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?
No comments:
Post a Comment