Hello Liz,
can I use sentences instead of just single words?
As an online lifelong learner I've often met the phenomenon of vicarious learning! For me, this means a freedom to read along and participate only when I feel I have something significant to add to the conversation, as well as the spare time to do so. This could for example happen in cases when I know only littie or close to nothing on a specific topic but found some interest to learn more. Then I would prefer to stay safe in the background just listening and thinking, exactly like I would be doing in live contexts as an audience, probably note taking or looking up difficult or eye catching keywords and names.Maybe sometimes exchanging a few words with ny neighbour just backstage, without becoming visible and making a fool of myself in a public sphere with my ignorance.
I've met often with people who were "just silently lurking" in a free workshop or course (like this seminar), or a mail list, then suddenly coming out of the darkness after weeks oreven months now sharing something they wish to tell, and then adding how much they appreciate to be part of this active and vibrant community (this has often been the case in the Webheads in Action language educators' CoP where informal learning and having FUN are major succes factors). They've been observing participants in the legitimate periphery of the community and may now feel ready to join the more openly active supporters.
Keywords here: vicarious learning, peripheral legitimate participants, active readers, reading along...
I'm usually trying to avoid using the negative term lurking and propagating this more positive inclusive view But I also admit how challeging it can be when you really try hard to activate a conversation when there's only little response. This is where the Moodle facility of looking at activity logging can help; if people log in from time to time and read along there must be some reason even when they do stay silent. I admit this could not work well in case of courses with some sort of diploma or grading - but what if we leave the result to be up to the individual learner how much or little he or she desire to learn at the very moment? Who said once: Learning is un-learning?