Abstract
The keywords in this collective work include community of learning, inquiry or work, virtual environments and identity. This volume presents the results of a biennial Italian research project (PRIN 2005-07) which was coordinated nationally from the University of Padova, with Bianca M. Varisco as principal investigator. The research involved five units with local coordinators (Padova – B.M. Varisco, Bari – M.B. Ligorio, Roma Sapienza – D. Cesareni, Milano Cattolica Sacro Cuore – C. Galimberti, Macerata – P.G. Rossi) and also the Universities of Trieste, Milano Bicocca, Valle d’Aosta, Bologna, Udine, and Cassino.
The interdisciplinary nature of the research meant close collaboration between pedagogists, educational-, communicational- and social-psychologists, and ICT technologists and scientists. The aim was to analyse, develop and verify online environments. The study was focussed on virtual communities and their internal actions and interactions. These communities vary greatly in nature, and were formal and informal, academic and professional, and comprised graduate students, post graduate students, teachers, patients and psychotherapists. The research developed, and the models studied also surveyed, deepened and reported on, the educative, cognitive, social, affective-conative and evaluative aspects of virtual communities. Indeed, from a theoretical point of view, an attempt was made to combine the psychological, pedagogic and social perspectives, identifying useful inter-connection points and deepening the cognitive, meta-cognitive, inter-subjective, identity creating and cultural aspects which take shape in the online community. Working tools and environments were studied, developed and field tested for supporting and promoting virtual communities. The modalities of personalization, co- self-assessment and skills improvement were also invented or planned for these communities.

Information
Type: Collection
Language(s): English
Year: 2008
Number of page(s): 233
Code (printed): ISBN 978-88-7699-105-9
Code (electronic): ISBN 978-88-7699-106-6 - Open Access Publication

Book Sections
D. Cesareni, O. Albanese, S. Cacciamani, S. Castelli, B. De Marco, C. Fiorilli, M. Luciani, I. Mancini, F. Martini, L. Vanin (2008) Tutorship styles and knowledge building in an online community: cognitive and metacognitive aspects. In: Psychological, pedagogical and sociological models for learning and assessment in virtual communities. Polimetrica Publisher, Italy, pp. 13-56.

M.B. Ligorio, S. Annese, P.F. Spadaro, M. Traetta (2008) Building intersubjectivity and identity in online communities. In: Psychological, pedagogical and sociological models for learning and assessment in virtual communities. Polimetrica Publisher, Italy, pp. 57-92.

V. Grion, B.M. Varisco, F. Luchi, M.S. Raineri, E. Mazzoni (2008) Building and sharing teacher professional identity in virtual communities. In: Psychological, pedagogical and sociological models for learning and assessment in virtual communities. Polimetrica Publisher, Italy, pp. 93-144.

P.G. Rossi, A. Zuczkowski, G. Alessandri, L. Giannandrea, P. Magnoler (2008) Linguistic indicators for the knowledge building analysis and the interaction in online learning processes. In: Psychological, pedagogical and sociological models for learning and assessment in virtual communities. Polimetrica Publisher, Italy, pp. 145-184.

C. Galimberti, M. Cantamesse, C. De Micheli (2008) Mobile IVT: ergonomic and communicative characteristics of tools for Immersive Virtual Technologies used by professional communities of practice. In: Psychological, pedagogical and sociological models for learning and assessment in virtual communities. Polimetrica Publisher, Italy, pp. 185-216.