Assignment #2: Follow an e-mail listserv (5 points)

Start in Week 2. Due in Week 10 (submit via Turnitin by midnight before class)

Optional reading: Tiene & Ingram (2001). Chapter 16: Conceptual connections: Establishing online learning communities.

A. Pick a mailing list (ListServ) to follow.

Find a mailing list to follow throughout the course of the semseter. The list should have something to do with Education, or with a topic or subject area you would likely be teaching. There are different kinds of lists out there. Some of them simply disseminate announcements, and can make pretty dull reading. What you are looking for is a list that is used as a forum for discussion among a group of people.

If you want to cast your net broadly, you might start by searching the "CataList" database of listservs, or simply do a Google search using the word "listserv" and some keywords that interest you.

A particularly popular list among students from last semester was ECENET-L, a list on early childhood education organized by the folks at ERIC.

You might also like to look at some of the archived messages from listservs maintained by AERA, the American Educational Research Association.

B. Write a summary of messages from the mailing list you monitored. (5 points)

The summary should be 2-3 pages long, double spaced and in a 12-point font. It should follow a narrative (story) format, and include the following information:

• The name of the mailing list and the person or organization responsible for maintaining it.
• The target audience for the mailing list -- who is supposed to subscribe?
• The purpose of the mailing list
• What happened or was talked abot over the list during the time that you monitored it?
• What patterns or trends did you notice in participation on the list?
• Describe one lesson you think you learned about mailing lists in general from your experience
• Based on your experience, how do you think mailling lists might be useful in your teaching career?