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Re: Lively Academic Listservs



If you reply to this LONG (17KB) post please DON'T HIT THE REPLY
BUTTON (the bane of discussion lists) and thereby inflict it yet
again on suffering subscribers.

In her POD post of 1 Dec 2003 15:08:00-0500 titled "Lively Academic
Listservs," Sharon Baiocco of the "Collegiate Development Network"
<http://www.cdnhighered.com/> wrote:

"I am gathering a list of links to lively academic listservs where faculty
and/or administrators discuss pedagogy, or share resources, either
discipline-specific or general. . . Does anyone know a good online
source for such a listing?"

I know of no "good online source" but here are nine comments:

1. "LISTSERV" is a trademark of L-Soft <http://www.lsoft.com/>.
Although many discussion lists (such as POD) utilize L-soft and may
properly be called "listservs" a more general term is "discussion
lists" DL's. Incidentally LISTSERV software provides marvelous
archives searchable by keyword, author, subject, date, or any
combination of those. Why do some DL's forego use of easily
searchable archives by utilizing antediluvian software?

2. "Lively" is somewhat ambiguous adjective. Does "lively" mean just
a high average number of posts per day, or does it mean a high
average number of posts per day that are informative, provocative,
stimulating, convivial, inspiring, amusing, outrageous, some other,
or some combination?

3. In my opinion, most DL's fail [paraphrasing Roschelle and Pea (1999)]:

"to move beyond forums for exchanging tidbits and opinions, to
structures which rapidly capture knowledge-value and foster rapid
accumulation and growth of the community's capability . . . providing
tools to allow contributors to share partially completed resources,
and enable others to improve upon them."

For example: some DL list owners impose draconian line limitations
that force subscribers into vacuous "sound bites"; some DL's do not
have archives or else have archives that not easily searchable; few
DL subscribers:

(a) even notice literature references in posts (except to inveigh
against them as "useless busy work"), let alone place them in their
posts;

(b) take advantage of hot linking - a prime capability of the internet;

(c) abide by common-sense posting suggestions [Hake (2002)] that
would facilitate efficient communication.

4. As emphasized in Hake (2001), DL's provide a potential way to
surmount disciplinary barriers, caused in part by the traditional
departmental structure of universities. The potential of the web as a
mechanism for promoting interdisciplinary synergy in education reform
is emphasized and schematically pictured on page 3 of the 204KB pdf
at <http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/WhatLearn-013100g.pdf>. To
enhance interdisciplinary synergy some derelict subscribers resort to
the cardinal sin of cross-posting. Thomas DeQuincy said [politically
corrected]:

"If once a [wo]man indulges [herself or himself] in murder, very soon
s[he] comes to think little of robbery; and from robbery s[he] next
comes to Sabboth-breaking, and from that to incivility,
procrastination. . .[and finally to cross-posting].

5. For a good article on physics DL's see MacIsaac (2000). Are there
counterparts in other discipines?

6. To repeat, for a list of oft-repeated but seldom heeded posting
suggestions see Hake (2002).

7. The APPENDIX lists a few interesting DL's with their archive
URL's. Please let me know if you spot errors or have suggestions.

8. For LISTSERVE archives it takes only a few minutes to subscribe
and then unsubscribe by following the simple directions at the
<ArchiveURL> / "Join or leave the list (or change settings)" where
"/" means "click on." Rather than unsubscribe after using the
archives, it's easier to subscribe in the first place using the
"NOMAIL" option under "Miscellaneous." Then, as a subscriber, you may
access the archives and/or post messages at any time, while receiving
NO MAIL from the list!

9. The trick to monitoring posts on LISTSERV archives is to:
a. click on the week(s) or months of interest,

b. arrange the posts chronologically by clicking on "Date" in the
"Sort by" menu at the top of the page (or in some cases the icon
second from the left with the sheets numbered #1,2 ),

c. scan the titles and authors of posts that have arrived since your
last visit, and examine only those which appear worthwhile.


Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<rrhake@earthlink.net>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake>
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi>

REFERENCES
Hake, R.R. 2000. "What Can We Learn from the Biologists About
Research, Development, and Change in Undergraduate Education?" AAPT
Announcer 29(4): 99 (1999); available on the web as ref. 7 at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake > or immediately downloadable
by clicking on the 204 KB pdf at
<http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hake/WhatLearn-013100g.pdf>.

MacIsaac, D.L. 2000. "Communities of on-line physics educators,"
Phys. Teach. 38(4): 210-213; online at
<http://PhysicsEd.BuffaloState.edu/PHYS-L/index.html>. Gives
reference information on four major physics education lists: PHYS-L,
PHYSHARE-L, PhysLrnR, and TAP-L.

