Abstract
Educational change involves changing teachers as well as changing students. Computer‐facilitated telecommunications (telecomputing) provides a way to change students’ learning from the autonomous memorization of information to the collaborative production and analysis of information. It also provides a means to change the role of the teacher from an isolated authority to a learning partner working with a team of teachers. This article provides a functional analysis of a number of electronic global communities called “Learning Circles” that worked together on educational projects designed by the participants. The data used in this functional analysis are drawn from interactions of over 100 classes that participated on the AT&T Learning Network.