Threshold: the plank, stone or piece of metal that lies under the door; the end, boundary; the place or point of entering or beginning; (G. schwelle) the point at which a physiological or psychological effect begins to be reproduced (Websters New Unabridged International Dictionary, p. 2383).
Van Gennup uses limen or threshold to refer to a territorial passage that has particular importance. A boundary between two countries may or may not be marked with a fence or distinct boundary line. However, each country has entrance points, portals, and thresholds that individuals pass through to get from one country to the other. In the portal—Customs, it is as if you are not in either country. The threshold provides a point of entrance and departure.
Van Gennup discusses the significance of the front or main door. “Only the main door is the site of entrance and exit rites, perhaps because it is consecrated by a special rite or because it faces in a favorable direction. The other openings do not have the same quality of transition between the familial world and the external world. Therefore, thieves (in civilizations other than our own) prefer to enter otherwise than through the door, corpses are removed by the back door or the window; a pregnant or menstruating woman is allowed to enter and leave through a secondary door; etc.” (1960, p. 25).
For van Gennep, threshold is a passage “between” the sacred and profane. The rites of threshold are “direct and physical rites of entrance, of waiting, and of departure—that is, rites of passage” (p. 25). It provides a place of transition a mediation point between social states of existence (e.g., single to married). He calls the rites of separation from the previous world, preliminal rites; those executed during the transitional stage, liminal (or threshold) rites; and the ceremonies of incorporation into the new world, post-liminal rites. In terms of rites of passage, one enters the liminal (threshold) stage as one person and emerges from this state completely transformed. Gadamer speaks of transformation in his discussion of play as “something is suddenly and as a whole something else, that this other transformed thing that it has become is its true being in comparison with which its earlier being is nil. When we find someone transformed we mean precisely this, that he has become another person, as it were” (1994, p. 111). How is play like a rite of passage?
The computer screen offers an entrance into the world of computer conferencing. It is in this sense of entrance that the students computer monitor offers a threshold to enter the computer conference classroom. Is the computer conference a liminal “place” for students? Are students transformed as a result of their "entering-into" a computer conference? Must a student have to develop a web of connections with the computer conference before it has a profound effect? Gadamer speaks of transformation in terms of structure not representation or alteration (1994, p. 110-111). How is a person transformed? For Gadamer, transformation occurs in play. “In being presented in play, what is emerges. It produces and brings to light what is otherwise constantly hidden and withdrawn” (p. 112). How can instruction in a computer conference be play?
Another aspect of the definition of threshold, schwelle is “the point at which a physiological or psychological effect begins to be reproduced.” This definition suggests overcoming some type of boundary--having enough exposure to something for it to have an effect. Could enough exposure to computer conferencing be one of the ways to “reproduce”, to give birth to, or to be transformed by the technology? I have found that the more exposure I have to computer technology, the easier it is for me to learn and manipulate new software. How I think about and organize information has undergone profound changes. When I think of information, I think of how I can manage it on the computer. Management ranges from database creation to web-page development. How does the computer effect my way of thinking? How is it effecting how we as a society are choosing to construct and display knowledge? Will this new way of seeing and knowing exclude those who do not have access? L17