Do threaded discussions work?

I'm talking about classroom forums like Nicenet and Blackboard. I am also thinking about any of the millions of topics-based forums that exist. Online forums are a major part of what Will Richardson refers to as the Read/Write web. When we are using online forums, we are reading what other people have to say and contributing in kind. We respond to others' opinions and other people respond to our opinions. We tend to carry on several asynchronous conversations simultaneously.

While it is true that there is a certain amount of talking to hear ourselves talk, for the most part, real communication is going on. Ideas are evolving through their interplay with contesting and complementary ideas.

This works extremely well in topic-oriented forums where everyone who participates is doing so by her own free will and because she is interested (sometimes obsessively so) in the topic of discussion. However, threaded discussion can become a pointless exercise in a classroom setting IF students don't have a good reason for doing it.

I learned this the hard way in my 4790 class I taught last semester. I had expected the online discussion to be one of my students' favorite tasks, but a midterm survey I conducted showed the opposite to be true. Almost unanimously, my students said the online discussion was redundant with the classroom discussion we were already having. From my subsequent conversations with these students, I've put together the following guidelines for a successful threaded class discussion:

1. For threaded discussion to be useful, students need to respond to each other. If they are each posting without reading each other's posts, then we just have a writing exercise. As I said earlier, it is the interplay of ideas that causes ideas to evolve.
2. Threaded discussions must be seen as a path towards a destination, not the destination itself. Threaded discussions should be the kernels of future papers and projects.
3. Topics can arise naturally from class discussions, but should never merely repeat class discussions. It's more useful for a topic to preview an upcoming classroom discussion.
4. I like to think of threaded discussions as thinking out loud. Students should feel safe to play their thoughts out in their infancy in this very public forum without fear of ridicule.
5. Expectations should be explicitly stated. Unfortunately, it might be necessary to require a minimum word count, a minimum number of posts (weekly or semester), or minimum number of responses to other students' posts. I recommend weekly deadlines for posts.
6. The instructor should take part in the conversation, but only to model, not to instruct.

Although blogging is different from (more sophistated than? more adaptable than?) traditional threaded discussions, the same rules should apply when using them in an educational setting.

Encouraging Student Activism Website is down

I'm in the process of moving another website into my root directly and moving the Encouraging Activism site into a subdirectory. Because of this the website is down. I should have it back up by the end of the week.

Update:

The site is back up.

More than a journal

Chapter 2 of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson may turn into a seminal text in developing my dissertation. Before reading this chapter, I had no idea about the possibilities blogs had in education.

First off, blogs can be used as a class website or portal. A well-used blog is updated far more frequently than a traditional website. Teachers can have complete transparency - allowing parents and administrators to see what students are working on a weekly or even daily basis. This would also allow easy communication between teachers and parents. As a class portal, blogs could be used by students to keep track of and turn in assignments.

Blogs can also be used to store class work, which is a great tool, both for students and teachers. It's nice that students don't have to worry about losing their homework or for a file to get corrupted on their computer. Likewise, teachers don't have to worry about the myriad excuses that tend come up around every assignment deadline. (Well, there will be fewer excuses, anyway.) Since, assignments can be stored on blogs, the next logical step is using blogs as electronic portfolios.

Ultimately, I am very interested in blogs because of their implications for public writing. We are by definition writing in the public sphere when we blog. For most of us, our audience is small. However, we have seen the potential for a wide national and even global audience for blogs. Richardson sites Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign as a good example of the power of blogs to raise money and awareness (3). Students should feel a sense of accomplishment and pride of work in publishing a blog that is read and responded to by people outside the school walls.

The next step for me is to start implementing these ideas into my classrooms. My current section of English 1100 is making use of WebCT Vista . It's working fairly well, but its limitations are becoming apparent to me. Nothing we do there can be considered public writing, since only people in the class have access to what we publish. Students don't have access to each other's files, so it's difficult to do any real collaborative work (at least through their tool set).

The question is, do I create another set of tasks for my students this semester or do I wait until my next class? I'll probably wait. Although I always tweak my classes as I go to meet the needs of each particular set of students, I don't want to create more work for them this late in the game.

Multi-tasking in class

I'm running into some conflicts between what I know intellectually about education and what annoys me as an instructor. Specifically, I am conflicted about students multi-tasking in class.

I know that students have the ability to participate while doing something else in class. I do it myself. However, I think there is a line where students and have completely checked out and are no longer participating. Now, this is college and they are adults. I'm not about to start calling students out for checking on their e-mail in class.

I don't lecture much in class, so when students aren't participating, they're missing good class discussion - discussion that they should be adding to. They are missing out, but so are their classmates who would benefit from that they have to say.

I do a lot of small group discussions in class, and this forces students into participating. We also have group projects that necessitate full participation. It's really only during the full group discussion that I am noticing this problem.

I feel like the structure of the class I am teaching is a big part of the problem. Students are in straight rows with computers facing away from me.

I guess I'm just thinking out loud here. I've already decided that my next course of action is a class discussion on this.

Website up and running

I gave up on using WMU to host my website. I'm using Bluehost instead.



My website is called "Encouraging Student Activism" and you can find it at: http://www.eduactivism.org/



I have a lot of work to do, and it looks like a couple pictures didn't come through, but you can get a feel for the general look anyway.

Nate Dannison drew this.

Wireless Laptop Classrooms

As I read this article, I am struck by the biggest weakness of the high-tech classroom I am teaching English 1100 in - structural inflexibility. We can't move our desks! I realize how spoiled I have been taking classes and teaching classes in the room with the moveable wheeled tables. In a matter of minutes, the class can be rearranged from straight rows into groups of four, a circle, a double circle, pairs, or any other configuration imaginable. There are no limitations beyond the physical walls of the room itself.

Laptops on every desk is nice. The document projector is very nice. The dual projector screens are great. The room is completely wired for whatever audio/visual needs I could possibly desire. However, despite all this technology, the room goes against everything I have learned about teaching. Namely, this room is set up for lectures. All students are facing forward and the professor dispenses his invaluable knowledge. We know that very little real learning can happen in this way. We know that students need to interact and participate.

This is not an English Education classroom. For all it's electronic modern age wonders, the teaching philosopy that dictates the structure of this room is remarkably similar to what we would have seen one hundred years ago.

English 1100

I'm teaching English 1100 for the second time this semester. I have completely overhauled how I am teaching it, and am hoping to make full use of what I learn in Allen's teaching and technology.

First off, I am attempting to make my section paperless. Through WebCT Vista, e-mail, and a completely wired/wireless classroom, I might be able to avoid any paper submissions. I am even contemplating having the students submit an electronic portfolio at the end of the semester. This should eliminate the need to hang on to boxes full of old unclaimed student portfolios between semesters.

One of the major projects my students will be working on is the creation of a MOO for novels they are reading. In groups of four or five, students will study a novel, plan how to present it, and then create a virtual environment that represents that novel. I am excited about what they will be able to come up with. With novels like A Scanner Darkly and Heart of Darkness to choose from, there are too many possibilities to comprehend. Most of my students share my excitement, but there are a few nervous students who worry about the technology side of the project. I plan on spending a little time each week getting them over the learning curve. I want this to be a fun and (relatively) stress-free project.