How To Recondition Your Car

“The more limiting the tools, the less rich the experience available for designers of learning experiences”

Exactly! Can you really say this any other way! A really good example of this is the discussion tool in Talk2learn and compare it to the discussion tool used in Web Crossing!
Adults using these learning environments for professional learning purposes need very finely grained tools to work with. The difference in the learning experience between the discussion tools in these two software is comparable to using a telephone and bush radio. In Talk2learn the hotseat tool is so clumsy and so limiting in what can be achieved that members can never take ownership of a discussion. The tool really only allows for a thoughtleader to take center stage and the members to become actors in a question and answer process. NOT real discussion! Threading is vital in adult environments where you require reflection around complex ideas. Interesting for example in the CPSquare community to watch the threading process that occurs in Web Crossing when the conversation looks to become sidetracked. That allows for ownership. Heavens I would love to be able to do that in our T2L community.

Also important is to consider the kinds of intermittent use member make of these environments. You must be able to join a thread even when it is part way through or revive it if it has become defunct and you have not been able to get to it. That means members have to be able to respond to a response. Also needed is user choice in how conversations are viewed – an index view and a browse view – what you call here a hotset view Stephen I think.

Oh well.