Understanding Discussion Forums Summary and Relevance to Education - 0 views

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  #1 tvisco on 07 Feb 15

   

  Discussion forums are online semi-public group discussions. They can be used to connect students to each other or to experts, learn something new, share information in a professional community, collect data, complete a group project, do a class activity, share resources, get feedback, test a new idea, or ask a question.
  
  The benefits of online discussion forums are that they extend classroom learning, allow for individuation, critical thinking, and autonomous learning while increasing their interaction with other students. Exchanges are democratic and allow time to think before responding, the medium allows for flexibility and convenience, and students gain various perspectives while practicing good online netiquette and professional communication skills.
  
  Online discussion forums, however, can be challenging due to a lack of visual cues. Participants need good writing skills to avoid miscommunication. Sometimes tech issues crop up or people run out of time. Cheating is also hard to monitor. To maximize the effectiveness of an online forum, preparing before meeting helps, creating clear schedules with topics, deadlines, and time frames is wise. Demoing the technology beforehand helps and finally, modelling good netiquette, communication, collaboration, and a professional tone help. Teachers need to monitor forums regularly.
  
  I can see that online discussion forums are valuable for classroom use because they allow teachers to moderate discussions while providing maximum opportunity for students to consider their responses. Teachers can also gain insight into the abilities of their students and assess the depth of understanding and engagement with a topic. I would use an online discussion forum to discuss topics students would have opinions on which they could back up with research. I would also use online discussion forums to help facilitate groupwork projects.

   

  <div class="cArrow"> </div><div class="cContentInner">Discussion forums are online semi-public group discussions. They can be used to connect students to each other or to experts, learn something new, share information in a professional community, collect data, complete a group project, do a class activity, share resources, get feedback, test a new idea, or ask a question. <br /> <br /> The benefits of online discussion forums are that they extend classroom learning, allow for individuation, critical thinking, and autonomous learning while increasing their interaction with other students. Exchanges are democratic and allow time to think before responding, the medium allows for flexibility and convenience, and students gain various perspectives while practicing good online netiquette and professional communication skills. <br /> <br /> Online discussion forums, however, can be challenging due to a lack of visual cues. Participants need good writing skills to avoid miscommunication. Sometimes tech issues crop up or people run out of time. Cheating is also hard to monitor. To maximize the effectiveness of an online forum, preparing before meeting helps, creating clear schedules with topics, deadlines, and time frames is wise. Demoing the technology beforehand helps and finally, modelling good netiquette, communication, collaboration, and a professional tone help. Teachers need to monitor forums regularly. <br /> <br /> I can see that online discussion forums are valuable for classroom use because they allow teachers to moderate discussions while providing maximum opportunity for students to consider their responses. Teachers can also gain insight into the abilities of their students and assess the depth of understanding and engagement with a topic. I would use an online discussion forum to discuss topics students would have opinions on which they could back up with research. I would also use online discussion forums to help facilitate groupwork projects.</div>

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