Breaking with the model: creating approaches to interactive distance learning

Newsgroups and list servers provide a means for extending Internet dialogues beyond the one-on-one telephone model. While much of the discourse in these new media is chatter, a small percentage of valuable information is generated. Frequently asked question (FAQ) pages provide a means of distributing such information usefully, but require a considerable editing effort. New approaches use the interactivity of the World Wide Web to generate, preserve, and publish useful information. Web software makes it easy for a teacher or instructional designer to guide debate and focus discussion following a Socratic model, but the use of this technology is creating new instructional models