Comments on: McGill’s Online Community https://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/wordpress/?p=352 Fri, 08 Jul 2005 19:19:27 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.8.10 By: liam https://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/wordpress/?p=352&cpage=1#comment-1262 Fri, 08 Jul 2005 19:19:27 +0000 http://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/wordpress/?p=352#comment-1262 I don’t think people are uncomfortable with the mode of communication per se, it’s just an unfamiliar arena for academics for most people. The sort of informal discussions that I can have for example in the labs at school with other students would certainly benefit from having a professor or someone more knowledgable throwing in a comment or two. Forums could fill the niche between ‘formally’ approaching a professor with a question, and just discussing ideas with peers while never getting authoritative input.

It still seems to me that blogs are closer to publishing a newsletter than leading a discussion on the spectrum of interactivity, for example, I’d be wary of posting a sort of general query on this blog. It seems more akin to the online version of an editorial page than the talking around coffee.

I’ve been trying to get CS to put up a wiki for a few months now, they have said they are planning on implementing one as soon as their planned website redesign comes through (announced I believe in… february). I’ve also asked the CSUS to setup forums, but received some vague support, and have seen no action since. Death (or at least lethargy) by committee does seem to be a powerful force here at McGill. I think the willingness to communicate online is there, I have a sizable number of CS students on my various messenger lists.

]]> By: sieber https://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/wordpress/?p=352&cpage=1#comment-1261 Thu, 07 Jul 2005 17:07:51 +0000 http://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/wordpress/?p=352#comment-1261 Interesting question. I had hoped that this blog would be a conduit for faculty, staff and students in McGill’s School of Environment to discuss important issues. This has yet to occur, although I think it will occur as the MSE gets used to the technology. I speculate that (a) faculty have yet to integrate this means of communication into their other routines, that is, the professors are late adopters; (b) faculty are primarily pre-tenure so they’re conserving their time to things that get them tenure; and (c) environmental students tend to be anti-technology unless that technology directly serves their university needs.

If the reason people didn’t participate was because they were uncomfortable with this mode of communication then we’d see blogs, wikis, and chat rooms among the computer science students and faculty. Is this the case?

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