AREITO: A development platform for virtual learning communities

Areito is the name of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) that is being set up and used by multiple educational organizations in the Dominican Republic. Through Areito. it is possible to simultaneously create, manage and deploy a large number of Virtual Learning Communities (VLCs) oriented towards diverse aspects of learning processes in education, science and technology. The nature and specific contents of each VLC are defined by authorized endusers by selecting and configuring collaborative IT tools that best support the social interaction and knowledge exchange between members of a given VLC. This papers provides a general description of Areito and the development of pilot VLCs at educational organizations in the Dominican Republic.