Social capital: a definition to ponder

As a quick cross-link to, and reminder of, another discussion just starting on the Online Facilitation mailing list, here's a definition to ponder:

... social capital consists of connections within and between groups who tend to share core ideas and values. It is measured by the level of voluntary involvement in civic organizations in formal or informal networks of associates or friends when professional information, personal or emotional assistance is needed....

[of] Social Capital, onlinefacilitation, Message #10185

Blogged with the Flock Browser

VoiceThread from the B4E Workshop

Not much to say here except check out the blogging ideas represented in this VoiceThread from the Blogging for Educators workshop:




Had to use the small version, because the big one didn't fit the page. For a micro-review of the tool (VoiceThread), please see the LTD Project Wiki (AudioPodcastVideo, VoiceThread).

Pre-Course Experience

Though I'm torn with regard to whether this blog, or another that I maintain, is an appropriate venue to spill gut feelings, I've decided to do so here. This will be a reflective piece regarding preliminaries to one of the first online courses to which I enrolled.

As soon as I had logged in to the course, a day or so before it was scheduled to begin, I discovered literally hundreds of unread messages. Regardless of ... [unswerving] family support, ... [and all the rest that enabled me to get where I was at the time]

I never wish[-ed] to create such an imposing presence [, or rather overwhelming burden of interpersonal data to digest from ill-threaded discussions, waiting to greet new-comers to a course that hadn't started]. Though I was striving to adjust to a new physical environment, in an unfamiliar country, the [massive novelty of online (only)] peer-to-peer ... [self-identification and relationship building was] phenomenal[-ly challenging].

[Original draft: 2007.03.24; retrieved and roughed out in retrospect: 2010.07.09]

Threaded message view on topline mailing list

Recently, I've noticed that the topline mailing list at Yahoo! (R) Groups now features a threaded view - once you have a message open on the group site.

The thread view appears below the message itself in your browser window. You may need to scroll down to display it.

Message threads comprise a series of messages and replies to which an open message relates (for example, see Figure 1). They show replies, and replies to replies, in an inverted step layout.

Figure 1: Simple Thread - Three Related Messages

As long as you don't expand the messages, or sort them by date, any message indented below another represents a reply to the previous message.

If there are more replies than one to a given message, they will be indented equally; the message to which those replies thread is the first message up the list that is one step less indented (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Complex Thread - Changes of Topics

[[wiki:theltdproject:ThreadedMessageView]]