Online Communities

Online communities in which participants have the opportunity for exchanging dialogue and developing ideas offer their participants the support of people with similar interests. These communities cover a range of topics, from knitting groups to open source projects to video games. People come to these spaces with a variety of expertise and skills that they share with the community. The spaces allow people to create and share information about a particular activity or seek help with the activity from others in the community. This entry covers interest-driven online communities that are focused on production, such as those for video games, fandom, and DIY (do-it-yourself), and that offer opportunities for out-of-school learning. It first discusses how these communities support learning through features such as collaboration and ...