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Innovative technologies and learning strategies for open learning provide ample opportunities for virtual learning communities to create knowledge collaboratively. The collective creation of knowledge has gone on since humans have been able to communicate. However, due to the widespread uses of new technologies, people have greater access to information, interaction and reconstruction than ever before. Nowadays, open universities, online libraries, open access journals, e-print archives and instructional repositories are part of a larger movement to create a public online space providing open high-quality content – in different formats such as text, image, sound or video. Knowledge can be created, reconstructed and stored in public areas on the web. Participants of online communities can select, map and share relevant network of information from these public spaces. The dissemination of knowledge through technologies of information and communication can promote understanding of the world in different perspectives. This paper aims to discuss about collective building of knowledge in collaborative communities through new technologies for open learning. Open access can benefit academic researchers, authors, teachers and students by increasing the democratic circulation of knowledge. This notion of openness is not strict to academic or scientific institutions, but comprises all learning communities: communities of practice and knowledge-creating communities. Open learning is considered a new way to promote wider participation through open source software and open educational resources.

Stream: Technology in Education

Paper: Knowledge Media Technologies for Open Learning in Online Communities

Alexandra Okada is a PhD researcher at The Open University - Knowledge Media Institute and academic teacher at Pontifical Catholic University in Brazil. Her interests focus Open Learning, Collaborative Communities and Knowledge Cartography. She is also involved as a researcher in e-learning projects, collective building of knowledge in higher education and continuing professional developing courses for teachers.