Virtual Learning Communities (VLCs) rethinking: From negotiation and conflict to prompting and inspiring

Research analysis usually focuses on terms of negotiation –argument, conflict, agreement, disagreement- as indications of collaborative learning. The reported research suggests that the latter can also exist in terms of prompting and inspiring and in terms of negotiation. To that purpose, a study of computer supported collaborative learning has taken place in a Virtual Learning Community (VLC), in the frame of an authentic educational activity. Analysis of discourse and artifacts was conducted. The nature of the dialogues in the reported VLC seems to be a special form of discourse addressing community context, mainly characterized by prompting and inspiring while less of negotiation and conflicts. Furthermore, the suggested rethinking can be the shift to the kind of discourse that researchers are seeking for, as the form of changing in VLCs.