Upload
rehab-radhi
View
220
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 1/21
Title: Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
--The Case Study in Taiwan
Topic areas: Education
Keywords: Virtual classroom, Internet Forum, teacher-students
relationship, symbolic interaction
Author: James Feng-chien Lee
Department: Department of Education, Soochow University
Mailing address : 70 Linhsi Road, shihlin, Taipei, Taiwan 111, ROC.
E-mail : [email protected]
Phone number: 886-2-2881-9471 ext. 6120
Fax number: 886-2-2883-8040
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 2/21
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 3/21
courses together for their first academic year. Frequent meeting makes classmates’
anonymity in the Internet hard to maintain. Teacher-students relationship is also
changed for part of the authority role has been adjusted. All these relationship was
discussed by the theories of symbolic interaction and anonymity of Internet user.
The results divided relationship among students into categories. Teacher should
appear in two roles, that is, both as a teacher and a ordinary member to expedite
discussion Teacher-students relationship also divided from these two roles into
categories. The symbol clues that expose real identification behind aliases and
situations that make the anonymity challenged are also discussed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*This research was partially supported by a grant from the National Science Council
in Taiwan (NSC 90-2420-H-241-001).
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 4/21
Introduction
Interaction, which produces relationship, happens during the teaching and
learning process. Relationship is the mediated variable of leaning efficiency. Although
the relationship also exists in cyberspace, it may change.
The purposes of the research are exploring the relationship as follows: among
students and between teacher-students. The relationship results from their perception
of the group. Perception effects on their attitude and attitude presents in action.
The virtual classroom was built into the Internet Forum in this research. The
teacher, as a researcher encouraged and let students learn actively. They were
independent to decide when and how to participate the discussion. the internet
forum(the forum) became the extend space from classroom for leaning activity.
Besides the issues in the classroom, they could discuss any topics related to education.
They were allowed to use alias to keep their anonymity during discussion.
Literature Review
Technology and language are two key components to make interaction through
internet possible. The cyberspace where interaction takes place becomes virtual
classroom. Users behind the screen appear by an alias, they interact with each other
by the language of symbols composed by all the characters on the keyboard.
Interaction through internet creates technosociality. Technology creates a new social
organization of biosociality.( Escorba, 1994; Chun & Cheng, 2000) ?
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 5/21
Anonymity
Internet users can be anonymous to interact privately in public. They appear by
an alias which user choose or create. Hayashibara( 1998) found the user’s alias is at
least a word to reduce the repeat of identification and to describe themselves
concretely.
The anonymity makes the user invisible and can partly emphasize, cover or
reconstruct his characteristic. (Jeng,1988). This may cause the polarization effect on
users’ behavior( Sproull & Kiesler, 1986) . Namely, anonymity makes the internet user
behind the screen act in opposite direction: more emotional or emotionless.
All the students were allowed to be anonymous in this research. Do students
need anonymity since they all come fro the m specific group? Can they keep their
anonymity if the answer is yes?
Symbolic interaction
According to the theory of symbolic interaction, mediated symbol makes
communication possible. It is true for every animal but only human creates words to
make precise communication.
How does interaction proceed? There are eight elements in the interchange
process (Goffman, 1962): signs, channel, receiver, reaction, device,
metacommucication, norm and rules. Norm governs the information deployment,
rules govern the relationship of actors and discriminate actor and latent actor who are
in the field without participation. Will this theory apply to this research?
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 6/21
From individual perspective, Schutz pointed out sign or symbol is the
representation of what is meant. When people use a sign or symbol, they are not for
the sign or symbol itself. They use its meaning to express (Walsh & Lehnert, 1967).
Symbol must exist in both actors’ experience to understand each other. And only the
reaction causes interaction going on (Mead,1955). From Blumer’s point of view,
symbol has personal meaning by being interpreted. This meaning will guide their
action (Morrione, 1998).
Besides content of titles and replies, alias is also the symbol. These symbols are
the clues for students to interpret. How do they effect their action?
