Facebook or fail-book: Exploring “community” in a virtual community of practice

IF 4.6 1区 文学 Q1 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
Recall Pub Date : 2020-04-07 DOI:10.1017/S0958344020000099
Ward Peeters, Marilize Pretorius
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引用次数: 19

Abstract

Abstract Creating collaborative working and learning experiences has long been at the forefront of computer-assisted language learning research. It is in this context that, in recent years, the integration of social networking sites and Web 2.0 in learning settings has surged, generating new opportunities to establish and explore virtual communities of practice (VCoPs). However, despite the number of studies on the concept, research remains inconclusive on how learners develop a sense of community in a VCoP, and what effect this may have on interaction and learning. This research project proposes to use social network analysis, part of graph theory, to explore the configuration of a set of VCoPs, and presents an empirical approach to determine how interaction in such communities takes shape. The present paper studies the concept of “community” in two VCoPs on Facebook. Participants (Group 1: N = 123, Group 2: N = 34) in both VCoPs are enrolled in English as a foreign language courses at two Belgian institutions of higher education. Social network analysis is used to show how both learner groups establish and develop a network of peers, and how different participants in those groups adopt different roles. Participation matrices reveal that interaction mainly revolves around a number of active key figures and that certain factors such as the incorporation of online and offline assignments and the inclusion of a teacher online result in varying levels of success when establishing collaborative dialogue within the VCoPs. Recommendations are formulated to inform and improve future practice.
Facebook或失败书:在虚拟社区实践中探索“社区”
摘要创造协同工作和学习体验长期以来一直是计算机辅助语言学习研究的前沿。正是在这种背景下,近年来,社交网站和Web2.0在学习环境中的融合激增,为建立和探索虚拟实践社区创造了新的机会。然而,尽管对这一概念进行了大量研究,但关于学习者如何在VCoP中培养社区意识,以及这可能对互动和学习产生什么影响的研究仍然没有定论。该研究项目建议使用图论中的社交网络分析来探索一组VCoP的配置,并提出了一种实证方法来确定这些社区中的互动是如何形成的。本文研究了Facebook上两个VCoP中的“社区”概念。两个VCoP的参与者(第1组:N=123,第2组:N=34)都在比利时的两所高等教育机构学习英语作为外语课程。社交网络分析用于显示两个学习者群体如何建立和发展同伴网络,以及这些群体中的不同参与者如何扮演不同的角色。参与矩阵显示,互动主要围绕着一些活跃的关键人物,在VCoP内建立合作对话时,某些因素,如在线和离线作业的结合以及教师的在线参与,会导致不同程度的成功。制定建议是为了告知和改进未来的做法。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Recall
Recall Multiple-
CiteScore
8.50
自引率
4.40%
发文量
17
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