Do you love or loathe the term ‘lurker’? Do you think lurking is an effective strategy for learning, or do you think that lurkers are just freeloaders who are parasitic on others? This session will be an exploratory investigation into the controversational term 'lurking': both into the meaning of the term and into the possible value of ‘lurking’ as a learning approach. Join us as we play a game of ‘Lurkers’ and attempt to flesh out arguments for and against the term and the behaviour. Be prepared to be open-minded and to contribute to an ongoing debate. Most of all, be willing to share new approaches. We would also like to open this discussion up to those not able to attend in person, so nearer the time we’ll be announcing a couple of related activities that everyone, whether present of not, can participate in.

1. LURKERS: THE GAME SHOW
Game Show Hosts:
Sarah Honeychurch (@nomadwarmachine),
Sue Beckingham (@suebecks),
Andrew Middleton (@andrewmid),
Rachelle O’Brien (@rachelleobrien),
Neil Withnell (@neilwithnell),
Scott Turner (@scottturneruon)

2. Do you think lurking is an effective strategy for learning, or
do you think that lurkers are just freeloaders who are
parasitic on others? This session will be an exploratory
investigation into the controversational term 'lurking': both
into the meaning of the term and into the possible value of
‘lurking’ as a learning approach.
Join us as we play a game of ‘Lurkers’ and attempt to flesh out
arguments for and against the term and the behaviour. Be
prepared to be open-minded and to contribute to an ongoing
debate. Most of all, be willing to share new approaches.
Do you love or loathe
the term ‘lurker’?

3. Do you love or
loathe the term
‘lurker’?

4. Ethics
We presenters are intending writing this all up as a paper and we'd be interested in including your
thoughts. Below is a consent form from the University of Glasgow.
All data will be kept in password files on university networked drives and the home PCs of the
researchers named above. Paper copies will be kept in a locked office. All data will be destroyed at
the end of the study and paper copies will be sent for secure disposal.
In submitting answers, you agree the following statements:
● I understand that my participation is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw at any time,
without giving any reason.
● I understand that confidentiality may be impossible to guarantee due to size of sample in this
study.
● I acknowledge that participants will be referred to by pseudonym.
● I understand that the data collected from this research will be stored and agree for it to be held
as set out above,
● I agree to waive my copyright to any data collected as part of this project
● I consent to my data being used as part of a paper as set out above
"Image from page 65 of "Business shorthand;" (1898)" flickr photo by Internet Archive Book Images
https://flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14760990316 shared with no copyright restriction (Flickr Commons)

5. Activity 1, Q1: What is your preferred term for
‘lurker’?
Activity 1, Q2: What do you think when you
hear the term ‘lurker’? Write a sentence or so
to let us know

6. Activity 2: Depict a Lurker
Use images or words to depict the concept of an online lurker.
What are they doing, anyway?
Add to the Padlet board. https://padlet.com/suebecks/lurkers

7. Activity 3: The Game
Use the statement you’ve been given and use it to design a poster.
You can agree with the statement, disagree with it, or produce a “for and
against” version.
Make it as fancy as you like - we’re going to be voting for the best one at the
end of this!
Be prepared to present your team’s poster and tell us why you should win!