(see http://copernicus.bbn.com/teech/project-profiles/questions.html)
Among the issues raised were the following:
1.Community - Creating and sustaining a sense of community appears to be a
pre-requisite to developing conversations that have some depth and
longevity.
How is this community best created and sustained? How does this relate to
issues of scalablililty?
2 Moderation - Facilitation by a member of the community helps to both
foster and sustain the interactions. Interaction with outside experts is
also important.
What levels of moderation serve best for different purposes? What is the
balance between too much moderation and not enough?
3.Task - Incorporating or focusing on tasks that are both inherently
collaborative and address the needs/interests of the forum participants
helps to focus the conversation. Teacher participants are often drawn most
to tasks of their own construction which involve their own students.
What tasks are best served by this medium?
4. Different uses - Discussion forums have a variety of profiles.
What distinguishes the different kinds and uses of discussion forums?
5. Evaluation - How do we evaluate these forums? How do we look beyond the
number of interactions to reveal the successes and pitfalls?
6. Scaling up - How can we apply what has been learned by those who have
been engaged in this endeavor for a while now?
While this list is long, we hope you will respond to an issue or question
that interests you.
We look forward to your thoughts, comments and questions on these and any
related topics.
Laurie Pattison-Gordon
Laurie Pattison-Gordon
BBN Corp
70 Fawcett St. Cambridge Ma. 02138
(617) 873-2695 lpg@bbn.com fax (617)873-2455
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TEECH Electronic Discussion Forums in Professional Development
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