Found it very interesting to go through, forwarded by Rakesh ji to me. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Rakesh Biswas <[email protected]> Date: 2009/11/24 Subject: User Driven Learning on email discussion lists
Email discussion lists were one of the earliest applications of Web 2.0 thinking -- long before Web 2.0 was thought up. They provide "push" technology: You check your email anyway, and listserves push the discussion to your attention then. You don't have to log into a separate location to reach a listserv. They are interactive: You can participate, contribute, respond. They are generative: You can create articles, posts, comments. You can originate a discussion thread. They are user-modifiable: You can change the settings on when and how you receive them. They are social networking: People connect with people of similar interests, in groups with focused purposes. Listserves are collaborative: People discuss, form teams, work together on projects, exchange work products. They are linked: People on listserves regularly provide links to other sources. They are fast: While Web 2.0 sites are often graphics-intensive and server-intensive and can at times become slow, listserves can run on any software rarely slow or falter. They work, they work well, they are reliable. . . . .[ [Note that the term "listserves" should not be confused with "listservs" - strictly speaking, a "listserv" is a discussion list (such as JOURNET) running on the Listserv software by L-Soft <http://www.lsoft.com/products/listserv.asp>, while a "listserve" is generally taken to mean ANY email discussion list.]]. . . . . . They are contextual: When there is no activity on a listserv (sic), you don't get any messages. When there is activity, you do. . . . . . .[[on LISTSERV lists one can maintain sanity and hard-drive space by subscribing in the NOMAIL option, thus receiving NO MAIL from the list while being free to browse the archives and post at one's leisure]]. . . . When members consider a topic significant, it gets lots of messages. When members consider it insignificant, it gets few. There is a kind of gatekeeping by consensus. . . .[[but my experience has been that the "gatekeeping" tends to favor the trivial over the substantive]] . . . . . . On top of that, listserves are cheap, low-maintenance, comparatively low-tech, efficient methods of targeted communication. And, unlike most Web 2.0 technology, they can be carried out without the support of advertising. Listserves, in this light, and unlike most ostensibly "free" technology, are NOT primarily vehicles for getting eyeballs to ads, but are focused almost entirely on accomplishing the purposes of their participants. As the Web becomes too large for all its parts to be supported by advertising, what will survive? Perhaps listserves should be kept around against that day. Posted on a listserv . . . . . .[viz. JOURNET - both a listserv and a listserve]. . . . . GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG Dave Dillard (2009a,b), manager of the internet-mining discussion list Net-Gold <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/net-gold/>, in response to Grow's post, wrote: DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD I do want to thank Gerald Grow for this substantial listing of the benefits of discussion groups. They are a tremendous asset to members of the internet community and I do not believe that they will go away soon. Unlike blogs, for example, they are participative and not limited to an owner making comments on whatever topic and others posting responses. I could follow any post on this or any other list with comments about any other topic. One key here is to realize that discussion groups. . . . [[listed below in the present email]]. . . . are not limited to those lists using Listserv software at various colleges, universities and other institutions. Yahoo Groups. . . . .[[<http://groups.yahoo.com/>]]. . . . and Google Groups . . . . .[[<http://groups.google.com/>]]. . . . . .are very extensive collections of groups run in a very similar fashion and on Yahoo Groups lists, one can also run a links collection, a photograph section and have public or private sections as the list owners wishes. One vital and very important aspect of a discussion group is the availability of its content publicly on the web. . . . .[[and provide search engines, whereas private groups and boards on servers such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, do not generally provide search engines.]]. . . .. . . . . . . . . Having an archived discussion group also provides the opportunity for indexing its content through the use of search engines. . . . <http://guides.temple.edu/content.php?pid=1282&sid=376096>, and more importantly <http://sites.google.com/site/netgoldsubjectindex/Home/main-site-map>. >From this index: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD Not to be outdone by Grow and Dillard in "Over Two-Hundred Education & Science Blogs" [Hake (2009a)], I list some strengths and weaknesses of Academic Discussion Lists (ADL's) and Blogs. The strengths of ADL's are listed as [please see the post for references other than Hake (2007)]: HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (1) Dan MacIsaac (2000) . . . . .in "Communities of on-line physics educators," discusses the nature of academic discussion lists in physics (similar comments apply to similar lists for other disciplines): "It's a physics educator's dream-a readily available group of like-minded people with a variety of backgrounds and expertise who want to discuss physics and physics pedagogy with their peers. For the teacher who is feeling overscheduled, isolated, or lonely this 'coffee klatch' opportunity is a boost that lasts all day and on into the night. We're talking about the virtual world of electronic mailing lists that are dedicated to the teaching and learning of physics. This electronic community is bound together through shared information and experience, an on-line culture that comprises high-school, college, and university instructors, researchers, hobbyists, students, retired teachers, and amateurs." (2) Amitai and Oren Etzioni (1997) in "Communities: Virtual vs. Real" wrote (paraphrasing): "Virtual on-line communities complement and reinforce 'real' off-line communities and have several advantages over the latter, e.g.: (a) easy communication over national borders and time zones; (b) inclusion of homebound (aged, ill, or handicapped) people; (c) accommodation of more individuals than off-line meeting rooms; (d) strong memories; (e) high safety; (f) allowance for exploration of new relationships and identities - as documented by MIT's Sherry Turkle (1997), and (g) indifference to physical appearance and off-line identity. . . . .