When converting from a paper-based distance mode to an online mode of teaching, certain expectations arise that students may engage not only in the development of extended research activity but that the quality of discussion and thinking will change. With access to open-ended discussion within the online forum the opportunity is afforded to…

This paper relates developments in the use of Internet-based communication technologies to contemporary exchanges of geographical ideas and content. A brief history of the Internet provides the basis for a review of uses of broadband Internet in contemporary Geography. Two themes are explored: the first is the concept of virtual communities of…

Wenger's theory of communities of practice (CoPs) helps explain how a group of Ph.D. students in the Department of Management Communication at the University of Waikato in New Zealand met a need for emotional and academic support and reduced isolation as they developed regular opportunities for face-to-face and virtual discussions on theory and…