Pea, R. 1999. "New Media Communications Forums for Improving
Education Research and Practice," in E. C. Lagemann and L.S. Shulman
(eds.) "Issues In Education Research" (Jossey-Bass, 1999); online at
<http://scil.stanford.edu/about/staff/bios/pea.html>. Under "Articles
and Chapters."

Roschelle, J & R. Pea. 1999. "Trajectories from Today's WWW to a
Powerful Educational Infrastructure," Educational Researcher,
June-July: 22-25, 43; online as a pdf at
<http://ctl.sri.com/publications/displayPublication.jsp?ID=120>; see
also Pea (1999).


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
APPENDIX [URL's for the archives (where available) of some
interesting discussion lists.
CODE:
An asterisk * preceding a URL indicates the use of LISTSERV software
An "[R]" (Restricted) preceding a URL indicates that one must
subscribe in order to access the archives.

*AERA-C (Learning & Instruction)
<http://lists.asu.edu/archives/aera-c.html>

*AERA-D (Measurement and Research Methodology)
<http://lists.asu.edu/archives/aera-d.html>

*AERA-Teaching-EdPsych (Teaching Psychology Special Interest Group)
<http://listserv.temple.edu/archives/teaching_edpsych.html>

[R] AP-Physics (Advanced Placement Physics)
<http://lyris.collegeboard.com/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?site=collegeboard&enter=ap-physics>.
For DL's in other subjects see:

AP-subjects <http://lyris.ets.org/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=ap-physics>

*ASSESS (Assessment in Higher Education)
<http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/assess.html>

[R] Astro-Ed (Association of Astronomy Educators)
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/astroed_news>

[R] Biolab <biolab@hubcap.clemson.edu> (NO archive!) The homepage is at
<http://biowww.clemson.edu/biolab/home.html> and
<http://biology.clemson.edu:591/biolab/info.htm>.

*Biopi-L (Biology Teachers and Professionals from Kindergarten to
the University) <http://listserv.ksu.edu/archives/biopi-l.html>

*Chemed-L (Chemistry Education)
<http://mailer.uwf.edu/archives/chemed-l.html>

*Dewey-L (John Dewey)
<http://listserv.sc.edu/archives/dewey-l.html>

DrEd (Medical Education Research and Development)
<http://list.msu.edu/archives/dr-ed.html>

[R] EdStat (Statistics)
<http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/archives/>

*[R] EVALTALK (American Evaluation Association Discussion List)
<http://bama.ua.edu/archives/evaltalk.html>

*FYA (First Year Assessment)
<http://listserv.sc.edu/archives/fya-list.html>

*Twain-L (Mark Twain Forum) <http://listserv.yorku.ca/archives/twain-l.html>

[R] Math-Learn (Math Education - primarily K-12)
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/math-learn/>

[R] Math-Teach (Math Education)
<http://mathforum.org/epigone/math-teach>

[R] OpenPhys (Open-Source Physics Education Materials)
<http://www.topica.com/lists/openphys/read>

Peirce-L <http://members.door.net/arisbe/menu/people/peirce-l/peirce-l.htm>
Primitive LYRIS archives are available at
<http://members.door.net/arisbe/menu/people/peirce-l/digests.htm>.

*Phys-L (Forum for Physics Educators)
<http://lists.nau.edu/archives/phys-l.html> Subscribe at the
homepage <http://PhysicsEd.BuffaloState.edu/PHYS-L/index.html>.

*[R] PhysLrnR (Physics Learning Research List)
<http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/physlrnr.html>

*Physhare (Sharing Resources for High School Physics)
<http://lists.psu.edu/archives/physhare.html>

*[R] PHYSOC (Physics and Society)
<http://listserv.uark.edu/archives/physoc.html>

*PPAS (Promising Practices in After School Programs)
<http://listserv.aed.org/archives/ppas.html>

*POD (Professional and Organizational Development)
<http://listserv.nd.edu/archives/pod.html>

*STLHE-L (Student Teaching and Learning in Higher Education -
Canadian) <http://listserv.unb.ca/archives/stlhe-l.html>

TAP-L (Technical Aspects of Physics Labs & Lectures)
<http://listproc.appstate.edu:8000/guest/archives/TAP-L/>

TLT-SWG (formerly AAHESGIT; heavily moderated; "focusing on issues of
teaching, learning, technology, and collaborative change"); evidently
no archives; TLT = Teaching, Learning, Technology; SWG = ?? The
homepage is at <http://www.tltgroup.org/listserv/index.html>.

Tomorrow's Professor (heavily moderated)
<http://sll.stanford.edu/projects/tomprof/newtomprof/postings.html>.

WilliamJames-L Information on how to subscribe is at
<http://www.pragmatism.org/internet/discussion.htm>. Evidently no
archives.