How do I participate in discussions?

Each week, there will be both structured and informal group discussions taking place concerning that week’s topic. Usually the structured discussions will start with a prompt or a question to guide your thinking, but you are more than welcome to start your own discussion threads, lines of questioning, or separate topics right alongside the “official” discussions. Feel free to share resources, ask questions, reflect on experiences, and even challenge (politely and constructively) the materials or the contributions of others.

A really good way to ensure that we'll have good, enriching discussion is to structure your posts this way:

• Validate the post you're responding to, pointing to something specific about it:
• "Great point, Steve! I think your comparison of Google to the Borg is really interesting."
• Contribute your own thoughts and insights in a few sentences. Concise posts are more likely to be read.
• "I have to disagree, however. I think a better comparison might be made between Google and HAL 9000, because..."
• Advance the discussion by providing hooks for others to latch onto, such as questions, links, or new pieces of information.
• "Actually, I read recently that Google is doing research on artificial intelligence and machine learning. What do you all think of this?"

Why two discussion spaces?

We're using both Google Groups and Google+ for discussion in this course for a few reasons:

• Anyone with an email address can create a Google account and join a Google Group. If you don't want to join Google+, then you'll still be able to participate in the ZSRx Google Group.
• Google+ is great for connecting to others with similar interests. It's great for informal discussion and information sharing. Also, the ZSRx Google+ community will live on after the course has ended, so you can continue to connect and communicate with your classmates and the ZSR librarians.