Interaction & Relationship in the Internet forum
The content in the forum appears in categories by the title. The related replies are
under the same title. Users are easy to choose issues interesting to them by this
designation. The latest content of the title will be refreshed up to the top of the forum.
People interact differently in various environments. The results in features of
interaction in asynchronous forum and synchronous chat room are compared with as
table 1.
Table 1 Features of synchronous and asynchronous communication in
Synchronouscommunication
Asynchronouscommunication
Total discussion time Short Long
Interaction degree High Low
Content of structure Disstructural Structural
Social and emotional
presentation
Higher Low
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 7/21
From The Study on Virtual Community. (P29). Master thesis of management
department, Taiwan University of Science and Technology, unpublished. Hsu, G. L.
(1998).
Kozinets( 1999) analyzed social structure and group interaction and found both
chat room and forum are loosely structured. The focus of interaction is different. The
forum focuses on information exchange, and the chat room focuses on social
exchange.
Many researches are on users interaction and relationship in virtual community.
Some results are as table 2.
Table 2 Interaction and relationship of virtual community
Scholar Feeling in the forum Content in the forum
Wellman,1996 friendship, social
support, and
belongingness
information
Krackhardt &
Hanson( 1993)
trust, and consultant. informational
Hagel & Armstrong
(1997)
interesting,
relationship,
imagination,
Transaction
Peter & Trudy
Johnson-Lenz( 1994)
Construct
self-awareness,
mutually supportive
activities, socialexchange, sense of
collective well-being
Kozinets( 1999) recreation mode,relationship mode,transformational
mode.
information mode
Yang(2000) mode, feelings
exchange, , interfereand restrain.
trading product,
information exchange,problem-solving
mode,
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 8/21
All the interaction and relationship are divided into two categories. There are
feeling and content. The subjective feeling is not exact something they are discussing
about, but related to users’ attitude and feeling to this group. The objective content is
always related to some certain topics.
Wu (1996) studied on the BBS user’s virtual relationship and found it has several
advantages. First, it satisfies users’ need of imagination and expectation. Second,
users have more chances to make friends, especially boy or girl friends. Third,
virtuality and anonymity reduce the pressure and make users be more self-disclosure.
This relationship results from BBS which is for making friends. There may be
different results from virtual community for knowledge exchanging in the research.
Giddens suggested in the book Modenerity and Self -Identity that Pure
Relationship makes people are self-disclosure. This action is based on
trust.(Giddens ,1991). The result from face to face situation seems different from
result in computer-mediated communication. Users feel safe to be self-disclosure to
strangers because of anonymity. Users' secrets will not expose to people around them
(Lee, 2001). The situation becomes more complex in between face-to- face and
computer-mediated communication.
Calderwood( 2000) found community provides communion.. But members form
it may not necessarily develop the relationship of love, respect and commitment.
Sometimes they are interdependent and scarify for practical concern. Members in this
situation are less involved themselves and lack of belongingness.
Information exchange is the necessary interaction in virtual learning community.
Success of learning community depends on members’ sharing knowledge with others
(Chung, 1998). Lu( 1999) and Huang( 1997) studied on the efficiency of the forum
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 9/21
and found both virtual communities’ discussion are not deep enough. Lee( 1998)
studied on the forum for distance education and found messages from students are
four times more than from the teachers. The teacher should not be the only contributor
to the virtual community. The roles and relationship of teachers and students are
changed in the forum. Wu (2000) suggested the numbers of expert and novices should
be considered for facilitating learning virtual community. Community with few
experts has less attraction.
Do they need social interaction besides information? Lee (1998) also found
social support from classmates is important to overcome learner’s fear and loneliness.
Close relationship is good for learning in the virtual community. But if they are too
close in physics, function of internet may decrease. Chung (1998) studied on
classmates as a virtual learning community. Classmates did their homework on line
into groups. The outcome was not very satisfied because face-to-face is more effective
than computer-mediated communication. Furthermore, anonymity is hard to maintain
learning in this way.
