Distributed Collaborative Learning Communities Enabled by Information Communication Technology

Heidi was a PhD candidate at the Department of Decision and Information Sciences at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University in the Netherlands from 2004-2006. She holds a Masters of Arts in English (1999) from Florida International University (FIU) and a Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Miami (1979). She was presented with FIU’s Presidential Award for outstanding contributions in research and education for her work on the Inter-regional Grid Enabled Center for High Energy Physics Research and Educational Outreach at FIU (CHEPREO, 2003). She also holds Executive Development certification from the FIU College of Business (2002). Heidi L. Alvarez is the Director at the Florida International University (FIU) Center for Internet Augmented Research and Assessment (CIARA), where she is responsible for support of the division’s directive to offer Internet Augmented Research and Assessment, Internet2, and high-performance next generation networking services to research and education institutions. She develops and implements information technology grant activities with local, state and federal agencies, either solely or in collaboration with various colleges and offices of the University, with an emphasis on science and educational outreach collaboration. Alvarez works with colleagues and collaborators to plan and implement high performance Research and Education (R&E) networks and US e-Science initiatives in South and Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean. Alvarez is Principal Investigator of CyberBridges (NSF Award #OCI-0537464) to create a new generation of scientists and engineers who are capable of integrating cyberinfrastructure into the whole educational, professional, and creative process of diverse disciplines. She has served as Co-PI for AMPATH since 2000, Co-PI for CHEPREO since 2003, and the Western Hemisphere Research and Education Network (WHREN) – Links Interconnecting Latin America (LILA) since 2005. She served as Director of Information Technology Research for the Madrid-Miami Center, Madrid, Spain, for a year in 2002-2003. The Madrid Center for Education, Research and Development focuses on three areas of importance to South Florida and greater Madrid: immigration, economic development and information technology.

How and why can Information Communication Technology (ICT) contribute to enhancing learning in distributed Collaborative Learning Communities (CLCs)? Drawing from relevant theories concerned with phenomenon of ICT enabled distributed collaborative learning, this book identifies gaps in the current knowledge. Many questions can be asked about the role of technology in distributed CLCs. How technology is enabling collaborative learning in learning communities is an important one. What are the issues and problems in the context of technology enabled collaborative learning, is another. The articulation of CLC characteristics stem from the Communities of Practice and Communities and Technologies movements that have taken root in twenty-first century Information Society dialog. The theoretical lens provides a framework to study this phenomenon empirically in a case study setting. The research methodology explains the choice and justification for the single case study of the Fielding Graduate University. Fielding offers a unique example of both the phenomenon and context of technology enabled distributed graduate education. The study findings can begin to be generalized to CLCs with similar characteristics to the Fielding Graduate University. Because of the need for intense collaboration, distributed collaborative learning can be facilitated by the use of rich media. Where people use media rich technologies their distributed collaborative learning results seem to be better than their colleagues that did not use ICT. Therefore, media rich ICTs with collaborative features may improve the level of learning and performance in collaborative distributed learning environments.