This is in response to an article I discussed back in week 3. Although I did not write much I received a two paragraph response (see week 3’s comments) when Dr. Bonk set my comments to Dr. Trena Paulus at the University of Tennessee. First, I must make a correction, she is correct; it was not a survey it was a study utilizing discourse analysis procedures. I miss wrote, I apologize. However, I am not going to concede that she at least endorsed that synchronous is a better forum than asynchronous.
In the last paragraph of the Introduction she introduced Davidson-Shivers (2001) and Chou (2001) who found “… more responding, reacting, and supportive talk in chat.” Using Fisher and Coleman (2001-2002) “… (synchronous) afforded community building among their distance learners.” Armitt, Slack, Green & Beer (2002) were quoted “…synchronous chat, in contrast to asynchronous discussions, affords “immediate clarification and the development of thought.” (p.9) Levin et al (2006) found learners reached higher levels synchronously.
Those are not her words BUT she does not rebut or dispute them as she does with asynchronous learning. In the third paragraph of the Introduction she talks about asynchronous drawbacks, not once does she challenge synchronous. I can only conclude that she supports the authors siding with synchronous.
As for the grades, although she only has course grades as an achievement record, it is mentioned only orange and plum received the highest grades. Orange and plum were the only teams to use all media. I concluded the article was trying to convey the more forums used the better, apparently not.
It was a good article but I obviously walked away with more than I was suppose to.
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4 comments:
Aha, I didn’t think about this before. Your opinion is unique! Your summary in some extents makes my thinking more clear. It seems that you don’t really stand by the authors’ side- synchronous is a better forum than asynchronous. As a result, I’m wondering that do you side with that synchronous is “not” a better forum than asynchronous? If so, why?
Having been through a few online classes I thought async was better. It is a better discussion because one can think, in depth, about what they want to say then say it. It used to take me at least an hour PER POST. WIth the level of discussion I would suspect the same of others in my classes.
As for this article it is my opinion she put this study out there without thinking anyone would really analyze it. It was buried in a journal and one would really have to search to get to it.
It’s never too late to walk back. I think what happened to you often happen on me. :P It’s great to receive responses from authors of readings. I can understand how flat is the world from your experience.
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