Discussion Boards in the Classroom

After completing my own discussion board thread, I found that there were some things that I enjoyed about the use of discussion boards in the classroom, but there were also some aspects I did not like.

Liked:

1. The discussion board is a more enclosed method of holding a discussion. Students do not have to send a link for their post and teachers can easily access all of the students threads with ease since they are kept together under one subject.
2. Though discussion boards are still public and accessible, it isn't as popular as blogging sites and doesn't contain as much personal information. As a result, they provide more privacy to the students when the general public goes on to search for posts.
3. Discussion boards are very specific for students. They go to the board and post a thread based on a subject topic only. This helps to keep the student on track and on topic.

Disliked:

1. The discussion board is slow. It was difficult to post threads, edit, and in general slowed down all other programs on my computer.
2. The discussion board is very impersonal. Unlike the blog, the students can't personalize, change the background, and learn about other students. As a result, students may not enjoy the discussion board as classroom forum since it is not as "fun".
3. Because the discussion board is so specific, it doesn't allow a teacher to view the change in a students posts over the semester. Though the discussion board makes it easier to assess students on one topic and compare to their peers, it is more difficult to assess the students progress over the year. With the blog, all of their posts are in reverse chronological order and gives a great visual of the students change over the school year.

I found that the discussion board and the blog both incorporate classroom discussion and technology use, but both are very different methods to assess students. Teachers need to consider the above points prior to deciding which online tool to use.

Concept Mapping Using Technology

The Concept Map shown here is an overview of the basic concepts covered in the Wetland Ecosystem Unit of the Grade 5 Science Curriculum. In this unit, students are expected to understand that Wetland Ecosystems are composed of both living and non-living components and that these interact with each other in order to create an ecosystem. This concept map would be a great tool to use from the beginning of the unit as an introduction, to the end of the unit as a summary. When introducing the unit, a concept map could be created collaboratively among the students and teachers. The teacher is able to introduce the topic of Wetlands, find out how much students already know about wetland ecosystems, and also ensure they understand the difference between living and non-living organisms. As the unit progresses, the students can return to this concept map, review the items, make additions, and also create links between the non-living and the living items to show an understanding of the interactions required to make an ecosystem work.

Ideally, the concept would be made in class, with active participation from each student. Afterwards, each student would then be able to work individually to personalize the concept map using the Inspiration software. This would allow them to apply their own creative interpretation of the concepts learned and also become familiar with the software. In addition, the use of Inspiration Software ties the science curriculum in with the ICT program of studies. In particular, students are fulfilling an outcome from each of the three strands of the ICT curriculum for Division 2.

a) Communicating, Inquiring, Decision Making and Problem Solving: By using organizational processes and tools to manage inquiry (C4); but, more specifically, they are organizing information using electronic webbing (C4.2.2). In addition, by creating the initial concept map as a whole class, the students are also using technology to aid collaboration during inquiry (C5) by recording group brainstorming, planning and sharing of ideas using technology (C5.2.2.).
b) Foundational Operations, Knowledge, and Concepts: Students are able to demonstrate an understanding of the nature of technology in a new area (F1). In particular, they are identifying and applying tools to communicate, store organize, and retrieve information (F1.2.2). Not only do they create the concept map, but they also have to be able to save the file, retrieve the file for editing, and finally create a picture file for the object (jpeg or gif) when the map is complete.
c)Processes for Productivity: The concept map is yet another way for the students to understand how to organize and manipulate data/information (P2). This is done using a tool specifically designed to organize the data, in this case it is Inspiration software (P2.2.1). In addition, if they incorporate the concept map into a word document or any other location (P4.2.1), they are learning to integrate various technological applications (P4).