ABSTRACT
This chapter presents practitioner research from two cases where online communities have been established to support teacher-learners (TLs) taking part in university teacher education programs based in the UK. The first case, based at Aston University, considers how a web-based archive helped reinforce and extend the value of a majordomo email discussion list and shows how the site encouraged TLs to make greater use of the resource. The second case, based at University of Warwick, features an initiative using a Ning-based online group. Ning is a commercial service enabling communities of practice (CofP) to create public or private social networks that allow members to set up individual blogs, engage in forum discussions, create special interest groups, communicate via synchronous chat, and share photos and videos. This case considers how Ning facilitated aspects of design, interaction, and support.
