Creating and Sustaining Community in a Virtual Environment - Information Communication Technologies for Human Services Education and Delivery - page 110

on how well the needs of the members continue
to be met. Each member of the community needs
to be fostered and nurtured by the other members
of the community. It is through this constant and
meaningful interaction that the community comes
to life and is sustained.
Communities are complex entities. It is not
simply a matter of applying a number of rules
for a community to survive. Rather, it is an effort
to support the natural development of relation-
ships among the members (Schwier, 2001). If the
members of the community do not feel they are
trusted or feel comfortable they might not return
to the community. This will not contribute to the
development of others within that community.
Participants need a safe environment in which to
be active and be interactive with one another.
Community building and strengthening takes
time and not all members will feel the same sense
of community within the same period of involve-
ment. The newest members of a community will
traditionally spend a great deal of time getting
acquainted with the virtual environment and how
to manipulate the program design where the com-
munity will be involved. The veteran member will
traditionally spend more time working to establish
a feeling of community among the members in
a particular setting and does not need to learn to
manipulate the technology.
There is a process for community development
whether one is a new or a veteran member of the
community. Brown (2001) identified three levels
of community development. The first is where the
members get acquainted with one another or make
friends within the community. This is where the
participants find others with similar backgrounds,
feelings, or ideas. The second level is one of com-
munity acceptance. Here the members create an
affiliation with others in the group as a result of
frequent interactions and discussions. The final
stage is one that is called camaraderie. When
people reach this level they have had long-term
relationships with others in the group bonding
over topics for discussion areas. Communication

has occurred often enough that the members have
gotten to know one another in ways that mirror
the interactions that would occur in a face-to-face
setting.
Therefore, one needs to realize that a virtual
community has some drawbacks. Being active in
this environment takes time. New members of a
community may take time adjusting to the new
forms of tasks and activities. The abundance of
information found on the Internet and within a
community setting can be a barrier for some learn-
ers as well as some instructors. Too often students
in a community tend to be polite and nice to each
other. Comments usually tend to be opinion rather
than supportive in nature. The lack of visual cues
and physical presence can be a deterrent to those
who need this type of stimulation to be sustained
in a learning setting.
Among the challenges that community mem-
bers face in a virtual environment is trying to
create and guide an interactive session within an
educational setting. If the members are to learn
from one another, the learning needs to be active
and engaged with experiences. Effective learning
leads to change, development, and a desire to
continue to grow (Alexander, 2003). Learning is
sustained by the stimulation and encouragement
of the other members of the community.
With the onset of new technologies come the
challenge and the joy of creating an interactive
learning environment for the members of the
community. In addition, the participation of the
members in the community reduces the feelings
of isolation and improves their abilities to com-
municate despite geographic restrictions.
Questions remain concerning whether or not
a virtual environment can serve as a venue for
increasing relationships between its members in
urban, rural and international settings. Other rea-
sons for a person to become involved in a virtual
community may be due to one's busy schedule—
work hours do not allow one to take classes or to
interact when others are available—or family life
may be too hectic to be able to leave home to enter