***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.sfu.ca/~insna/ ***** Dear all, I've been exploring the use of computer supported social networks to help special education professionals to receive and give professional and personal support as means to foster teacher professional development. Most of the approaches have instead focused on the design for communities of practice as it seems to be an effective learning model (Lave's LPP), although there is little evidence that CofP (as defined by Lave and Wenger) actually takes place in these online environments. I have been comparing this two approaches (namely, social networks and communities of practice) based on the notion of community structures and the kinds of interactions. However, I would like to be able to compare them in terms of learning communities. I wonder then whether there is any work on the learning aspects of social networks, e.g. how do people learn in their social networks, or simply whether SN can be thought of as a learning community, or community of learners. Finally, is there any model for learning in social networks? Any reference or comment would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance, Rogerio. _____________________________________________________________________ SOCNET is a service of INSNA, the professional association for social network researchers (http://www.sfu.ca/~insna/). To unsubscribe, send an email message to [log in to unmask] containing the line UNSUBSCRIBE SOCNET in the body of the message.