Posting to Message Boards: Integrating Technology

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Posting to Message Boards Integrating Technology
Interaction into the Writing Classroom

• Our Experiences Students Comments

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Terminology

• Sometimes called list serves
• Sometimes called discussion, message, or bulletin
  boards
• Some web sites used have also called it
  conferencing

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WebCT uses the term Forum
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Each topic has a forum
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Cheries Use of WebCT

• Has used WebCT as a graduate student in the Ed
  Tech program at University of Northern Iowa for
  the past five semesters
• Will teach first WebCT course at Hawkeye
  Community College this Spring

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Courses using Postings

• Listbot list serve Comp. 2 ICN class (Distance
  Learning) Spring 2001
• Listbot list serve Modern English Grammar class
  Summer 2001 Buena Vista University -- Hybrid
  course (ICN/Web)

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Courses using Postings, cont.

• Pageout list serve (from McGraw Hill web package)
  Organizational Communication-- BVU
• Nicenet.org list serve Advanced Composition
  Directed Study with 3 students B. V. U. Fall
  2001

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Courses using Postings, cont.

• MSN Community List serve -- Creative Writing
  Summer 2001 Buena Vista University -- Buena
  Vista University
• Nicenet.org list serve Intro to Lit class
  Hawkeye -- Fall 2001
• Nicenet.org list serve Advanced Composition
  Directed Study with 3 students B. V. U. Fall
  2001

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Michelles Experiences

• Shes used several things at Iowa Centra1
• WebCT -- English 1 -- Fall 2001
• WebCT -- English 2 -- Will use in Spring 2002
• Beseen.com message board -- English 2 -- Spring
  2001

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Michelles Experiences, cont.

• Connect --Spring 1995 to Fall 2000
• Her students said
• Its nice to read others comments
• I liked the fact that if I missed a class, I
  could still contribute (later) and see what the
  rest of the class had to say

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Types of Message Boards

• Internal and External

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External Message Boards
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Internal DISCUSS folder

• Internal DISCUSS folder/drive used in the two
  computer assisted classrooms at Hawkeye Community
  College (dedicated to writing classes) since
  Spring 2001
• Comp. 1 and 2
• Applied Writing

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Internal Postings

• Students wrote their entries during class they
  were also able to do it from other computer labs,
  using their log on
• Great way to use the technology to learn a new
  style of communication

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Postings role in the course

• I called the postings assignment Interactive
  Journals posted a written prompt for each one
• Students would first write their own entry, or
  posting, and then read another students posting
  and respond to it
• I awarded ten points per posting and response

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The Discuss folder
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Cheries method (Discuss)

• She asked the technicians for a special
  drive/folder that students would have read/write
  access to called it Discuss
• She created ten folders inside of it--one for
  each posting
• Inside each folder she created three more folders
  -- one for each section

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Method, cont.

• She included a short document that took students
  through the steps to do a posting in the big
  folder, as well as a list of the writing prompts
• She took time to walk students through the
  process several times very few posted messages
  to the wrong place

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Method, cont.

• Students were given writing prompts in the
  daily/weekly agenda
• They opened a new Word document and composed
  their posting, with a title including their names
• They then saved it to the shared drive/Discuss
  folder and located the appropriate folder

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Method, cont.

• Students printed off postings turned in so
  points could be recorded
• They later went back in read other students
  postings and responded to one--again, using their
  names.
• Example Joe responds to Holly.

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Inside Posting 1 Folder
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Postings in the 905 Class
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One students posting 1
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Student Feedback about doing the postings
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• The postings were better than the traditional
  journal responses.
• I liked the postings because we got to learn
  more about our classmates views.

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• Posting on listbot was a great way to get
  reactions from other people!
• This way we could go in at our own leisure and
  be able to respond and post

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• I think the listbot.com is great. It has taken
  me awhile to really feel comfortable.I think it
  is a great tool, especially in a communication
  class.
• The benefit in using Listserv for journals is
  the interactive mailing. The downside is if you
  want your journal private this is not the way to
  go.

