Collaborative Learning Through Community Practice
Lead Presenter: Rhiannon Chatnoir / Joyce Bettencourt
<Discussants:
Zinnia Zauber / Renne Brock
Buffy Beale / Buffy Bye
Lyr Lobo / Cynthia Calongne
Ava Dougall / Darlene Chameco
Venue: Quadrivium
This roundtable discussion brings together Nonprofit Commons (NPC) community leaders and conference participants to examine how collaborative learning and shared insight emerge in persistent virtual environments. Nonprofit Commons (NPC) is an established virtual community where nonprofit professionals, educators, librarians, and technologists convene weekly in an online virtual world to engage in peer learning, shared problem-solving, and exploration of evolving tools and technologies such as artificial intelligence, immersive platforms, and digital collaboration practices—always grounded in real-world nonprofit and educational needs.
The session invites open discussion of what has worked, what has been challenging, and what participants are discovering as they use virtual worlds to explore new technologies, strengthen professional practice, and support education and social impact through peer learning.
Objective:
- Examine and discuss how virtual worlds support collaborative learning around emerging technologies.
Guiding Topics/Questions:
How can we successfully learn from one another in virtual worlds?
What shared insights have we gained with sustained participation over time?
How do virtual worlds enable collaborative learning around emerging technologies such as AI?
Insights Connection:
This session focuses on insights gained through long-term, community-led engagement in virtual worlds. NPC leaders and participants will reflect on how evolving technologies—including AI—are explored, contextualized, and critically examined through peer learning. The discussion will explore how insight emerges not from technology alone, but from shared experience, collaboration, and reflection within immersive virtual environments.
Accessibility: Provide my own transcriptionist