Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators
Editors, Chris Kimble, Paul Hildreth and Isabelle Bourdon
Publisher, Information Age Publishing
As a two volume set:
Hard cover ISBN: 1593118678
,
Soft cover ISBN: 159311866X
As separate volumes:
Hard Cover - Vol 1 ISBN: 1593118635
,
Vol 2 ISBN: 1593118651
Soft Cover - Vol 1 ISBN: 1593118627
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Vol 2 ISBN: 1593118643
Volume 2, Chapter 19 - Gender and Moderation: The Style's The Thing!
Abstract
The chapter offers an approach for improving student participation in virtual or distributed Communities of Practice (vCoPs or dCoPs) through changes in the style of moderation. It describes some research into the possible effect of gender-bias on the duration and success of communities. Examples of male and female discourse styles and similar gender-influenced behaviour in Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) are given, and a classification of these is advanced. The research method involves a case-history analysis of the monitoring of four selected vCoPs, concluding that, in this type of environment (dispersed, CMC, and extended over a period), participants are more encouraged to learn from e-moderators who have been trained in, and understand, the importance of recognizing male and female styles of moderating.
Authors
