Education as the creation of microcultures. From the local community to the virtual network

This article presents the work undertaken by a multidisciplinary group, comprising researchers from the fields of psychology, education and technology, as we set about developing new virtual tools for collaborative learning. We began from our experience acquired in learning communities based on the "Fifth Dimension" model, in which ICTs are used in a collaborative fashion. The work undertaken with members of ethnic minority groups in communities of this type underlies the theoretical and practical development of the foundations for intercultural education. Finally, we describe the process by which we constructed virtual tools that can be appropriated from a wide variety of contexts.