Wow, I am now a member of my first online discussion forum. I joined the Teachers Forum, www.tki.org.nz/r/discuss I have read through the threads and it appears this was not the most supportive forum I could have become involved in.
I signed in and registered as a member, the sit looked very effecient with many threads in different areas of the school curriculum. As I have trained as a primary teacher, I thought it would be interesting to see what the lasted developments and questions were. Unfortunately it was not successful, the threads were old, the majority had not been used in 3o days and when I tried to get in touch with 2 of the members, they did not reply.
It appears that there were many short discussions, one or two entries per thread. Each thread appeared to ahve a moderator. They were asked questions and they endevoured to answer these for the person concerned. There is not a lot of discusion between members. When you open a profile of the moderator, it then states they are the on line facilitator. I don't think they understand the difference between these roles. No one wants to answer my questions. I guess I am a little dissapointed as I thought this would have been a good discussion group to become involved in.
I will have to go looking for a new discussion forum, to experience what it is truly like to be involved in an online community such as this.
If I do have a response from the participants I will be able to update my blog.
Hopefully I will have more luck with blogging communities.
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In my experience it does take time to become part of a 'successful' online community based around discussion forums. What I am wondering is...are there different types of forums? Maybe this forum is more of a network than a community which is why there is little discussion but more the passing on of information? What do you think? Network or community?
ReplyDeleteSuffering from attention deficit are we? I'm ragged sick at home, spending this lovely weekend on the computer - so I'll respond.. even if I'm not strictly a participant.
ReplyDeleteBy the sound of that forum, you weren't able to see the things that signified its deadness before you joined. This is the down side of a closed forum - not being able to browse the content and make an informed decision before joining.
Have you looked through Google Groups or Yahoo Forums? There are quite a few open forums there.
As for a blogging network.. you might have to get out and comment on more blogs. For the time being there seems to be a small community forming around this course, but inevitably you will need to get out and network with a lot more people before realising the benefits of such a network long term.
Ye Sarah I think you are right, it is more of a network. They do pass on information or source information to brief questions. When I have more time I will look for a different forum.
ReplyDeleteHi Leigh, Thank you for your comments. It is a shame that you cannot see what is happening until you join. Time is not on my side at the moment and I have a 2 year old and a 10 month old and they have not been well. I wish I had more time to blogg and browse but at the moment I am hanging on by a thread at times. I am find the course very interestng and have picked up on many tools to refer to at a later date.
ReplyDeleteTake care and I hope you are feeling better soon.
I dunno how parents can do it. I was imagining caring for lil ones while being this sick, and just groaned and rolled over in bed! Then there's caring for sick kids! And then there's caring for sick kids when you yourself are sick!
ReplyDeleteNo need to feel pressure Kylee, you are doing enough. My response was more in case you had time for more, and and to show you that people are reading :)
Nice posting. These blogs are very helpful Thanks a lot. Keep it up.
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ReplyDeleteWow, very interesting