'It's funner': Teacher-directed collaborative online communities

If cognition is social, then the most powerful learning is social rather than individual (Kalantzis & Cope, 2008, p.154). This project, conducted in late 2007 and early 2008 on behalf of the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development's (DEECD) Ed Channel, focussed on the effectiveness of collaborative online communities in fostering and supporting student engagement, and the effect of such communities on learning outcomes. Specifically, it aimed to identify the impact such social softwares have on the relationships that students form within an online group or community, the role of that learning community in the engagement of students as learners, and the role of the teacher in utilising these social softwares.