Popularity of communities and group on Internet

Communities (virtual) are popular because:
1. The communities and groups offer conversational style of learning, which is inherently a social and dialogical process (Duffy, 1996). We tend to learn better or naturally by seeking out opinions and ideas from others.
Examples - (a) I find travelling by train more comfortable (short distance of course) than by Air, because, Trains in India provide an opportunity to open up freely and interact rather than the Air. - people tend to enjoy social interaction (b) During my travel overseas a few years back, I landed at Bangkok airport in the midnight and I had to take a connecting flight to Manila. I had difficult time then at the airport, since all information was available on the screen boards rather than people-to-people interaction we have in India. I realize we enjoy the dialogical process. Hence the communities will flourish.
2. Communities are also form of Informal learning and the learning results are from the activities related to work or leisure. It is unstructured most of the time and hence appeals to majority of the members.
The communities thus offer informal learning through dialogical process. I guess!!

E-learning Blueprint

I came across some material on creating E-learning blueprints visit http://www.cathy-moore.com/blueprint/blueprint_tour.html for details.
Cathy Moore emphasizes on action mapping based learning and demonstrates that Instruction Designing (ID)for E-learning is all about helping the participants solve problems in real world rather than simply designing a e-learning module to help the particiapants learn. The blueprint suggests that e-learning module must be hands on experience rather than loads of Information.
The blueprint traces path from action mapping, activities, contents, organize, create and resources.

How do we learn?

Prensky postulates that in general, we all learn through

• behaviours through imitation, feedback, and practice
• creativity through playing
• facts through association, drill, memory, and questions
• judgment through reviewing cases, asking questions, making choices, receiving feedback, and coaching
• language through imitation, practice, and immersion
• observation through viewing examples and feedback
• procedures through imitation and practice
• processes through system analysis, deconstruction, and practice
• systems through discovering principles and graduated tasks
• reasoning through puzzles, problems, and examples
• skills (physical or mental) through imitation, feedback, continuous practice, and increasing challenge

Source: Prensky, M. (2001). Digital game-based learning. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Swami Vivekananda