I have used discussion boards with my students when I was in the upper grades. One student, the "question quizzer" would post a question and students would respond. At first that is all they did, but as they got more comfortable, they started "discussing" things. I had one student challenge another's thinking in writing and then the whole group got involved. The cool thing was that they really discussed with one another their viewpoints, and, in the end, each saw their ideas as valuable. It was amazing to see a group of 5th graders do this. It would never have happened in a Lit. Group the way it did on the message board! Julie/FL
On Jun 28, 2007, at 4:15 PM, Keith Mack wrote: > I am bit biased in how I think educators should best use web tools. > I did a > presentation a few years back on "Online Communication" so included > the > links to the presentation website (site links to external examples > may not > work). > > BLOGS http://www.keithmack.com/onlinecom/ol_blog.htm > I'm not convinced that a blog is the best tool for reading response > journals > (RRJ's). The purpose of a blog is mainly to publish content which then > invites feedback. The problem is that it's a bit hard to hold an > "extended" > conversation either from author to one or author to many or even > many to > many. > > As a teacher, you will likely have to monitor ALL the blogs and ALL > the blog > authors individually which can be unyielding and time consuming. > Blogs are > also notorious fodder for spammers since for them to be very useful > blogs > need to be "wide open" for anyone to post comments - you will > obviously want > to "approve" ALL comments (time, time, time!). I know many teachers > make the > blog work for RRJ's so I know it can be done successfully. Blogs > just aren't > my choice for enhancing classroom dialogue, which may or may not be a > purpose for your reading responses. > > DISCUSSION BOARDS http://www.keithmack.com/onlinecom/ol_bboard.htm > I host several teachers that use discussion boards for RRJ's and other > classroom discussions. With a discussion board a teacher can manage > everything as a group rather than individually. This means the > teacher has > ONE control panel to look at with access to all members and content. > > The discussion board can also be used for lit groups and class > novels/readings and I've seen it used for social studies talk about > current > events. Discussion boards can also be "members only" which means only > registered members of your classroom group can access and reply to > content. > The nice thing is that you can even choose to pull up all the posts > from a > particular student. > > The teacher can choose to moderate everything, one forum, or one > student. So > a teacher's discussion board might have a separate forum for each > student's > RRJ, forums for several lit groups, forums for class novels, and a > forum for > SS content. You have a lot more options open to you with a > discussion board > and generally a much easier time in managing everything. Plus it's > easier to > "protect" the board from ne'er-do-wells and their evil spam-bots. > That'll > keep admin and parents happy! > > I'd like to show you an example, but all my teachers have their > boards set > to "members only". We host classroom boards on The Literacy > Workshop site > http://www.literacyworkshop.org/webtools.htm. > > Keith Mack > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.literacyworkshop.org > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of H Weise > Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2007 12:33 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [MOSAIC] Blogging > > Does anyone out there use a blog for student responses to independent > reading? > > > _______________________________________________ > Mosaic mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/ > mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > > Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
