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.