The Use of Discussion Boards

My graphs and comments are on the discussion board if you need them to be copied into the blog please could you let me know and I will do so. Thanks.

I'm sorry to say that I didn't find the discussion boards particularly helpful in this situation, especially since I see the person everyday and it is much easier to talk face to face and look at something they have produced with them there to explain what they have done and then ask questions with immediate answers than it is to use the discussion board. I also think that I prefer emails if you are having a one on one discussion with someone s it is much more private and personal.

I do however think they could be useful for a class debate in the summer holidays, as a 'staffroom' forum, so that staff can discuss school issues if it is difficult to always get people together and there isn't time in the staff meetings, or as a consultation with other trainees/teachers from the local LEA who don't necessarily know eachother but are looking for some guidance or advice and want several opinions.

I think that for pupils it could be used to put homework on it so that the teacher can mark it, comment on it and then the child look again, but I think this is not the most effective way with children of this age. They may have difficulties reading the comments, using the discussion board, having access to the internet at home and the comments wouldn't be confidential. It allows for copying as children can see what others have done. I don't think that the children would actually look at the comments, they tend to have short-term memories with work and I'm not even sure they look in their books at comments. We were having this discussion in Teaching and Learning yesterday. I also think that sometimes it is better for the teacher to tell the child the feedback personally.

So how could you use discussion boards in Primary Schools for pupils.... ooh!!! Ihave it, the school council could use it to find out what people think about school life and school issues for pupils - a pupils voice, I could see this working well for the older children, but again I don't really think that discussion boards are suitable for KS1 who may find it very difficult to read and use the software.

So in conclusion I think that discussion boards can certainly have their place in schools, but they have to be carefully considered and sometimes other methods are simply more accessible to children.