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This week’s theme for class is talking about group discussion boards and mailing lists. Regular readers are aware that one of my goals as a young educator will be to find different ways to break down the barriers of the four walls that surround my classroom. This week I feel we were presented with two tools, one much more helpful than the other.
Having been enrolled in University for seven years I like to think that I have picked up a few skills and tricks along the way. One of these is working with the discussion forums on our Moodle/WebCT/Blackboard sites. While different professors placed different emphases on the online discussion format, I was able to quickly grasp the concept of responding to a question prompt and sharing insight on two or three of my classmates own responses.
Essentially anyone can log onto the forum and pose a question to the group, make a comment on something said in class, or thank the teacher for bringing Timbits for everyone. As I said, in my experience the professor provided the prompt that we would respond to, and then ask us to comment on two or three other classmates responses, hence the “discussion” portion of the forum. The process felt very natural and completely in tune with what we were doing in class. Grandma if this process sounds similar to when people used to just tack their questions onto a giant corkboard in the staff lounge, that is because it IS! Think of this exact process, just online now.
I really see a lot of value of using these online discussion forums in the classroom. Of course I have a Social Studies background and am all about engaging students in discussion in order to further their knowledge and understanding. I feel that online discussion forums provide a rich opportunity to take what we are talking about in class and continue the conversation outside of class. Students could be asked to respond to a prompt the day before a class in order to preview the next day’s material, they could be asked to reflect on something that we discussed in class that day or the day previous, or the students could be asked to go find something on the internet that pertains to a topic we are discussing in class and post it so that all can benefit from their findings. I believe that any combination of these would enrich the students learning experience in my classroom.
The other online discussion format that we were shown this week is one that I have not had a lot of experience with. It involves the same online discussion concept, just with mass emailing through a mail list. Now, I am not sure if I am just to young and cool and hip, but I found this process to be WAY too dramatic. First you have to find a list on a database that you want to “subscribe” to, then you have to join the list. Once you have joined the list you will receive emails from the members of the list and can email the list so that all other members get your email. Sounds easy right? I think that mass emailing has its uses, but the process just seems unnecessary as a forum for online discussion when we have things like discussion boards now in place. I mean sure, getting seven new cupcake recipes every week SOUNDS like a great a idea in theory... but who really makes that many cupcakes in one week?
In my classroom I believe I will use mass emailing and mail lists in order to get information out to staff, parents, and children efficiently and easily. However, when my goal is to engage individuals in a forum for discussion I think I will stick with the online discussion board.
Image Reference:
Online Discussion Board. Retrieved March 14, 2014; From: http://www.smallfoodbiz.com/wp-content/uploads/discussionboard.jpg
Having been enrolled in University for seven years I like to think that I have picked up a few skills and tricks along the way. One of these is working with the discussion forums on our Moodle/WebCT/Blackboard sites. While different professors placed different emphases on the online discussion format, I was able to quickly grasp the concept of responding to a question prompt and sharing insight on two or three of my classmates own responses.
Essentially anyone can log onto the forum and pose a question to the group, make a comment on something said in class, or thank the teacher for bringing Timbits for everyone. As I said, in my experience the professor provided the prompt that we would respond to, and then ask us to comment on two or three other classmates responses, hence the “discussion” portion of the forum. The process felt very natural and completely in tune with what we were doing in class. Grandma if this process sounds similar to when people used to just tack their questions onto a giant corkboard in the staff lounge, that is because it IS! Think of this exact process, just online now.
I really see a lot of value of using these online discussion forums in the classroom. Of course I have a Social Studies background and am all about engaging students in discussion in order to further their knowledge and understanding. I feel that online discussion forums provide a rich opportunity to take what we are talking about in class and continue the conversation outside of class. Students could be asked to respond to a prompt the day before a class in order to preview the next day’s material, they could be asked to reflect on something that we discussed in class that day or the day previous, or the students could be asked to go find something on the internet that pertains to a topic we are discussing in class and post it so that all can benefit from their findings. I believe that any combination of these would enrich the students learning experience in my classroom.
The other online discussion format that we were shown this week is one that I have not had a lot of experience with. It involves the same online discussion concept, just with mass emailing through a mail list. Now, I am not sure if I am just to young and cool and hip, but I found this process to be WAY too dramatic. First you have to find a list on a database that you want to “subscribe” to, then you have to join the list. Once you have joined the list you will receive emails from the members of the list and can email the list so that all other members get your email. Sounds easy right? I think that mass emailing has its uses, but the process just seems unnecessary as a forum for online discussion when we have things like discussion boards now in place. I mean sure, getting seven new cupcake recipes every week SOUNDS like a great a idea in theory... but who really makes that many cupcakes in one week?
In my classroom I believe I will use mass emailing and mail lists in order to get information out to staff, parents, and children efficiently and easily. However, when my goal is to engage individuals in a forum for discussion I think I will stick with the online discussion board.
Image Reference:
Online Discussion Board. Retrieved March 14, 2014; From: http://www.smallfoodbiz.com/wp-content/uploads/discussionboard.jpg