[pilleya]

From my experiences I don’t think it is particularly hard to be a student on CD, you just need to realise where you are capable of contributing to the discussion effectively and the areas in which you might not be able to.

For me I find I am confident in lots of the technical discussions, about part use, how to make this work etc. But I refrain from some discussions. I find it is really important that if you are going to post something about a contentious issue or something that could be taken differently to how you intended it that you need to be careful. I often type up my posts in MS Word, and will make 2 or 3 revisions before I am comfortable to post it. Even then I might send the post to one of my team mates, to have a read through and check or a mentor if I feel that it is necessary. I made a bad decision in the past, not on CD but in an email. It is very easy to write something you don’t want too, when you are tired, stressed or feel like something has really upset you. It is extremely easy to click send, before realising that you shouldn’t have sent it. I find that it is best to type it up, then maybe leave it until the next morning or a few hours and have a read over it. Maybe someone else might have expressed your view point in a better way, or maybe you’ll realise that it isn’t the best thing to send or post.