Benefits of online discussions

I am presenting to my English department colleagues in January and making the case for the value of online discussions.

I have written a brief post with my thoughts at my blog: edgeofeducation.blogspot.com

I would love for anyone in this group who is willing, to leave a comment with something specific about how online discussions have been a benefit to their students. I would like to use the comments in my discussion.

Thanks!

Robert

Tags: blog, digital, discussion, online, socratic, tools

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Fran Lo on December 19, 2010 at 8:09pm

I've been using online discussions with my students for about 2 years. These are middle school students in my English/Language Arts classes. Here's some of what I've found:

Everybody gets to participate, not just those 3 or 4 who like to dominate Face2Face discussions. Kids I never hear from in class are part of things online.
Students who like to think awhile before speaking get included. In F2F the discussion passes them by, but online, deliberate thinkers can participate equally, and this gives them stature with their peers they didn't have before.
As I get better at moderating, students get better at commenting on each others' work.
The relationships between teacher and students are enhanced online.

For other ideas see: http://adventuresonlineteaching.blogspot.com/

Not sure what age your students are. Regardless, it's worth making your expectations about the civility of online communications explicit.

Let me know if you need more info.

Fran

Permalink Reply by Mr. B on December 19, 2010 at 10:07pm