Figure 12.1 Community Portraits homepage. For Community Portraits, the walled and windowed space of conventional teaching, with its tables and chairs, black/white-board, overhead projector and ancillary equipment, is replaced by a structured learning environment (TELSIpro) that is mapped out on the participants’ computer screens. Once logged on to Community Portraits, participants see four buttons across the top of the screen allowing them to choose one of three activities (Document preparation, Sending mail or Chat) or to seek help. The selection of a button will lead to a list of options in the vertical column on the left of the screen. The main work area occupies the rest of the screen (Figure 12.1). Participants decide and allocate permissions for reading and revising any document

Chapter

Chapter

ABSTRACT

The first trial of Community Portraits took place in the spring and summer of

1999. The participating group consisted of three men and five women distributed

across five sites and three countries: Finland (four), Germany (two) and Scotland

(two). Three small groups were formed before the start; each group was made up of

participants from different countries, where possible, or at least from different sites.

The Community Portraits trial run settled down to two groups as the third group