The spread of Internet and the latest Web developments have facilitated the connection between teachers, learners and institutions, as well as the creation and sharing of new open educational resources (OERs). Despite this, many projects and researches paid more attention on content distribution, focusing on their format and description, omitting the relationship between these materials and the collaborative environments.In this article we sustain that is more important to share resources in open educational communities (OEC) than in open educational repositories, establishing a relationship between OERs and collaborative environments, promoting the qualification of social activities and the creation of networks among users. Notwithstanding, a couple of surveys that involved more than 300 teachers at European level have highlighted how stimulating collaboration among teachers, both online and in presence, is not simple; even if, when this happens, it seems to be a good way to promote formal and informal learning, and innovation in professional practices. As it is possible to infer from the surveys’ data, users can significantly improve the efficiency of their learning if they take active part in a network, which can act as a support to help teachers to address the new challenges of the digital era.

Keywords

collaboration · Lifelong Learning · open educational communities · Open Educational Resources · sharing