Blended Learning in Teacher Education: An Investigation of Classroom Community Across Media

The development of community in educational settings is now recognized as a social and collaborative process that is an integral part of learning. As classrooms and communities extend beyond the traditional four walls, research related to online community development across media is of vital importance to teachers. The study reported in this paper furthers the research on the development of community by investigating how graduate student foreign language teachers develop and perceive community and how these perceptions or developments differ according to medium (chat, discussion board, or face-to-face class discussions). Additionally, it extends the research by bringing the cross-institutional element to the blended learning courses. The goal of the study is to explore and analyze the incorporation of technological tools into blended learning in order to assist other teachers in the creation of collaborative cross-institutional situations. Experience in these situations will assist instructors in modeling such communities for their students so that they will potentially benefit from a well-developed and well-understood sense of community, both with onsite peers and with peers at a distance