What is an electronic community?

An electronic community is a safe, democratic, and discursive place that exists in cyberspace. Electronic communities come in many forms, including message boards, listservs, threaded discussions, chat rooms, and MOOs.

All of these communities allow members to exchange ideas, discuss topics, share electronic resources, and get to know each other better.
In short, an electronic community can be a sort of virtual classroom that extends beyond school walls.

The English Education listserv is designed to support pre-service, secondary, and collegiate English teachers and teacher educators associated with Western Michigan University. Subscribing is easy and free.

Or, check out Secondary Worlds MOO, a new MOO hosted by Western Michigan University. Designed for secondary English teachers and their students, this MOO will eventually become a rich interactive environment where students can experience literature in new ways.

If you are interested in establishing an electronic community in your own language arts or English classroom, this site offers community building resources to help you do so.