In the field of tertiary education today, online discussion boards are used to assist teaching and learning. This new technology may be seen as a way to facilitate communication, collaboration, contribution, creativity and interaction among individuals and groups.
But it is not clear whether this type of computer-mediated communication also helps build community, or only exacerbates colonising tendencies and/or exclusion of particular parties, e.g. those that are other-literate, less ‘verbal’ and/or less computer-literate.
This special issue is aimed at a readership that includes higher education management, teaching and learning staff, tertiary education policy-makers and online lecturers.
Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
- The standpoint of the moderator (in education, the teacher) who manages and facilitates the online environment
- The moderator's motivation/s to erect an online discussion board
- The moderator's context and how that affects what participants write and do not write
- The moderator's timing of intervention
- The moderator's communication style and related interaction between the moderator and the participants
- The intention behind participation (e.g. to generate knowledge, as a form of self-study, to partake in a learning community, to broadcast one's own viewpoints, to improve one's writing skills, to have a sounding board)
- Variations in the 'colour' and/or the emotional 'tone' of the online discussion board
- Futurist perspectives on the use of online discussion boards
- The purpose (role) of online discussion boards in the context of globalisation and a fluid modernity
Important Dates
Deadline for abstracts: 15 August, 2013
Deadline for papers: 15 September, 2013
Feedback on submissions: 15 October, 2013
Final notification of acceptance: 1 November, 2013
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