Initial Communicating Styles and Their Impact on Further Interactions in Computer Conferences

Educators are constantly seeking ways of utilising Internet technologies to enhance the learning of their students. Computer conferences provide a medium in which students have opportunity to discuss and engage with topics while constructing meaning through interaction with their peers. This paper examines the discourse arising from discussion of four topics, in an on-campus, first year, teacher education course, for evidence of cognition and metacognition. A number of factors are identified as having impeded cognition development. Different communicating styles are also noted between the two groups and its subsequent impact on group interactions. Initial postings to the computer conference appear to model successive communication within the group. The messaging behaviour of the students is analysed in the hope of providing further insight into the significance of the first postings to a conference.