FOCO9 - Discussion Forums

Since my last post I have been trying to explore further this idea of online discussion forums. I chose to look at Google Groups (and was somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer number of different forums).

I wanted to try and find something that would either be of interest in my professional life and/or my personal interest.

With a little guidance from Sarah via the phone, I have now got myself signed up to a couple of different online discussion groups, one an interest online discussion forum (I was especially interested in the book review section of this one, being an avid reader) and I have also joined Networked Learning which is relevant to the professional side of my life. The discussion for this forum is people in Otago , New Zealand investigating networked learning.

The interest group forum that involves book reviews seems to follow the format that someone adds a post as a starting point and then people add their own comments as a thread. At this initial stage it is hard to see whether there is an actual facilitator, although some of the people that are ‘posting’ are called senior members and tend to be attributing on a regular basis. As for moderation, too soon for me to tell, although as part of the registration there were terms and conditions, so in some way they are in place to moderate the information.