Jason,

 

That can certainly be the case.  They pretty much represent raw data, so it depends, in part, on what your looking for.  On the other hand, when the messages were live they were embedded in a hot media environment that acted as a natural stimulant.  One of the challenges of utilzing this incredible repository of the field's 13+ year collective conversation across the nation are developing modes of organization that begin to process this raw data into more usable and inviting formats, but the very process of taking that on needs to be motivated by some particular set of objectives. Unless such work is taken on, however, a great potential of accumulated insight will have gone untapped.  That's why, among others uses, I am strongly recommending that our schools of education with an adult ed/adult literacy focus begin to look at these resources and bring them into their courses as well as their own research interest.  As a more than passing note, I think the NIFL listservs are among the most developed online formats in any field in which I have been a part (including lists in philosophy and religion) and our seasoned moderators have done a great job in organizing quest-facilitator threads into more readable formats.  Kudos to the Adult Literacy Education Wiki format also for highlighting specific theme-based threads.  In this respect our field already has a leg up on most other listserv formats. Noting this, there is still a lot more that could be done in terms of knowledge management and knowledge creation.

 

George Demetrion
 


Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:05:05 -0400
From: jasonsmullen at gmail.com
To: assessment at nifl.gov
Subject: [Assessment 2027] Re: Using the archives


I have found NIFL discussions from the archives when doing google searches looking for info on a specific topics. I think unless the discussion list was easily search able the magnitude of e-mails on some topics would be to unwieldy to be useful
J.


On Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 9:47 AM, Marie Cora <marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com> wrote:




Hello everyone,

 

I wonder if anyone can respond to George’s post from last week?  Does anyone use the NIFL Discussion List archives and database?  If so, how have you used it?

 

Marie

 

**************************

 

 
Colleagues,
 
The list archives, too, are an indispeble and underutilized (?) repository of the collective wisdom of the field in critical dialogue over a wide range of issues over time.
 
To what extent are participants drawing on the archival data base?  To what extent are the list archives a topic of study in various undergraduate and graduate courses on adult litreracy and basic education?  No doubt, the archives are a distinctively "cool" medium when contrasted to the stimulating immediacy of the real time listserv post, but in terms of participatory equality and extension of use, perhaps the archives have at least as much value, if not potentially more, than exhibited in the "hot" medium of the real time listserv post.
 
George Demetrion
 
 
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Jason Mullen
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