 The
first edition of E-moderating was published in May 2000. The
2nd edition of E-moderating, published in January 2004, offers
something of a renewed and refreshed, rather than changed
vision, of the role and training of the online teacher or
trainer, the person I call the e-moderator. There is a little
more about his or her role in synchronous technologies. There
is a new chapter about the future for e-moderating, which
I hope will help you better prepare for what’s around
the corner. I’ve updated the stories, views, experiences
and online reflections of developing e-moderators and I hope
their voices continue to shine through.
Three key themes have emerged since I wrote for the 1st edition
of ‘E-mod’ around the turn of the Millennium.
First there’s less reason to convince the world that
we need support for online teachers, trainers and facilitators,
(i.e. from a happy and successful band of e-moderators) to
make e-learning work well. Thinking has moved on a little
from believing technology may do away with teachers and towards
how they can be trained and supported to work online. Second,
researchers have stopped counting online messages, making
spurious comparisons between online and face to face and started
instead to explore when and what we need to make online really
worthwhile. I have included some of their published literature
for this edition. Third, and as yet largely unresolved, are
ways of scaling up the e-moderating task force beyond the
early adopters, without consuming huge amounts of diminishing
resources. I hope you will find this edition helpful for these
new directions. Good luck and report back please! The challenge
will last a while. I hope E-mod 2, will help make the online
world a more social, supportive and dynamic place.
Gilly Salmon
gilly.salmon@le.ac.uk
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