How do virtual and real relationship effect each other? What kind of relationship
is it in the specific group? The discussion goes on below.
Research method
Research methods are observation and interview. Subjects are students from
Teacher Education Center, an institute of technology in middle Taiwan. They are
preparing to be high school teachers. These students are from various departments
taking education courses together for their first academic year. There are 47 students.
Five are male, 42 are female. They all took at least one of researcher’s courses during
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 10/21
two semesters. There were Sociology of Education and Education in the first semester
and Youth Psychology in the second semester,
Observation
The forum is built into the Cityfamily since 05.Dec.2001. Cityfamily is a free
cyberspace for virtual community provided by a commercial company. Students
should register and become members before posting messages.. There were 46
members in the community before 30.Jun.2002. Register requirement helps researcher
observe users and their actions. Observation conducted participative observation at
least once a day. Researcher participated with two aliases in the forum. One is just an
ordinary member; the other is a teacher. The period of observation is from
05.Dec.2001 to 31.Jan 2003
Interview
Interview conducted individual interview with ten of the students. Subjects were
chosen considered their behavior both in the classroom and forum. Characters of ten
selected students are described as table 3.
Table 3 Ten subjects of individual interview
No. Age Sex Full-time/ part-time
student
Bandwidth Experiencesof Forum
Using
Personality Participationin the
classroom
Participationin the forum
01 20-25 F F 56K Yes Extrovert Strong Strong
02 20-25 F P 56K Yes Introvert Strong Weak
03 20-24 F F 56K No Introvert Weak Strong
04 26-30 F F 56K Yes Extrovert Strong/Middle Weak
05 30-35 F P 128K No Extrovert Strong/Middle Strong
06 20-25 F F 128K Yes Introvert Weak Strong
07 20-25 F P 56K Yes Extrovert Strong Strong/Middle
08 26-30 F P T1 Yes Introvert Weak Strong
09 30-35 F P 56K No Extrovert Strong Weak
10 20-25 M F 128K Yes Introvert Weak Middle
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 11/21
Discussion
Relationship among students
Ability and Experience
Besides symbols, the technology is a mediated variable which interfere with
users interaction, effecting their participation and sense of relationship with the group.
The sense of relationship described by degree of mastering the technology is as
follows
Alien
A new computer or intenet user is afraid of making mistakes in this strange
discussion situation. They want to express themselves but it takes minutes to type and
they may not be exactly sure of how to send the messages. This may reduce their
degree of participation and make them feel alien in the discussion relationship.
I rarely use the computer… Viewing these issues will giving you lots of
ideas. Some opinions you may agree with, but others you won’t. You need
to type very fast and be familiar with using it to express yourself.
..…eventually, you will feel out of place. You are just listening to, but you
may not agree with or what they say may not even be true. You’ll get very
upset if you can’t respond, and then give up (students 9)
Margined
A newbie is familiar with how to use the forum but lacks interaction experience
in forums. Before they decide to send messages, much worry comes to their minds.
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 12/21
Their degree of participation falls in between of frequent users and aliens. The
relationship is margined compared with regulars who are mastering the usage.
Latent observatory
Some students just view the content without having any reaction because they
don’t have their own opinion. These students need some training on thinking and
expressing themselves. Besides, others may have their ideas, but do not try to share
with others. So their participation is just one-way and latent from others. Of course,
they don’t contribute to the forum.
I won’t reply if others act emotionally. I’ll just smile at them…..in fact I
am comfortable with myself and don’t need others’ approval. That’s OK, I
feel fine. I don’t think I need to be responsible for others.…..taking good
care of myself is just fine……because I think others may say what I don’t.
(student 8)
Group
Being part of a familiar group often is the basic reason for their participation.
Especially for the newbies, this is the place where they take their first step. After they
get positive feedback, they have the courage and increase their level of participation,
thus improve the relationship.
Students trust the group even they are not very familiar with all of them. Student
10 responded to this idea by using his nickname as alias.