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• The ability to do these journals on the computer
  was very convenient. Computers serve as a great
  go-between for people and give people the
  opportunity to open up to others which they may
  or may not do in a face to face situation. It was
  a fun, new experience.

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• Reading other peoples postings enabled you to
  see how they felt about topics and enabled you to
  see where they stood and why.

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• The system was really easy to use and I think
  overall everyone enjoyed itI think the
  interactive journals are great.

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• I agree with Jennifer because it was fun to talk
  to other classmates over the computer than just
  to Cherie
• I also think it is an advantage because I could
  just go on my computer at home and do the
  postings so it was really a convenience for me

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• Cherie, I think you should continue doing it
  this wayits a great way to use the computer and
  interact with classmates!

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• I really liked the emailed postings. They are a
  lot less painful to write than the typical
  journals. The interactive posts are much more
  helpful and entertaining then simply writing
  thoughts on paper for one person to read
• its good to hear from classmates, to find out
  where they are and what they think about the
  current assignment

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• It was great to talk to my classmates over the
  computerit was a great experience I have never
  done anything with a listserve before.
• The best part about it was that we could do it on
  our own time and anywhere there was a computer.

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• I thought it was fun to do the journal postings
  on the computer.I got a lot of positive feedback
  from other classmates that was very helpful to
  me.
• Some benefits to this might be that it is
  probably the best and easiest way to communicate
  because everyone pretty much has a computer

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• Posting for me was a good experience
• I liked hearing other peoples ideas about the
  different topics.
• I also liked the technology aspect because I will
  need to know how to use it in the future.

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• I feel that this got the class to interact more
  than they probably would have done, otherwise.
• The setup was very user friendly

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• I like that you get to see what others topics
  may be
• Overall, it is a good strategy to get peoples
  thoughts on topics and to get the class to
  interact with each other.

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• I see exacting where you are coming from when
  you talk about how we get to interact with our
  classmates and see what they are researching.
• I agree with you on how this is a way of
  expressing what we are doing as well. It also
  gives us the opportunity to express our feelings
  on different issues.

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• I thought the idea of postings/discussions was
  very effectivewe not only received feedback from
  youbut we also received feedback from other
  students in our class.
• It was nice to be able to hear what others
  thought about your ideas, and about the topic we
  were writing about. I think you should continue
  to use postings

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• The Listserv was not a totally new experience
  for me. I belong to a couple of listservs
  involving trivia. Most of the time I am an
  observer so I was a bit nervous in being required
  to post.
• My nervousness soon disappeared and in the end, I
  felt that the listserv connected our ideas to one
  another in a way that we dont normally have in
  ICN classes.

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• The listserv was completely new to me. While I
  am very familiar with the Internet and email, I
  did not know anything about a listserv or that
  they were available to anyone at no cost. It was
  so nice to be able to get to know the students at
  the Creston site as well as share ideas about the
  class with them.

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• I think this the list serve was a wonderful
  way to interact with each other and learn from
  each other. We felt more like a class as a
  whole, rather than feeling like two satellite
  offices talking to a woman in the TV at the front
  of the room.

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Our observations

• Postings take on a conversational tone, with
  students interacting who would not normally talk
  to each other in a traditional class setting,
  because they sit on opposite sides of the room,
  for example

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Overall performance

• The richness of the response varies with each
  class some students do the minimal posting and
  others exceed expectations
• Some strike up friendships really bond

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Barriers

• Web-based systems seems less stressful, if
  adequate access
• Some students felt pressured to get them done in
  the computer classroom, on top of other
  assignments
• Cherie takes her Lit class into a special
  computer lab once or twice a month to give more
  access to tech

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For more information.

• Both of us have links to some of these message
  boards from our faculty web pages

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Our Faculty Web Pages
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Contact us

• Cherie Post Dargan
• cpost_at_hawkeye.cc.ia.us
• Hawkeye Community College
• Michelle Ramthun
• ramthun_at_triton.iccc.cc.ia.us
• Iowa Central Community College