Week 2 - web forums/blogs

Consider web forums and blogs.

a) Navigation – how do you get around the web forum; is it an online conversation?

a forum, also seen as a message board, is set up so people can interact from all over the world. people who enter the blog (which is generally about a specific topic) write a post which could be questions to one another and comments to gain knowledge and share experiences. this provokes conversation between people who dont even know each other as people reply to posts on threads, which is why it is suggested that a forum is an online discussion site. to describe a forum as an online blog would be correct but unless you are online at the time the messages are not instant (such as a phone call). this is not a problem however as once the post has been posted it is saved online so people can view it whenever is suitable for them.

private messages can be sent from one forum member to another for personal questions. ignore lists can be used to hide posts from members that other members do not want the blogs to be shown to.

b) Expression – do you express yourself in the same way? How do we ‘take turns’?

when talking online, you can be whoever you want to be as your behind a screen only telling people what you want them to know. expression is difficult to put forwards through text, rather than face-to-face. body language, eye contact and tone of voice is an important part for expressing ourselves with seriousness, sarcasm, worry etc. however is it a good way of voicing your opinions without worry of the emotional details that would be evident face to face.

c) Interaction – how does it compare to face-to-face seminars

a seminar over a forum is alot less formal. there is not so much interaction between students and tutors but more mini discussions between students. when speaking face-to-face to a tutor a more fomal language is used. students are more likely to use text language for example - c u sn - however we have been told not to do this on our own forum, it does still happen. online learning has an advantage that it is easy to contact the other members and authors of the forum. it might be easy to contact them but the time period of getting an reply is not as quick as face-to-face, which is a disadvantage.

d) Time – activities being over a week?

as i have just said above the time period of getting a reply, from the right person, woth the right answer, is not predictable. on our forum we do only have a week to answer and complete topics so within that week we should get the information we want, however if we feel like we want to get on with the work and cant complete one bit before another time does become an issue.

e) Authority and identity – who is in charge?

forums are govened by a set of individuals, commonly known as administerators or moderators. they give permission for people to become members and make sure rules and regulations are followed. in the case of our seminar forum this would be our tutors.

forums require a regestration to post from all members. once you are a member of the forum you create a name and idenify yoursef however you see fit as long as it meets the rules and regulations of the administerators. to know the rules of the university forum we were given 'the rules of engaement' to read through.

f) Speech / writing – does the forum have features we would associate with either? A combination.

because a forum is used by any member of the public it has to have well known features. a forum maybe a new media but it has elements of old media as well. if this was not the case people would have to be tought different skills, languages etc.

a forum uses a combination of texts, images, sound and videos. they can all be added to relevant posts by individual members. uploading and adding files onto a forum is simuliar to adding them to an email or a blog.

g) Do you have the knowledge, the media ‘literacy’ to be a user, an advanced user? If not how does it feel?

i wouldnt say i was an advanced user of forums or blogs but it is quite easy to pick up. all skills needed to set up a forum/blog i have used before. for example regestering for MSN is more or less the same process regestering for a blog. as i have said above simularities such as up loading and attaching photos and files are very easy to do, because i have experienced the process before on such things as emails, social networks (facebook, bebo) etc.