All the members are classmates and the forum is an academic one.
Anonymity exists for protection. You don’t have to worry about safety here.
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 13/21
There is no insulting and criticizing here. (student 10)
Another case is because one student knew the background of this group She
didn’t have to worry about her opinion was not deep enough. This made her feel easy
to participate. Students 4 recalled her experience in BBS.
This is what someone posted in response to what I had written: “you can
figure it out yourself. It’s such an easy question Don’t post it here!” or “go
check the book yourself, it’s on page 32 in Education of Philosophy “. I
felt sad about it, though sometimes you can’t tell what their attitude is.
Some users are really sarcastic…..I feel it’s easier to post in our
forum.(students 4)
Based on these reasons above, their relationship is as follows.
Courtesy
Their relationship, generally speaking, was courtesy. There are several reasons
for this result. Such as, they expect themselves to act like teachers; they are college
students; their personalities effect to the actions; and the anonymity is challenged.
Anonymity makes students feel safe as in public forum. They feel safe from
being recognized behind the screen. Knowing each other becomes a constrict factor to
express their true feelings, especially those are negative. Users desire to be
anonymous because they need to be accepted in the classroom. They may revise their
action when worrying about revealing themselves. The higher the degree of their
worries is, the less they may participate enthusiastically. Students 4 said,
You can criticize and say directly what you think in BBS. You can speak
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 14/21
out if you think something is not right. I will express my different opinion;
but I lose interest if I can’t point out the problem in an incisive
way…….Users being anonymous is the benefit of the internet. But the
forum users are those in our class. If your words are offensive or too
critical, it may cause shock. Others will gossip “Did you see it? who said
what?…and it seems to be who…. The student being attacked is in hell, if
he or she is revealed. Aren’t you isolating him from the other students if
you divulge his identity? (student 4)
Direct
In fact, most students make responses after considering the student’s personality
to maintain harmonic atmosphere in classroom. Contrary, they will directly express
themselves without too much disguise in the forum. The reasons are partly because
they are anonymity, and partly because time for arguing is unlimited. Student 3
explained,
For example, student A doesn’t seem open to accepting others’ opinions. I
won’t discuss the problem (with A) in the classroom. It is different in the
forum. The student posting could A or anyone else. I will still post my
opinion without too much consideration. (student 3)
Student 1 is more aggressive than student 3. She represses herself to let the
course run smoothly when countering a narrow-minded student in the classroom. But
she will keep on defending her opinion in the forum. Although their consideration is
different, they have the similar action both in classroom and the forum. Students 1
said,
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 15/21
you can’t waste a lot of time arguing a point, the class needs to go on in the
classroom. You’ll be saved when the bell rings. You just know that it’s
because of her personality. There is no tine limit in the forum. The arguing
can keep going on as long as you wish. (student 1)
Curious and suspect
Though all of students appeared by aliases in the forum, sometimes they might
be revealed. Many students were curious about aliases and might even try several
ways to figure it out their identity. This is the side effect on specific students in the
forum. Their relationship is curious and suspect in this situation.
Close friends
Some students chatted or invited each other in the forum. Their relationship in
the forum is the extension of close friends in real life. But the chatting is stopped soon
for not matching the purpose of the forum.
Content
Students participated automatically and chose the content interesting to them.
Information exchange or issue discussion should be the main purpose in the forum.
Content, which includes both titles and replies, is the mediated symbol according to
symbolic interaction. Titles are more effective factors of decision on whether
participating than replies because of the designation. Besides, the title with many
replies will also attract curious students. The relationship through the content is as
follows.
Information-sharing
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 16/21
Most students posted titles which were important to themselves for discussion or
notice, such as the latest policy on education. The forum gathered information from
students’ efforts. Although most students expected replications from others, they share
voluntarily.
Information dependent
Students sometimes were active to request certain information, such as detail of
the title. They also occasionally asked experienced others for suggestion or opinion.
