INSIDE:
EDITORIAL
By Elvina Castillo
AVEALMEC founding member
One of the main issues that e-moderators have to deal with is lurking. The word, which comes from the Middle High German lūren (to lie in the wait) carries a negative connotation: “wait in a place for evil purposes”, “to move furtively”, “to constitute a latent thread”, “to lie hidden”, all of them giving the feeling of an unpleasant feeling or quality. So, we need to reflect on this: is lurking a negative thing in e-environments? What can be done to fight lurking?
In interactive electronic systems, such as conferences (forums), newsgroups or chat rooms, lurkers make up over 80% of most online communities[i]. This means that most of the group read the discussions, but rarely participate. To lurk is a personal choice made by an individual who feels more comfortable having an indirect participation in a group. Listener, peripheral participation, passive participant, non-dir
ect participation are just terms that are being widely used to describe this group and which acknowledge that what was considered to be a major problem in online communities in the past, is really a fact faced by e-moderators today. Actually, many internet communities encourage newbies to lurk for some time to get a feel for the culture and etiquette of the e-community[ii], see if their concerns are relevant and obtain vicarious support[iii] without disclosing themselves. It also gives them the opportunity to learn about the group dynamics so as to avoid making inappropriate or redundant comments, questions or incite a flame war.
What are the reasons of lurking? Peerce et al. (2004)[iv] identified five main reasons related to why people lurk: lack of need to post; need to know more about the group; feeling of being helpful just by reading; lack of technical skills to make posts; and lack of connection to the group (topics, dynamics, fit). However, lurking implies a complex system of actions, contexts, thinking and attitudes where people may have multiple reasons for remaining as observers. While people may choose to lurk and delurk -entering an online discussion after a time spent lurking-now and then, a lurker in one community might be a very active poster in another community.
Lave and Wenger (1991) said that when entering an online community, most participants need to go through a non-participation stage before starting to post[v]. To eventually move from being a peripheral participant into an active poster, the authors point out, participants need an attractive, motivating and active environment where they can absorb input that will eventually provide them with the means to express themselves. This poses a real challenge to e-moderators, willing to promote an active environment in the hope that communication and interaction will promote learning.
However, online participation does not always mean talking or writing[vi]. People may participate actively (but not directly) even when they do not engage in a conversation with someone. Thus, participation (taken as a driver to learning) is supported by all kinds of engaging activities, which not necessarily mean collaboration or cooperation. Participation must be seen then, as a complex process that involves everything that a person feels, learns and does (even in a different context) when being part of an engaging experience. Then, there is no point in fighting lurking. However, one may ask: is there a way to increase direct participation? A good moderation helps, but it is basically the participant's personal motivation and commitment to a group, the factors that could trigger the need to step toward the center and become visible.
[vi] Hrastinski, S. (2009). A Theory of Online Learning as Online Participation. Computers & Education archive. Volume 52 , Issue 1 (January 2009) Pages 78-82
ISSN:0360-1315 http://itec.macam.ac.il/portal/ArticlePage.aspx?id=816&referer=useJsHistoryBack
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