TRACING THE PATH TO "VIRTUAL GEOSCIENCE": REFLECTIONS AND POSSIBILITIES OF ONLINE LEARNING COMMUNITIES. The paper is part of the discussions about virtual environments as a space for communication, interaction and collaborative work for teaching and learning. This last point will be deepened, highlighting the educational and scientific communities involved with online learning and development, particularly those related to geosciences. It is intended to discuss how social interactions networked and digital cultural tools (DCT) can contribute to the development of online communities, as well as presenting the results of the site Virtual Geosciences (VG), which aims to be collaboration space. VG provides the sharing of digital media and space for interaction and dialogue, enabling expand the relations between stakeholders, knowledge construction and catalyze the creation of new communities and opportunities for geosciences, as well as contribute to the discussions about communities in cyberspace as part of a cyclic process between cultural changes and new DCT development.
