invisible?!

I have been reading through a paper by Shalni Gulati (2006) on 'Knowledge construction in online learning' this evening and find some of the discussion fascinating at it seems to relate to me this week.

She talks about issues of personal control and emotional engagement with the online environment in the sense that, the more positive these two aspects are, the greater the participation in a learning activity. Conversely, if these two areas are negative, there would logically follow a sense of disengagement with the process.

Currently, I am feeling the latter - other members of the group I am working with seem to be more 'at home' in the VLE and have demonstrated a very swift presence which I feel has grown stonger during the week. As I am, perhaps, less confident, and have certainly had a series of other pressure on my time (not trying to make lame excuses here!) I have not been as active in the dialgoue. Consequently, I am feeling somewhat left behind and to some extent excluded from developments - not sure whether this is just my paranoia, or whether it ties in with Gulati's ideas about a lack of acknowledgement leading to a more peripheral role within a group. I certainly feel less inclination to contribute as I'm feeling somewhat invisible to other members.

It seems rather ironic as we are supposed to be working on a collaborative project to develop our skills as online tutors. Wow - it all seems a bit gloomy now I come to write it down. Perhaps I'm just in a weird place (head-wise) at the momentm, but I think I'm in danger over over-analysing, so I'd better stop there for now...