Two Dereks November 15, 2006
Posted by Andy Roberts in : pratodialogue, edublog , trackbackI’ve been reading Derek Wenmoth’s blog since he first joined what was then known as “Ultralab South”, now CORE Education, and often find much to applaud, for example about Personal Learning Environments ( and [2] and [3] and [4]. The other Derek, Chirnside, I’ve read less about but actually met for one day of the Pratodialogue and as a result I’ll be helping to evaluate a new online course with him later. I didn’t know they knew each other and worked ‘just down the road’ in New Zealand. Small planet.
Anyway, I wanted to blog Derek W’s diagram depicting four stages of online participation which may supersede the old cartoons which are sometimes wheeled out, dating back to the dark ages.
Derek’s Blog: Participation Online - the Four Cs
These are all very positive practices and outcomes, which illustrate an ideal rather than typical progression. There’s not much room for disappointment, withdrawal, the spectacular flounce, overboiling frustration, unrequited help, incessant vacuous chat, pointless circular argument, and all the rest of the rich tapestry which goes to make up the human environment online. Well, perhaps some of these are not so common everywhere. The Motivation/Behaviours/Outcome structure is clear and seems useful, but I’m not sure about the four C’s themselves as headings. ‘Commentor’ is ok for a made up word, but Commentator doesn’t have the right connotations to me. I’d probably add an intermediate column for the “mad newgrouper” phase of behaviour from people who, filled with enthusiasm and imagination for the potential of online collaboration want to keep on creating more and more online spaces without regard for the effect of dilution upon levels of interaction. But that doesn’t begin with a C.
is an online professional who initiated DARnet 
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