In this lesson you will review many Internet collaborative tools and multiple resources offering guidelines for their use in K-12 education.

You will explore a new state-of-the-art collaborative systems which offers private web conferencing, chat, file sharing, and other support features for group interaction.

You will review many robust resources for later exploration regarding online mentoring, community building and International multi-classroom collaboration.

Review the following

Netiquette Guidelines:

A Good Summary of Netiquette
http://www.dtcc.edu/cs/rfc1855.html  

For additional information search for     email+tutorial*    and/or
"netiquette"  Verify for yourself that you can find long listings of
tutorials on most any topic using this simple trick!

Building Your Online Discussion Moderation Skills

To successfully lead a purposeful discussion a moderator is
usually needed to keep the discussion focused and to assure all
participants receive feedback regarding their contributions to
the discussion. This is best learned through actual practice
participating in and leading online discussions.

Social motivations to participate in a discussion are best
provided by the moderator individually recognizing each
participant via both private and public messages. One-on-one
interaction is much more effective for initially motivating a
given individual to participate compared to a public posting
encouraging "everyone" to participate. Its important for the
moderator to have a genuine relationship with each participant, as
this creates a social commitment that facilitates participation.

This relationship becomes key to drawing individuals into a given
discussion. As the discussion begins to take form, the moderator
should periodically introduce "weaving" messages that steer the
discussion and keep it on track as well as summarizing what has
been covered, decided and what should next be discussed.
One persistent problem with even the most prestigious of online
discussions is the tendency to lose the original focus of the discussion.

Without a thoughtful moderator, purposeful forward progress of a
discussion may be lacking. Online "group work" is a rapidly
evolving art. Being a good online group worker will prove to be a
very important skill. "Listening" skills are more important than writing skills.

As a moderator, modeling collaborative processes is a social and
linguistic skill that requires sensitivity to the personalities
and unique differences of the participants. A moderator might
play devil's advocate to solicit responses by role playing
different points of view. Additionally, a moderator might model how
the group can gather and share information, and support each other,
as part of the group's discussion.

As with any classroom discussion, students may opt to not
participate, perhaps preferring private messaging with other
participants. Required participation should be part of the course
assessment. The level of genuine thoughtful involvement depends
on the intellectual investment your students are prepared to
make. While online discussions hold the potential for high levels
of intellectual rigor, the risk is aways present that discussion
contributions will reflect minimal effort and thought.

What to Watch for When Moderating a Discussion

- Anticipate realistically how many interactions are possible
   between the number of participants, within the allowed time
   period.

- Be sure you clarify upfront what participants can expect will
  be required of them: number of times/week to be online and the
  number of expected posted messages.

- Be clear what the purpose and expected outcomes are for the
  discussion. Keep it simple.

- Is your group uniformly "up-to-speed" technically? Do they
  all use the same software tools?

- Assess how personalities, learning levels and confidence may
  vary among your group members.

- Watch for topic drift. Steer the discussion with regular
   weaving messages.

- Will you evaluate participants on number of responses, length
   of responses, quality of responses, or only by their having
   read all posted messages? Do your participants know how their
   participation will be evaluated?

- How will you use private email to supplement the public
  conference? Use your one-on-one relationship for encouragement.

- Use private email to advise them on what they are doing
   right or could do better.

- Ask "leading" questions and resist being too chatty yourself.
   Give students enough time to respond.

- "Flaming" is the term for negative, hostile interaction. Be
   ready for it when it happens. You may have to decide when you
   will censor messages or ban participants. You must be ready to
   serve as the arbitrator when conflicts arise.

- Always bring a discussion to closure and provide assessment
   measures for the group and/or each participant. One option
   is to post the entire transcript for review.

Interactive reading and writing is a fundamentally new communications medium that focuses on the written word in a dynamic form with characteristics of oral speech, yet with the editability and permanence of the written word.

Face-to-face, we focus on verbal interaction, online we focus on written interaction. Each mode has its advantages and disadvantages, but both are important mediums for building social and communications skills.

Online motivation of students is important. Students must share in the learning goals of the class, feel a sense of control over their learning, and ideally share a sense of "fun" throughout the online learning experience. It is important to "model" how to have fun learning with others online!

Social informality is important to demonstrate and encourage. The instructor must maintain a sense of "being onstage" when facilitating an online class. The instructor "models" the style of interaction expected from the students. In reading the class conference messages, note the different impressions you get
regarding the various students. Be aware how a sense of the class's group personality, as well as individual personalities, are revealed, and continue to develop, through online interaction.

Initial dutiful responses from students will hopefully be replaced with genuine inquiries and exchanges based on their interest in learning. The initial weeks determine whether the class develops a sense of community and purpose or is reduced to hodge-podge messaging between disconnected, disinterested
individuals.

Moderating an online discussion can be a challenging role for an instructor. Keeping the discussion on track, regularly summarizing points made, and asking the right questions to lead the discussion are skills that are developed through practice.

Thorough course organization and friendly back and forth dialogue compensate for the "out-of-sight, out-of-mind" challenges of the online medium.

Building on a Foundation of Trust: