Hi Marie,

 

Thank you for your detailed posts.

 

For some time, I've been both an active participant on LD listserv and peripheral participant on Assessment and PD lists.

 

As a result of this participation,  I'm constantly developing professionally ( 1) out of all the suggested resources, have compiled my own working list; 2) have made connections with professionals, I would never know and meet otherwise; 3) received a lot of information about training opportunities; 4) got my feet wet in the discussions of current events in the world of literacy, etc. ).  

 

It has also helped me to develop an informational center (info about ongoing discussions, concerns, trends, strategies, assessments, current turms, so on) for my collegues who are either not able to spend as much time on line or are out of the field specialists and need assistance with sorting info. The main advantage is that they ARE willing and ARE actively using most of the information. 

 

Some aspects of LD and PD discussions are included into the training which I provide for all new staff during pre-service. What they do mostly appreciate is the current live coverage of the world of literacy and education, and listsservs provide this.

 

Thank you,

 

Tatyana Exum

SpEd Instructor

Lake City Correctional Facility

 

 


 


From: marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com
To: assessment at nifl.gov
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:06:18 -0400
Subject: [Assessment 2000] Re: Being a Peripheral Participant - aka Lurker









Hi dcingeorgia (sorry I don’t know your true name),  
 
Thanks for your post and thanks to all who have posted so far on this topic.  My apologies for not being ‘present’ here in the last few days, I had the good fortune of camping in the lovely state of Vermont.
 
I know that a couple of folks have brought up the notion of lurking – a term that I also have found disagreeable since the first time I joined a “listserv” back in the mid-90’s.  Its connotations do not address at all what it means to absorb, yet decline to respond – or it at least gives it a negative feel.
 
Thanks to Jackie for providing some good resources on the topics related to participating on discussion lists, and for pointing out in one of her posts that there in fact is a term that we can use that is more appropriate:  being a peripheral participant (I admit it’s a mouthful!).  But I like this term – and I think that it’s actually been partially defined by a number of subscribers who have questioned during this discussion why they should be thought of as a lurker, since they learn and use the information presented here in other venues.  Dcingeorgia also makes a good point in noting that it might not be necessary for everyone who agrees to say so:  Jackie and Forrest have also noted that if this happened, we would never be able to manage such a discussion.  
 
If you consider it, this discussion list does in fact reflect more or less what goes on in face-to-face learning situations:  not every student in the room talks all the time, some rarely speak up, some tend to do a lot of talking.  But none of this necessarily means that they are not all learning.
 
I’m also heartened/excited by the fact that this particular topic has drawn out several subscribers who have traditionally been peripheral participants.  A few people also made this point:  not all topics will be of keen interest to everyone.  
 
And finally, I do believe that this discussion – we are sort of evaluating our worth here – is very much related to the Assessment Discussion List.  After all, good assessment/evaluation is necessary for good teaching, good management, good strategy, good delivery, etc.  Personally, I’ve been really wanting to have a discussion that focuses on who is using this List and how, so I’m hugely pleased that here we are having one.
 
Looking forward to more,
 
Marie
 
 
Marie Cora
Assessment Discussion List Moderator
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of dcingeorgia at aol.com
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 12:59 PM
To: assessment at nifl.gov
Subject: [Assessment 1990] Re: Participation Inequality
 
I have never considered myself a lurker, though I have not contributed to this listserv - most of the time, those who do respond posted a response that covers what I would have said, so, I don't know that I think it behooves any of us to say "ditto" to the last response and fill everyone's mailbox with "I think that same way".  Am I wrong in this - would it help "the cause" to respond even if my response would be the same as another's views?  I use the information I receive all the time unaware that I was a "lurker".



-----Original Message-----
From: Jackie A. Taylor <jackie at jataylor.net>
To: assessment at nifl.gov
Sent: Fri, Jul 10, 2009 11:25 am
Subject: [Assessment 1988] Participation Inequality
Hi Phyllis, and all, Phyllis, you wrote: "I'm going to guess that there is a huge audience with a tiny percentagethat actually post.  I don't think the percentages are necessarilyrepresentative of interest!" I thought you'd like to see this report from Jacob Nielsen on"Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute": http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html "Summary: In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who nevercontribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account foralmost all the action." He goes on to discuss the downsides of participation inequality andstrategies online facilitators could use (given that the community hasaccess to the tools) to make participation easier and more equal. I'd be interested in others' reactions to this report and how some of itmay, well, pertain to us! Best...Jackie Jackie Taylor, PD List Facilitator, jackie at jataylor.net -------------------------------National Institute for LiteracyAssessment mailing listAssessment at nifl.govTo unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/assessmentEmail delivered to dcingeorgia at aol.com

 



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