Lists vs Discussions?
They're both asynchronous forms of communication that allow a "many to many" exchange of information and opinions. Email lists deliver the discussions and conversations directly into my email inbox. The Internet studies group set up on yahoo groups is a good example of a list.
Discussion boards or forums are another way of interacting and have been the preferred way so far in the course. They insist that I log on to a central place where i can peruse the posts and threads to read or even not to read.
Pros and cons? It depends on your own perspective and how you like to deal with this "many to many" type of information.If you are the type of person that doesn't want to miss anything related to your chosen topic of interest then i would think email lists are entirely appropriate. Every discussion is pushed into your email inbox. Some communications are more important than others of course. Everyone needs to stay in touch and connected in this unit since our tutors choose to communicate to via the whole group and not individually. Perhaps email lists would be the way to go here rather than a discussion board. This is an example of probably the only reason i can see at this stage where email list would be the preferred means of communication over a discussion board: the importance of the content.
For me generally though, it's a matter of control. Lists are delivered to my email box but sometimes I'm not in the mood to read them. I could mark them to read later, but the risk is that i might ignore them altogether and just press the delete button. Perhaps not with stuff related to this unit but with other groups this may be the case where my interest in a topic fluctuates over time. I also hate a cluttered inbox full of messages, although this is not such a problem these days as i try to maintain a zero inbox by archiving instead of deleting my emails.
Discussion boards require me to make some effort but at least i can see which discussions are relevant for me. Must admit that i do waste a bit of time reading the course discussion board only because I'm afraid of missing something important. Seem to spend too much of my time mouse clicking my way through lots of stuff. If only there was a way to simplify this process, some sought of middle ground between potential information overload and no information at all.
I wondered if there was a way to subscribe to a Rss feed of the discussion board and just get updates of what has been added. I couldn't find a way probably because those sites are password protected but i did find a way with the email lists. Yahoo groups doesn't let me set up feeds but gmail does. I forwarded all my yahoo emails into my gmail account and then subscribed to a feed of my inbox using Live Bookmarks rather than a dedicated newsreader. I also use this method to keep tabs of new posts from everyones blogs. A great example of automation in dealing with lots of information.
They're both asynchronous forms of communication that allow a "many to many" exchange of information and opinions. Email lists deliver the discussions and conversations directly into my email inbox. The Internet studies group set up on yahoo groups is a good example of a list.
Discussion boards or forums are another way of interacting and have been the preferred way so far in the course. They insist that I log on to a central place where i can peruse the posts and threads to read or even not to read.
Pros and cons? It depends on your own perspective and how you like to deal with this "many to many" type of information.If you are the type of person that doesn't want to miss anything related to your chosen topic of interest then i would think email lists are entirely appropriate. Every discussion is pushed into your email inbox. Some communications are more important than others of course. Everyone needs to stay in touch and connected in this unit since our tutors choose to communicate to via the whole group and not individually. Perhaps email lists would be the way to go here rather than a discussion board. This is an example of probably the only reason i can see at this stage where email list would be the preferred means of communication over a discussion board: the importance of the content.
For me generally though, it's a matter of control. Lists are delivered to my email box but sometimes I'm not in the mood to read them. I could mark them to read later, but the risk is that i might ignore them altogether and just press the delete button. Perhaps not with stuff related to this unit but with other groups this may be the case where my interest in a topic fluctuates over time. I also hate a cluttered inbox full of messages, although this is not such a problem these days as i try to maintain a zero inbox by archiving instead of deleting my emails.
Discussion boards require me to make some effort but at least i can see which discussions are relevant for me. Must admit that i do waste a bit of time reading the course discussion board only because I'm afraid of missing something important. Seem to spend too much of my time mouse clicking my way through lots of stuff. If only there was a way to simplify this process, some sought of middle ground between potential information overload and no information at all.
I wondered if there was a way to subscribe to a Rss feed of the discussion board and just get updates of what has been added. I couldn't find a way probably because those sites are password protected but i did find a way with the email lists. Yahoo groups doesn't let me set up feeds but gmail does. I forwarded all my yahoo emails into my gmail account and then subscribed to a feed of my inbox using Live Bookmarks rather than a dedicated newsreader. I also use this method to keep tabs of new posts from everyones blogs. A great example of automation in dealing with lots of information.
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