"I think the main difference is one of 'ownership'. That class has its own soapbox to express its views on any given subject. They are not on someone else's stage. That almost unquantifiable feeling of ownership is an important feature in building any community. Whether any discussion becomes truly interactive however, is in large part dependent on how the teacher 'sells' the concept and trains students to interact. Although educators pay great lip service to the importance of interaction, we tend not to provide the basic building block skills for it to happen more naturally and at a more than superficial level."