[[who would pay any attention to my posts if it were known that I'm a bloodhound?]]. . . . . . . ." (3) Discussion lists running on the popular LISTSERV <http://www.lsoft.com/> software feature excellent archives and powerful search engines that allow searches by keywords, author, subject title, date, or any combination of those. I know of no such search engines in the Blogosphere. (4) In "Over Sixty Academic Discussion Lists. . ." [Hake (2007)], I wrote: ". . . . . Academic Discussion Lists provide an effective but seldom used mechanism for tunneling through interdisciplinary barriers, caused in part by the traditional departmental structure of universities. This underutilized potential for education research and development is represented schematically . . . .[on the next page]. . . " Similar figures would apply to other types of R & D. The partially open window between Astronomy- and Physics-education research and development in the top figure appears to be a fortunate carryover from the traditional close links between those two disciplines in non-educational basic research. Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University 24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367 Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands. <[log in to unmask]<http://listserv.aera.net/scripts/wa.exe?LOGON=A2%3Dind0911%26L%3Daera-l%26T%3D0%26O%3DD%26X%3D5F1D0333E23E032C0A%26Y%3Drrhake%2540earthlink.net%26P%3D613> > <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/> <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/> <http://HakesEdStuff.blogspot.com/ <http://hakesedstuff.blogspot.com/>> REFERENCES [Tiny URL's courtesy <http://tinyurl.com/create.php>.] Grow, G. 2009. "The value of email discussion lists," JOURNET post of 14 Nov 2009 08:09:52-0500; online at <http://tinyurl.com/yaxkrzw>. To access the archives of JOURNET one needs to subscribe, but that takes only a few minutes by clicking on <http://tinyurl.com/ycjpyqo> and then entering one's email address and a password of one's choosing. I thank Dave Dillard for calling my attention to this post. Dillard, D.P. 2009a. "Re: The value of email discussion lists," JOURNET post of 14 Nov 2009 09:19:19 -0500; online on (a) the JOURNET archives at <http://tinyurl.com/y8dgdh8>, and also copied into Dillard (2009b). Dillard, D.P. 2009b. "DISCUSSION GROUPS : INTERNET : EMAIL: The Value of Email Discussion." Net-Gold post of 14 Nov 2009 18:34:00-0500; online on the OPEN! Net-Gold archives at <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Net-Gold/message/30783>. Hake, R.R. 2007. "Over Sixty Academic Discussion Lists: List Addresses and URL's for Archives & Search Engines," online at <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/ADL-L.pdf> (640 kB), or as ref. 49 at <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>. This will soon be updated so as to include LearningSciences, MathEdu-L, TeamLearning-L, TrDev-L, the new address for TeachEdPsych, and a pointer to lists on H-Net. See the ADDENDUM for a critique of academic discussion lists. Hake, R.R. 2009a. "Over Two-Hundred Education & Science Blogs," 30 March; online at <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/Over200EdSciBlogsU.pdf> (2.6 MB). The abstract is online with a provision for comments at <http://hakesedstuff.blogspot.com/search/label/Blogged>. Note that the 55 responses (as of 23 Nov 2009 11:34:00-0800) are mostly SPAM - a disadvantage of the Blogosphere. See also Hake (2009b,c,d). Hake, R.R. 2009b. "Academic Discussion Lists: Faculty Lounges, Collective Short-Term Working Memories, or Academic Journals?" Blog post of 20 May 2009; online with provision for comments at < http://hakesedstuff.blogspot.com/2009/05/academic-discussion-lists-faculty.html >. Hake, R.R. 2009c. "Re: Change or Die: Scholarly E-Mail Lists, Once Vibrant, Fight for Relevance #2," online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at <http://tinyurl.com/l37toq>. Post of 2 Jul 2009 17:28:53-0700 to AERA-L and on 2 Jul 2009 20:08:00 to Net-Gold. The abstract is also at < http://hakesedstuff.blogspot.com/2009/07/re-change-or-die-scholarly-e-mail-lists.html > with a provision for comments. Hake, R.R. 2009d. "Re: Need suggestions for promoting the discussion listserv. online on the OPEN! AERA-H archives at <http://tinyurl.com/yh5p8kg>. Post of 11 Aug 2009 13:02:52-0700 to AERA-H and various other AERA discussion lists. AERA Division L: Politics and Policy in Education -- With regards, J.M.Garg ([email protected]) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jmgarg1 'Creating awareness of Indian Flora & Fauna' Image Resource of more than a thousand species of Birds, Butterflies, Plants etc. (arranged alphabetically & place-wise): http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:J.M.Garg For learning about Indian Flora, visit/ join Google e-group- Indiantreepix: http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix?hl=en -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "indiantreepix" group. 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