Just so I don't forget, will get back later to the comments on Clara's latest comments. No, I think we're done for week 1. Anyway, two thoughts on 'a false sense of linearity'.

1. IIRC, Google Wave has the option of 'replaying' a wave, so you might be able to see how an asynchronous online discussion truly develops in time. Alas, Google will be discontinuing Wave by the end of the year, although the source code has been released. But I don't think Blackboard will incorporate any open source code in its very proprietary product.
2. In the end, if I'd like to check out the results of an online asynchronous discussion, am I really interested in how the discussion developed over time? Or am I much more interested in the 'harvest' of the discussion, the arguments pro and contra different ways of handling a case, and whether any conclusions were reached? Actually, one could see the summary ('harvest') of such a discussion as a (collaborative) learning result.

Oh well, the old process versus product discussion.