Applications of technology to distance education: communication within a virtual community

Despite our best attempts to use technology to foster interpersonal communication in distance-education classes, there are many opportunities for lapses and failures. Even the best-intentioned instructors and students can fall into traps brought about by technology and its misuse. Facilities designed to foster communication can be bewildering to those who do not understand them; rather than leading to improved communication, they can actually serve as barriers.