Building Better Discussions
for
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Professional Development:
Teaching and Developing an Online High School Course
March 12, 2015

Presented by Fred Haas
Media Instructor
Hopkinton High School
Haas | Learning
@akh003
Presentation Link:

Online discussions can be used to seed ideas, concepts, or thinking prior to class. This includes pre-teaching activities, like assessing prior knowledge, activators, and preparation for a lesson or activity.

Some pre-class strategies include:

>KWL - What do you KNOW, what do you WANT to know, what so you want to LEARN
>Entry Slips or Ticket to Enter - building on previous concepts
>Leading Prompt - previewing the lesson

Many pre-teaching strategies or moves are potentially useful prior to the main activity or class lesson.

Online discussions can also serve as the main focus or activity, in certain circumstances, or extend classroom activity asynchronously.

However, the more prominently the online discussions feature the more tending is required by the teacher to set the tone, encourage participants, provide feedback, and model desired habits and behaviors.

Online discussions require nurturing and maintenance for quality results.

Some fundamental teaching strategies or approaches include:

>Writing Workshop Models - employing writing to learn and transactional writing
>Peer Response Groups - pre-selected and self-selected groupings
>Critical Friends - pre-selected and self-selected pairings
>Roundtable & Forced Debate - predetermined or undetermined sequencing

Many teaching practices that are fundamental to given lesson or provide the main activity can become online discussions.

Online discussions can be used as follow-up to collect ideas or gather information after class. This include post-teaching activities, like sense-making, assessment, reflection after the main lesson or activity.

Some post-class strategies include:

>Continuing Response - extending classroom discussion online
>Summarizing Learning - exit slips, mud cards, or one minute reports
>Self-Assessment - reflection on process or learning
>Creating Questions - student created questions for practice and answering

Many post-teaching strategies or moves are potentially useful after the main activity or lesson as an extension or homework.

Maximizing the use and impact of online discussions requires similar criteria to face-to-face discussions, including goals, rules, orientation, and feedback. They can help determine how best to leverage class time.

A number of active learning strategies can be grafted online. Some work better than others but experimentation and creativity provide more opportunities than might be originally conceived.

Some additional active learning strategies that can potentially transfer include:

>Shared Inquiry - teacher or student led threaded discussion
>Socratic Seminar or Fishbowl - leader can only question and one discussion group with one feedback group
>Jigsaw - groups of students address separate questions specializing in one area of expertise
>Think - Pair - Share - couples of students answering or providing feedback to each other
Many discussion techniques can potentially be facilitated online. The main concern becomes purpose and what is gained by transferring discussions online.

Online discussions is a flexible tool that can be used as preparation, main activity, or reflection, a before, during, and after frame. They also open up possibilities of inviting experts to participate in class without the need for a physical presence.

Online discussions require some tools for success. These tools are both conceptual and pedagogical, as well as practical and technological.

While there are plenty of scholars and practitioners that have much to offer on the topic of online discussions, Professor Curtis Bonk provides enough ideas and material for anyone to get lost in for awhile. His theoretical frameworks and models provide an immense reservoir of ways to think about employing technology, like online discussions, as well as practical activities, including:

R2D2
>Read, Reflect, Display, Do

TEC-VARIETY
>Tone/Climate: Psych Safety, Comfort, Belonging
>Encouragement: Feedback, Responsive, Supports
>Curiosity: Fun, Fantasy, Control
>Variety: Novelty, Intrigue, Unknowns
>Autonomy: Choice, Flexibility, Opportunities
>Relevance: Meaningful, Authentic, Interesting
>Interactive: Collaborative, Team-Based, Community
>Engagement: Effort, Involvement, Excitement
>Tension: Challenge, Dissonance, Controversy
>Yields: Goal Driven, Products, Success, Ownership

Online discussions are generally a feature in a Learning Management System (LMS). Different LMSs provide different affordances. Nearly all provide threaded discussions. However, ItsLearning uses a sequential form that is not threaded. Also, MOODLE has a Q & A format that requires an answer before the rest of the discussion is revealed.

Expanding the notion, there are alternatives. The commenting feature of blogs is threaded and often generates a separate RSS feed. Google offers Groups, as well as Google+. Lastly, Twitter can provide a platform for looser, bursts of conversation and discussion.

Presented by Fred Haas
Media Instructor
Hopkinton High School
Haas | Learning
@akh003
Presentation Link: