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Moderating and
Pedagogy
Open
Source
Software Tutorial
Download
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What Is TextWeaver?
TextWeaver is open source discussion forum package designed for
online education. It is free and can be used or modified at will. The program
can be downloaded from this site in both PC and Mac versions. The source code is
available on SourceForge.
Once you have installed TextWeaver connect to the server at San Diego State
University. A Test "course" is always open for experimentation with the
software. The TextWeaver team will open a class or discussion forum on request.
The host software is an NNTP server which is also available free. When you are
ready, you can install the NNTP server on your own host computer.
TextWeaver is a prototype of a new class of discussion management software
designed specifically for education. The program demonstrates features educators
need to support collaborative learning online. This is a rare example of forum
software designed with specific pedagogical practices in mind. TextWeaver is not
a complete learning management system comparable with BlackBoard or Web CT, but
it can be substituted for their rather crude discussion forums to improve the
educational experience.
TextWeaver's six main features are:
1. Outlook-like interface. Users see four "panes," a
message header list at the top, a reading pane beneath it, a composition pane
for writing messages, and an "Organizer" along the side listing courses,
keywords, and files. This facilitates writing responses to multiple messages
since the user can select and read several messages while composing.
2. Easy creation of "seminars," subforums within the main
class forum. Users can create project study groups or separate thematic
discussion spaces without making a request of the system administrator.
3. Offline capability. A mirror image of the conference
on the server is created on each user's computer, enabling offline work.
Synchronization is automatic as soon as the user connects.
4. Quoting and hyperlinking to quoted messages. A unique
"copy/paste quote" feature adds the name of the author to quoted comments and
links quotations back to their source. This feature encourages students to
interact with each others' ideas and facilitates the writing of summary
comments.
5. Keywording and reviewing. User created keywords can
be dragged and dropped onto incoming messages as they are read. Messages can be
reviewed by keyword. This feature facilitates the writing of summary comments, a
difficult but pedagogically important means of promoting interaction and
advancing the agenda of the course.
6. "File cabinet" for storing re-usable messages.
Messages such as standard topic raisers can be conveniently stored in TextWeaver
for future use.
The next step in the development of TextWeaver is the creation of web based
versions that can take over the user's browser and enable it to perform these
function.
The pedagogical implications of TextWeaver are discussed in detail in the
Moderating Manual in the moderating section of this site. TextWeaver is not
intended to "automate" online education or perform elaborate feats of cognitive
mapping and suchlike. It is much more modestly conceived as a discussion
utility. The goal of the design is to make pedagogically sound practices
convenient since convenience is such an important factor in determining what
online discussants are willing to do. The quotation and keywording features in
particular encourage collaborative learning by facilitating the interaction
essential to this learning style.
Summary or weaving comments are difficult to write with current forum software
but they provide an opportunity to promote interaction by showing the relation
between ideas and examples brought to the discussion by different interlocutors.
Weaving comments can also be used to introduce higher level concepts from the
teacher's discipline to explain the ongoing discussion. TextWeaver makes it far
easier to write these comments.
The TextWeaver team is looking for teachers interested in trying out our
software. We invite you to download and test it. A preliminary evaluation of the
first five classes to use TextWeaver can be found on this site. Take a look at
this document and consider using TextWeaver in your class.
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