The ecology of an online education site in professional communication

Discusses the interaction of Web-based communication technologies (e.g. threaded discussion groups, synchronous chat forums and file exchange systems) with the values and objectives of participants as a type of information ecology in an online technical communication class. Rather than advocating a particular technology or configuration of technologies, the author suggests that instructors should develop technology-rich online learning environments in which they and the class participants can select mediating technologies that facilitate the purposeful interaction of humans. To do otherwise, the author argues, is to reinforce the potentially dangerous notion that human interactions should simply be ordered around the parameters and capabilities of the most readily available technologies.