Discussion Boards – UMaine at Farmington

November 4th, 2011 Leave a comment Go to comments

A discussion board (or forum, bulletin board, message board) is an online tool that lets folks make posts and/or comments on other folks posts. Sometimes you need to be a member to make posts or comments.

Often there is a central unifying theme or topic that provides an environment for discussion, with many posts and responses. A post and the responses are a thread. A discussion board can have many threads, sometimes separated into discrete topics.

One of the advantages of a discussion board is its asynchronous nature, allowing people to post or respond without any time frame restriction. This is obviously different from IMs or live chat.

  • Ben

    Roadblocks: nStaff not buying into it.nAdministration not supportive or not using it.nTimenConfort level of technology use.nExcusesnKeeping students safe and appropriatennPossible solutions:nAsking administration: “What will help you?”nConnecting what they need with what they can use.nGetting administration support, use.nManage Maine’s investment in MLTInAdding “Use of technology/SAMR into teacher evaluations”nConnecting to personal life-rating system-reviewsnnnn

  • Ben

    Good use of message boards.nStudentsnUtilizing the comments/suggestions of Schooltube when the upload videos.nCommenting on teacher/student thoughts/questions/comments on edmodonStarting-engaging in conversations on firstclass conference.nnStaffnFirstclass conferences/marketplacenSome-edumodonnn

  • Peter

    To get teachers on board to use a discussion board the super/administrator could post a question and ask teachers to respond. This would get the teachers familiar with the discussion board and see the value in using it in their classroom.

  • Steven Garton

    This would be a great way for an administrator to acquire information from teachers. By posting a question and requiring an answer, it would force teachers to use a tool that would help them in the classroom and get administrators information they need without having to use paper surveys or using other time.