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Article of Volume 3, Issue 4, December 2008

Leveraging online communities in fostering adaptive schools

Authors: David Hung, Denneth Lim, Victor Chen, Thiam Seng Koh

Abstract: There has long been a call for schools to prepare students for the twenty-first century where skills and dispositions differ significantly from much of what has historically characterized formal education. The knowledge based economy calls for policy and pedagogical efforts that would transform schools. Schools are to foster communities of learners. This paper suggests that para-communities may be points of leverage in the fostering of adaptive schools. A critical analysis is done on the differences between para-communities (such as online communities) and schools; and an argument is made that they each serve differing goals and should be left distinct because they achieve different societal and economic demands.

Keywords: Online community, Community of practice, Adaptive organization, Adaptive school, Paracommunity, Community of interest, Community of learners, Trust-networks

Citation: Hung, D., Lim, D., Chen, V. & Koh, T. S. (2008) Leveraging Online Communities in Fostering Adaptive Schools. ijcscl 3 (4)

DOI: 10.1007/s11412-008-9051-7

Preprint: hung_lim_chen_koh_3_4.pdf

About this article at link.springer.com [http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11412-008-9051-7] including a link to the official electronic version.