WEEK 2. Topic 2. pt2

d) Authority and identity – who is in charge?
I would argue that there is less of a hierarchy of ‘who’s in charge’ online, particularly in a forum. The forums we are using are highly depersonalised and people are all writing in the same font, with few ways to express themselves other than the content of what is being said. In person, we all tend to judge a person on who they are and how they say it, rather than the content itself. I would say the breaking down of this hierarchy is a positive effect of learning online


e) Do you have the knowledge, the media ‘literacy’ to be a user, an advanced user? If not how does it feel?
I have previously used a variety of forums but none that have been set out quite like this one. Usually the user tends to be able to open a post which can expand and show all of the posts in that thread on one page, arguably a bit easier to follow than the one we are using for NMC! This said, I think this kind of thing comes fairly easily to our generation and I can’t imagine anyone having a problem with posting after initial teething problems. In fact I may go as far as saying that it’s probably many people’s preferred method of communicating today.