Categorized by interest
Students chose independently the interesting content and participated. Different
categories of titles attracted different kinds of students. The gathered students under
the same title shared the same interest. This situation happened all the time.
Teacher-students relationship
A teacher should appear in two roles to facilitate discussion. There are both a
teacher and an ordinary member. Each character produces different relationship.
When the alias appears as a teacher, the relationship is as follows.
Expert/trust
Experts present their profession both in experience and theory. Their action is
convincible. Students sometimes expected teacher to show up and give them some
advices or opinions. Especially, when there was an argument for some issues.
Authority/follow
Teacher’s action is meaningful and helpful to students based on role’s authority.
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 17/21
Even the action of a student and a teacher is similar; the effect is different for
students’ different interpretation.
For instance, if I am puzzled, I want the teacher to answer me because I
always think students are less experienced than teachers. Such as: what it
the meaning of taking education courses, what else can I be if I am not a
teacher? Classmates sometimes laugh at each other. Hey, don’t make fun
of me! If the teacher teases, it is because teacher wants me to relax.
Classmates and teachers are certainly different.(student 4)
Power/Obey
Some students have the pressure whenever they see the teacher. They feel the
same to read the teacher’ alias in the forum. The teacher’s opinion may also repress
different ideas of the content.
….it would be very serious if the situation were like this. I would be afraid
to post my opinion following the teacher’s post or if the teacher always
posted his opinion and feelings right after my opinion. That’s no good.
There will create lots of pressure. if the role of a teacher is to critique his
students. Wow, I won’t dare to tell contradict him. (student 3)
When the teacher appears as an ordinary member, the relationship among
students also exists between a teacher and students. Besides, there is still the other as
follows.
Enthusiastic response
Some students may derive the alias as the teacher. After this situation occurred,
some students responded enthusiastically and noticed all the content posted by the
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 18/21
alias.
Advisor/refer.
The Alias as an ordinary member still has its value after the teacher being
revealed. Appearing with this alias means his participation is at equal status. He is
open to different opinions. Students have less pressure in this way.
Both two characters have advantages and disadvantages of facilitating discussion
in different situations. Teacher should appear at the right time to facilitate discussion.
Challenge to anonymity
Students from the Center know each other but not so well. Therefore, students
may not recognize their identify through the forum. However, meeting each other
frequently challenged their anonymity in the forum. Although some students
respected their choice of being anonymity, others didn’t. They were interesting to find
out who they were. This situation happened especially when they read a radical or
emotional content. Ironically, students who posted it often desired to be anonymous in
this situation. Besides, they were also curios about the alias who posted the content of
the same opinion.
Students guessed the identity by the symbolic clues. These symbols are aliases,
titles and replies. They compared these in the classroom with the forum. These clues
included alias, content, tone, expression, words, attitude, etc.
Such as A uses her nickname, B uses her idols name, you can see her idols
photos all over her pencil box, bag…everywhere…but there is still one I
don’t know about, I’ll wait for her to give yourself away. You’ll certainly
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 19/21
guess who it is because they are always around you. ..furthermore, I
always come to the class early. When classmates chat with each other.
Such as how are you these days? …I pay attention to the tone, and the
context of what is said and relate it to what classmates in the forum have
typed. I also directly ask….are you the one?…, so far all I have asked have
answered positively. (student 1)
Conclusion
This is the research on the virtual classroom which formed for its first year with
certain members. Virtual classroom was not built to replace the classroom but to
provide another learning environment. The relationship is multiple. Some relationship
is opposite to another. This is because of various situations and personalities.
Students usually revise their action of discussion according to the one who they
are talking to. This consideration is an important mediated variable of action in
classroom, but reduced in virtual classroom. This may partly because most students
are female, and partly because of the traditional culture. There is a dilemma between
anonymity and curiosity. Anonymity is hard to maintain in this way.
Finally, there are both advantage and disadvantage for the researcher is also their
teacher. Advantage is the teacher knows students well as mentioned above.
