A Discussion by any other name: Disentangling words and practice in online conferencing

Abstract

It is possible that the pedagogical benefits of a discussion board or any asynchronous communicative tool may not be realised as inscribed in terms like 'collaborative learning environment' or 'discussion board' due to two things: first, as instructors, we focus on what the technology can do and should do and ignore what is done when the technology is used in practice; and second, as researchers, we focus on coding messages into categories and mapping online activities into models that causes us, again, instead of seeing what is done, to try to fit our practices in situ into codes. As both instructors and researchers, we try to adhere to a constructivist view of teaching and learning. This article is about what is happening - the practice of blended/online learning and communication environment and tool (i.e. discussion board) as the technology-in-situ. It disentangles the word 'collaborative' from 'technology' and, in particular, the word 'discussion' from 'board'. Our very notions of discussion or collaboration and our understanding of the so-called collaborative learning environments define the ways in which we plan for an online activity. The author argues that constructivism has become a byword influencing pedagogy, its methodologies including designing so-called learning environments in ways that hide what is really happening when we are online. The case of the discussion board is described to illustrate that the board online can be other things too.