On behalf of AALL I welcome the 'unilearn' position, that it is 'unilearn' AND the 'AALL forum', not vs. This is the most important message. Many unilearners , but not all, and many AALL forum users, but not all, are also members of the Association for Academic Language & Learning (AALL). The fact that we are communicating - albeit in different fora - says something about the communicative vitality of the users of both. We need to support this in the best ways possible.

To have both Unilearn and the AALL Forum attempting to achieve the same goals is ultimately not very productive and, as we've seen recently, potentially divisive. This is the last thing we want to see happen. The Unilearn list and the AALL forum owners have worked together to explore ways of making communication between Academic Language and Learning professionals working in Australia and overseas (including New Zealand!) more effective.

As part of the strategies we discussed throughout 2007 as well as at the Nov. 07 conference in Melbourne where I presented the results of a survey of 'Unilearn' and the 'AALL forum', those present at the meeting all agreed that we would trial what many have been suggesting for a while: to use 'unilearn' mainly to inform (of events, conferences, messages requiring no responses, AND of postings on the AALL forum, etc.) and to use the 'AALL forum' mainly to discuss, share resources, archive, etc.

There was strong general support for this. Although those not present at the meeting might feel that they got excluded from having a say in this decision, it was felt that all users had been given an opportunity to have their say through the survey, and that a reasonable cross section of users were present at the meeting from which to make a judgement about the general support for the proposed changes.

To this end, AALL is keen to make this happen and supports Dai Fei's and Janice's suggestions. And there are two things we ask you to do in order to contribute to this. First, we need to make an effort to respect this new Unilearn protocol, that is, using it to inform, not to discuss. Secondly, we need to be every ready to ask the AALL forum manager for assistance if needed (how to post a topic, ....) and to share ideas and experiences on how to most effectively use this new technology, as several people already have done.

Shifting discussion to the AALL Forum is really important because of the need to archive discussion and access the archive - one of the important strengths of the Forum is the ability to immediately access and follow discussion threads. The strength of Unilearn is its quick messaging/notification - we believe both fora can work together, as agreed.

We encourage everyone to contribute constructively to this trial. If you want to respond to this message/discuss aspects of it, please
do it here, on the AALL forum. Such discussion/feedback is essential to the process of optimising the new system as the goal of these changes is to best meet the communication needs of Academic Language and Learning staff in Australia and overseas, but problems can only be addressed if they are brought to the attention of people who can do something about them.

cheers
Alex

Currently, AALL’s ‘about us’ page states:

“From 1995-2007, the major form of daily ALL communication has been the electronic discussion list Unilearn. In 2007 the AALL Discussion Forum was introduced and runs in parallel to Unilearn.”

No suggestion there that choosing one over the other, or using both could lead to being held responsible for someone’s ability to manage their Outlook program. It may be better to describe the two tools as complementing each other.

There are a range of different circumstances among members, and Unilearn is far more convenient for me. Each time I venture offsite from our intranet here I have to seek authorisation. A small technicality, but bothersome, sometimes having to go through the process any number of times in a day to visit the forum.

I have tended to make technology work for me up until now, and the decision as to which tool to use has been based on that which best suits my purpose.

‘The question is . . .which is to be master - that's all’.