Disadvantage is students may hide something behind their teacher. But the teacher’
open attitude to any opinion no matter in or out of classroom and easy
teacher-students relationship may reduce this disadvantage.
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 20/21
Reference
Calderwood P. E.( 2000) .Learning community: Finding common ground in
difference New York: Teachers college.
Chung, K. C.(1998). The plan and expectation on internet learning community of
teachers’ professional growth. Education techmology, 40, 31-42.
Escorba, A.( 1994) .Welcome to cyberia: Notes on the anthropology of
cyberculture. Current anthropology, 35( 3) ,211-231.
Giddens, A. ( 1991) .Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late
modern age. Cambridge : Polity Press.
Goffman, E. ( 1962) .Encounters: Two studies in the sociology of interaction.
Harmonworth: Penguin.
Hayashibara, K. N. E. ( 1998) ,Adolescent communication in the internet:
investigation of a teenage chat room. Mater thesis of education of University of
Hawaii, unpublished.
Huang, S. S.(1996). An analysis of the internet’s content of public
communication.—a case study of Chiao Tung University’s BBS. Master thesis of
communication department, Chiao Tung University, unpublished.
Hsu, G. L. (1998). The study on virtual community. Master thesis of management
department, Taiwan University of Science and Technology, unpublished.
Jeng, H. S. (1998). The study on models of the anonymous behavior in virtual
community: the case study on internet BBS. Master thesis of sociology department,
Soochow University, unpublished.
Kozinets, R.V.( 1999) . “E-Tribalized Marketing? : The Strategic Implications of
Virtual Communities of Consumption”, European Management Journal, 17(3),
252-264.
Lee, C. J. (1998). Distance education by internet—combining with independent
and collaborate learning. Distance education,10, 369-388.
Lee, J. F.(2001). The Exploratory Study on Secondary School Students' Behavior
of Using Internet in Taiwan. doctoral dissertation of education department, Chengchi
University, unpublished.
Lu, Y. W.(1999). We are toghther: the discourse of "Social Board" of BBS. Master
thesis of information management department, Chung Cheng University, unpublished.
Mead, G. H. (1955). Mind, self & society from the standpoint of a social
behaviorist Chicago: The University of Chicago press
Morrione, T. J.(1998). Persistence and change: fundamental elements in Herbert
Blumer’s metatheoretical perspective. In L. Tomasi (eds). The tradition of Chicago
school of sociology. Brookfield: Ashgare.
8/8/2019 Exploring Relationship in the Virtual Classroom
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/exploring-relationship-in-the-virtual-classroom 21/21
Wellman, B, et al.(1996). Computer Networks as Social Networks: Collaborative
Work, Telework and Virtual Commnuity. Annual Review of Sociology, 22, 211-238.
Wu, S.C. (1996). A study of emotional and intimate interpersonal relational- the
exploration of virtual relationship in BBS. Master thesis of journalism department,
Chengchi University, unpublished.
Wu, Y. S. (2000). Knowledge Sharing in the Network Community. Business
management department, Chengchi University, unpublished.
Yang, TY. (2000). The study on the roles and interaction of members in internet
virtual community. Mater thesis of business management department, Chung Cheng
University, unpublished.Chun, A. & Cheng, L.( 2000) .The growth of internet
communities in taiwan and the marginalization of the public spere. Paper present in
2000 internet and society seminar.
Hagel, J., & Armstrong, A.( 1997) . Net Gain: Expanding Markets Through
Virtual Communities. , Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press.
Sproull, L. & Kiesler, S. ( 1986) .Reduceing social context cues: Electeonic mail
in organizational communication. Management Science, 32, 1492-1512.
Walsh, G. & Lehnert, F (trans). (1967). The phenomenology of social world
(Schutz, A.). S. L.: northwestern university press.
Peter and Trudy Johnson-Lenz. (1994). “Groupware for a Small Planet.” In
Peter Lloyd (Eds.), Groupware in the 21st Century. London: Adamantine Press.