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"There are better forums for discussion than online discussion forums. The discussion forum is a ubiquitous component of every learning management system and online learning platform from Blackboard to Moodle to Coursera."

"The quality of the discussion forum depends on the ability to develop a sense of community, the clarity of the discussion questions, and the use of a grading rubric that includes standards of performance."

Excellent perspective on "The 'W' Word" - use it wisely for what it is - high school and college kids shouldn't be citing any general knowledge encyclopedias for serious research - but that doesn't mean there aren't some excellent uses for it.

Some fantastic information and rubrics about creating and evaluating a successful discussion forum.

New York Times discussion of why young adults read dystopian stories such as "The Giver." The Author talks about the book and a panel of 8 experts discuss dystopian literature. Exercises are provided that students can use when studying such stories and novels.

Make your own Twitter-like discussion forum for your colleagues or students. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

Flapon is a topic-based social networking service, which means that users interact and create social networks based on mutual interests. Flapon features include an interactive blogging/forum function called "Flap" which allows users to write about and discuss topics of mutual interest, as well as upload images and video from their computer or the web(google image search, youtube video search). Users can easily meet new people based on those mutual interests, without having to muddle though thousands of forums on the web.

WL Community Forum discussion @Edutopia

Twitter has simply become one of the best places for teachers to collaborate, share solutions to common classroom problems, and discuss education policy. In fact, it might just be the best forum teachers have ever had.

Agreed, I've recently started using twitter and it's an invaluable tool.

Stepping Aside: The Art of Working With Student-Teachers\n\nTeacher Leaders Network Although traditional teacher-education programs rely on veteran educators to invite student- or "practice-" teachers into their classrooms, many skilled professionals can be heard expressing some reluctance about sharing instructional responsibilities with green recruits. They may be concerned about their ability to mentor an inexperienced colleague effectively, or simply hesitant to relinquish control of instruction in an atmosphere of high-stakes accountability.\n\nIn a recent post to the Teacher Leaders Network Forum daily discussion group, veteran teacher Vicky expressed some reservations of her own about working with a student-teacher and asked for help.\n\nI may be getting the opportunity to work with a student-teacher. I was wondering about your ideas for starting the year off right, helping the student-teacher, and balancing the load of mentoring the student teacher and teaching the students myself. I'm excited about the possibility, but I'm also a pretty hands-on control freak kind of person, so I want to alternately challenge and excite the intern but not be unfair or scary. Tips?\n\nNancy, a veteran K-12 music teacher, replied:\n\nGreat questions, Vicky. My first suggestion would be adopting the perspective that you will learn as much as the novice teacher-about yourself, your beliefs, and your practice. The first step is probably building a relationship in which the novice teacher trusts you enough to share real information and opinion (and vice-versa).\n\nCreate a safe space to communicate honestly, in both directions. A student teacher who feels comfortable enough to share fears, anxieties, confusion, and frustration-and knows that he or she is not being judged, but honored as a learner by a veteran teacher who also has fears and frustrations-will be a student teacher who can grow.\n\nMy second thought is that from your students' perspective there should be two experts

Interesting discussion among educators about diigo in education

Diigo in Education is not an appropriate forum for promoting political views. Perhaps there's another Diigo group that's a better fit for this link/comment.

I agree with Martha, this is not a forum for promoting political views. I find your comments and links especially distasteful, full of hate and prejudice. Please find another way to look at and interact with the world.

Sorry Martha. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I just realized that comment was public; it was meant to be private and an expression of frustration (and sarcasm) over all the issues of privacy and freedom of speech discussed in the news this week. Just trying to make sense it all. I haven't done much on Diigo outside of bookmarking, so I'm still trying to understand how this part of the site works. Webster, I'm sorry I offended you. That's not my intent. If you find my links distasteful, you don't need to review them. I'm simply bookmarking troublesome subjects I see to further investigate whether or not I should be concerned, what I should believe, and if I need to take any form of action within my own community. I have a right to be concerned: every time I turn on the news, another issue of privacy and freedom of speech is being trampled on by our government. Bookmarking sources and highlighting ideas that stand out in an effort to further investigate the validity of the sources and see what other sources say to counter is not hateful and full of prejudice: it's simply a process by which one can attempt to find hope to better understand a topic. That's really all that's going on here. Hope I've clarified my intent and appeased you both by removing my comment. Again, thanks Martha for your kind reminder.

Research based assessment of the use of online forums to improve participation in class, great to read the student comments as well as the research analysis