Internetowe forum edukacyjne jako projekt blended learning na zajęciach kulturoznawczych. Wyzwania, ograniczenia, perspektywy

This article presents an educational internet forum, which was a part of the blended learning project the author led throughout the academic year 2011/2012 parallel to the course Introduction to the Cultural Studies at the University of Gdansk. As a result of the project the site http://wiedzaokulturze.wikispaces.com was created by a group of sixty-five Cultural Studies students. Students’ task was to take part in two discussions each semester by sharing their opinion on the topic the teacher proposed. In total they left 260 comments on 20 discussion forums. Each discussion forum was closed two days before the next class, so it prepared for the subsequent discussion. The aim of this article is to demonstrate whether participation in online discussion develops the competence necessary to lead a face to face discussion, the key ability that should be improved by humanistic education. Year-round care of the project helped to make many observations that can be used as a guide for teachers who plan to moderate the educational forum. This paper presents examples of discussion topics, analyzes students’ comments and proposes methods for moderating internet discussion. The experience gained during the project leads to the conclusion that, although the Internet educational forum solves some of the problems of traditional discussion, it generates another ones. The most serious of them result from the separation of time and space and lack of natural interaction. As explained by research results and statistics collected after closing the project, the online discussion is more cool, intellectual and less spontaneous. Because of this fact the educational forum threads should be planned as a preparation for written assignment.