The main thing that I take away from this chapter is the fact that despite how well a website/media platform does, if it is not kept up and not changed with the times, a “mysterious death” could occur. In terms of my line of work as an educator, I think of this concept of “keeping up with the times” as being able to use websites/internet activities that are pretty current but effective for student learning. Teachers have to be careful of what media platforms they use for teaching, and also for their students to have continued practice over specific concepts.

Chapter 2 – Female Voices in Virtual Reality

Being a female myself, I actually found this chapter interesting because it discusses why there are not as many women pursuing jobs in technology as we would like to believe. It also discusses what changes need to be made/what changes have been made to help change the mindsets of some girls to persuade them to join the virtual world. These changes focus on the interest level in technology by girls, changes in attitude toward technology, and changes in competence with technology.

I, myself, am a female that loves technology and loves exploring new features that it has to offer. I know not a lot of girls share these sentiments, and this chapter discusses ways of helping girls change their minds to join the field. Part of the reason girls don’t tend to choose technology is supposedly due to 1. It seeming like something only boys are mostly interested in, 2. There haven’t been a lot of opportunities for them to use technology in a manner that makes them feel confident, and 3. They didn’t realize that it could be an outlet to express themselves. The chapter discusses how over the course of time, these reasons have changed in a positive manner; showing that girls are becoming more and more interested in technology and in the MOO in order to express themselves and build new relationships with other users.

Another concept they discussed in this chapter was the use of MOO (Multiuser Object Oriented) again just as the first chapter brought up. After reading the definition of MOO in this chapter, I think about a website that my students use in my classroom that I believe fits the definition of a MOO. My students use a website called Prodigy to practice math skills and standards. In the game, students are able to meet up with each other and battle bosses together. Earlier, I had asked the question about whether MediaMOO was coming back, and Prodigy is the reason I ask if that is true? Were they referring to the idea of MOO coming back?

Chapter 3 – Community Building with and for Teachers at The Math Forum

“This chapter addresses the way in which the Internet forms the core of an intentional, online community by promoting communication between interested parties” (Renninger et. al. 2002, page 60). More specifically, this chapter discusses this concept concerning a math community for teachers that discuss how the Internet can be used to help teach math concepts. I like how this chapter addressed the fact that not all contributors, participants, learners, etc., are not all on the same knowledge level, but that just goes to show that they have created an environment that is welcoming to knowledge levels big or small; the goal is to make people feel like they belong to the community.

I, personally, related the most to this chapter due to the fact that I do use the Internet to connect with other third grade teachers to find out strategies they use within their classrooms to teach specific concepts. For example, I use Facebook and Instagram as specific learning communities by joining teacher groups and following teacher accounts that discuss specific teaching content that relates to me. One thing that I do worry about with virtual learning communities, such as Facebook, is the idea that sometimes posts and comments are not friendly towards others which could lead to cyber-bullying. If virtual communities could make sure that users/participants can feel safe from cyber-bullying, I think they would be considered more popular to collaborate and engage in the virtual communities.

I actually attempted to look at The Math Forum website that was provided in the chapter, but from the research I did outside of the chapter, it seems like The Math Forum itself doesn’t exist anymore, but when you look up the link given in the book, it takes you to this website automatically (While it isn’t called The Math Forum anymore, it is still a website solely designed for math education in all different kinds of areas; it is now mainly under the National Council of the Teachers of Mathematics): https://www.nctm.org/classroomresources/ I will definitely be using this website in my own teaching career to see if there is anything that can be of use to me in my teaching of math.

Conclusion:

Virtual learning communities are a great way to collaborate and discuss specific concepts and interests of the users. They can provide new opportunities for anyone to express themselves in a manner that makes them feel confident. In order to keep these learning communities going virtually, the right procedures need to be taken: 1. Make sure there is a target audience, 2. Make sure it is user-friendly, and 3. Have opportunities to collaborate and work together in order to express.

Resources:

Renninger, Ann & Shumar, Wesley. (Eds.). (2002). Building virtual communities: Learning and change in cyberspace. Cambridge University Press.