Incollection,

Gender and Moderation: The Style's The Thing!

, and .
Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators, 2, chapter 19, Information Age Publishing, Charlotte, NC, (2008)

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.

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