Community

Within these castle walls be forged Mavens of Computer Science ...

— Merlin, The Coder

Curriculum

Coder Merlin™  Computer Science Curriculum Data

Unit: Lab basics Experience Name: Community (W1001.20) Next Experience: Shell (W1002) Knowledge and skills: §10.112 Actively mentor learners within and beyond the school environment Topic areas: Discussion forums; Communication & collaboration Classroom time (average): 20 minutes Study time (average): 30 minutes Successful completion requires knowledge: understanding how to use a discussion forum Successful completion requires skills: ability to search a discussion forum; ability to post to a discussion forum; ability to respond in a discussion forum

Introduction

As in all sciences, communication with other humans is vital. Communication, at its essence, is the exchange of information between people. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, verbal communication is the most important candidate skill:

When asked to assess candidate skills/qualities, employers rated verbal communication skills the most important...
— NACE's Job Outlook 2016 report.

Written communication is no less important. Although formal written communication has existed for many centuries, an emergent form of informal written communication has emerged in the age of the Internet. Individuals in business, family members, and friends communicate via a variety of forms of "instant messaging." A new jargon has emerged built of initialisms, emojis, and emoticons. How many of the following do you know?

rofl	lmk	ily	yolo	smh
g2g	nvm	btw	dm	ama
hashtag	dm	rt	ama	bump
troll	meme	facepalm	epic fail	faq
Pwned	lag	noob	tbh	imho
🥺	😂	😒	👍	🌵

Many different forums exist that we'll be required to use, and each has its own rules. Realtime communication streams tend to use many abbreviations and be less formal, whereas printed communication (in a newspaper or a book for example) tends to avoid them.

Your guide might have prepared one or more electronic communication forums for you to use in your studies. These forums enable you to communicate with your colleagues, peers, and others. Some of the most common are below:

Slack

A platform for realtime communication and file sharing

Discourse

A modern forum for civilized discussion

Discord

A modern forum for discussion

Text messaging

Generally used for point-to-point, realtime communication

Email

Generally used for distributing text to one or more recipients asynchronously

Wiki

A website that allows its users to collaboratively edit its content and structure

Ground Rules

Different forums are suitable for different purposes. As you use these various communication mechanisms, you'll develop an appreciation for their strengths and weaknesses. Regardless of which forums you use, keep the following rules in mind:

Civil discourse is engagement in discourse (conversation) intended to enhance understanding.
— Mark Kingwell (1995). A civil tongue: justice, dialogue, and the politics of pluralism.

• ALWAYS BE CIVIL
• If you are not sure your post adds to the conversation, think over what you want to say and try again later.
• Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.
• Criticize ideas, not people
• Absolutely avoid:
  • Name-calling
  • Ad hominem attacks
• Provide reasoned counter-arguments that improve the conversation.
• If you see a problem, flag it!
• Don't post anything that a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive, or hate speech.
• Do not attempt to impersonate another user (visually or textually).

Many of the above are excerpted from the Discourse FAQ. For more great ideas, read the entire FAQ.

Exercises

Exercises

•  W1001.20  Because a wide variety of platforms and choices are used, follow the specific instructions provided by your guide.
  • Compose a post of one to two paragraphs according to your guide's instructions.
  • Reply to at least two classmates outside of your own initial post thread. (Demonstrate more depth and thought than simply stating that "I agree," or "You are wrong.")

Experience Metadata

Edit Experience Metadata

Experience ID	W1001.20
Next experience ID	W1002
Unit	Lab basics
Knowledge and skills	§10.112
Topic areas	Communication & collaboration Discussion forums
Classroom time	20 m
Study time	30 m
Acquired knowledge	understanding how to use a discussion forum
Acquired skill	ability to post to a discussion forum ability to respond in a discussion forum ability to search a discussion forum
Additional categories