Using the World Wide Web to Build Learning Communities: Writing for Genuine Purposes.

of recent literature on technology, a theoretical foundation, and explanations and examples are included. ■■What is the World Wide Web? According to Ned Desmond, editor of Infoseek [http://www.info seek.com), one of the major search engine services on the World Wide Web, the Web, often abbreviated WWW, consists of an incredibly large number of documents that are hyperlinked in such a manner that one can click on one word within a document and be immediately taken to another document. The WWW is part of a larger network of information called the Internet. The WWW first contained text, but soon graphics, audio, and even three-dimensional animation were added. By early 1997, there were about 40 to 50 million pages out there in cyberspace on the Web. Further questions arise: (a) Is use of the WWW for the technologically elite or (b) is it a tool that ordinary teachers and students in public and private schools and in higher education can use to promote content learning in general and literacy development in particular? Our answers are "no" to (a) and "yes" to (b). At the start, we want to emphasize that our "yes" stems from experiences using the WWW interactively to enhance learning communities, social learning, and literacy development, and not from projects that are primarily about launching more information or student work into cyberspace. First, we review some of the current professional articles related to classroom use of the WWW. Second, we briefly explain some of the benefits (in terms of literacy development theories and community of learners/literate environment perspectives) of helping students place their writing on the WWW so that they can write for genuine purposes and to real audiences (Tompkins & Hoskisson, 1995). Third, we describe our efforts helping preservice teachers to create interactive Web sites and to place six different types of coauthored or individually written literacy-related lessons or projects on the WWW. (Note: Interactive web sites are those designed to invite user feedback and to initiate dialog.) Finally,