FirstClass impressions, and remaining purpose of ultrastudents email group

A week or so ago I was wondering whether the ultrastudents group would die out now that we have all the facilities of FirstClass. It would remain there if people wanted to use it , but what purpose would it serve?
But over the weekend, while we were writing up our activity one, several of us sought answers to questions, help with quotes etc on the group and received prompt useful answers. I feel this has served as a model which can only reinforce the community purpose and identity.

Why choose to post to the email group instead of to FC?
possible answers:
*One group instead of fragmented.
*it's unofficial, students amongst themselves
*disorienting effect of FC structure, red flags and so on - simple unfamiliarity?

Problems with FirstClass are not technical, but social and existential.
There are many Â?write onlyÂ? posts, people posting because they have to.
Also itÂ?s already becoming a bit of a dumping ground, with crossposts and extracts from other conversations arriving confusingly in the middle of threads. ThereÂ?s no common culture, with a mixture of top posting and bottom posting, quoting and not quoting, big pink blobby letters and plain courier.

Advantages of FC are that it�s fast and efficient, you can get replies from LFs in your own tutor group, you can reach a wide group of people in the common areas, the close integration of group posts and private mail. Lots of extra facilities such as the Summarize function, private Chat, documents, Résumé , homepage and so on. And it�s compulsory anyway, which forces people to contribute - but is that an advantage I wonder?

an "aha" moment

Yesterday I started to write up Learning Activity 1, which is about looking into the theoretical background and developing an understanding of 'reflection'. It took me quite a while to get back into the swing of this kind of formal, non conversational writing and thinking and I kept wanting to distract myself by checking for new messages in various places instead. After a few hours I ran out of my allotted time, but felt that I had only just circled around the topic and messed about with the format without really getting to the nub. This made me feel restless the whole day through, and worried about getting to the end of the assignment in time.

Then when I woke up this morning, as I lay in bed, I started thinking forward, imagining myself writing the next part. I imagined writing a list of bullet points to cover the key concepts which I have discovered and understood. At this point I suddenly realised that this was all I needed to do! I had been making much too heavy weather of it and with this new insight I could now see a way to get to the end. So I got up straight away, worked for a short while ( before I forgot again ) and then felt happy enough to go back to bed and enjoy a nice Sunday morning lie in [details removed]

New journal started

I've just started today keeping a short note after each ICT lesson that actually takes place, how it went, what was my role, and what worked and didn't. I write it as quickly as possible, and as soon as possible. Just a simple page per day, with one paragraph per lesson, loosely formatted I'm going to try to discuss briefly with the teachers afterwards as well, and note their feelings. I think I might be able to keep this up because I already make a regular diary entry about which class was timetabled, whether they turned up, and what was done. I've just decided to expand it a little and view it as another learning journal.

Holidays

During the holidays I've been trying to keep up the ultraversity work because I know next term will be short, and busy with the possibility of some evening work for me. And I'm hoping to have a real holiday at Easter at last.
Unfortunately the detailed learning plans ( ILP2) for next term haven't been released, and the Ultralab Staff are all away on holiday so It's difficult to get ahead of myself.

So what have I done so far? I have:

*maintained contact with some fellow students through the email group. This has thrown up some useful links on the subjects of reflection and action enquiry.

*researched and discussed the implementation of the new community software (First Class) with others, including LFs.

*learned how to set up a wiki site, understood the advantages and appropriate applications for Wiki, and begun to get contributions.

*designed an entry page for my own personal ultraversity work site.

*promoted and studied a peer review process, tried it in collaboration with others, learned lessons and published some initial guidelines on the peer review wiki page. This involved reading several other students reports.

*revamped the ultrastudents.co.uk site with multiple pages and buttons, incorporating links to the wiki pages.

*begun to set up a structure for next term's work and discussed action enquiry and reflection.