Elizabeth Wallace

Ah, I see that the concept of lurking evokes quite a bit of thought and reaction. And I'd like to add that the group of people who sat around the table at lunch today, on a beautiful summer day on the U of T campus had many of the same thoughts and ideas: eves-dropping, watching, listening, hanging about...some words with negative connotations, some with positive.

According to Wikipedia the term was first used in the 1980s with the first attempts at online exchange -- bulletin boards, email lists etc. It seems that we are stuck with the word, but through our discussion here, perhaps we can influence, just a tiny little bit, what lurking connotes in our own online community.  Let's see...

Welcome to this forum about Lurking. The topic of my roundtable discussion on Friday, June 16 at the STLHE Conference is "Lurking Around Knowledges". (For those of you who are good spellers, I'd like to point out that I always try to use Knowledges in the plural!)

I'm beginning the session by asking participants to play a little word association game: What synonyms come to mind when the word "lurking" is used? In any conversation I like to start with sharing experiences, so that we can become our own experts before moving on to hear what other experts have to say.

So if you're logging on to this forum, I invite you to post some of the words that you associate with lurking. No editing, please, just your first thoughts!

And then we could get into a discussion of what constitutes "participation" and how we can really evaluate it. Who's to say that the person with the head down in the back row isn't participating in his/her own way :-)

The dilemma that we all have is rooted in credentialism, argues Perelman in one of my favourite texts: School's Out. He abhors the fact that learning and all related activities have been manipulated by educational leaders into a competition for grades. And I completely agree with him. I love being with learners, and revel in the dialogue...right up to that moment when I have to return the first grade.

Of all the developments in education, perhaps it has been the introduction of technology into the classroom (and of course in online courses) that has helped to create a sense of shared learning between teacher and students. We have all had the experience of a hiccup in technology, and hearing a voice from the group of learners calling out..."Press the Shift key!" ...to save the day. Perhaps this whole movement started with those flashing 12:00 digits on VCRs and the willingness of mom and dad to let the kids fix it?  Let's keep that momentum going :-)

Wonderful posting, Charles. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts, information, and so much of yourself with us. 

The fact that you are willing to add this information to SCoPE is a demonstration of your belief in Dialogue. The idea of continuing a conversation after a Symposium is over is a new one (as is the idea of starting out online before and during an event) but those committed to SCoPE feel that it is very worthwhile trying. Although only a handful of people have contributed in the past week, we are satisfied that we are creating an archive that will be a resource for others in the future.

There were hints in this last post that you had other ideas to share. Please continue to use SCoPE to help us understand more about Dialogue. I also invite you to click on the "All Activities" link in the top left hand corner of the SCoPE homepage, and see what other related conversations are of interest to you.