Day Two Virt Camp

How in the last 24 hours has your perception of community changed or been challenged?

My perception of the term "community" has been altered slightly in the past 24 hours. While I understood there was more than one way to view a community I think that I have learned there are far more than I ever could have imagined.

A community could be your family, your friends, your classmates, the people in your church, your coworkers, or the people in your yoga class. We are all involved and a member of many communities and our communities change throughout our lives. However, a community does not have to be face to face like many of us were raised and have experienced. People have changed and the way we interact has changed. People are communicating online. People are finding other people with shared interests online. It is a place to build a community with people that are like minded.

As we begin our studies at Pepperdine we are forming a community. We are a group of people that have agreed to attend Pepperdine University to study Learning Technologies. We will be communicating for the most part via the web. We will be a community of learners. We will not gather together in the physical sense, we will gather online to share ideas.

Although this is different from the traditional definition of community we are still a community. As technology develops it becomes easier to form these communities. I think this can be a great way to use technology. However, I think it is still important for people to form communities in the more traditional sense as well.