Week’s
Summary
This week, we worked some more on our Course Outline
Assignment. The main focus this week was understanding the importance of
building a community and using collaboration in online courses. The purpose of
collaboration is to create interaction between the students. I hope that I can
carry out this purpose of collaboration effectively in my course.
Item
of Interest
Watching the Creating Better Discussion Boards Video
has helped me understand how discussion boards can promote communication and
collaboration. It helps students interact with each other. As a student, I
definitely agree that discussion boards increase student collaboration. It is
an outlet for students to see other students’ different perspectives. Students
can freely express their opinions within context of the subject. Honestly, I
enjoy participating in class discussion boards. Simple tasks like introducing
ourselves would be enlightening to me. It helped me to see the similarities and
differences between my classmates and myself. I enjoyed getting to know them
even though I have not met them in person. We also encouraged each other which promoted
community in the class.
I found a great article that takes collaboration to
another level. It discusses many ways to promote collaboration among students. It
also talks about ways to collaborate globally. I found it at
http://edtechreview.in/trends-insights/insights/766-great-ideas-to-promote-collaboration-among-students.
Problem
or Concern
I am concerned about the best topics of discussion
that will keep the interest of my students in my speech class. I also want to
pick discussion topics that promote creativity in their responses. I want to
inspire them to think critically. I have couple of ideas for discussion topics
like discussing the type of the speech they like and reasons why they like that
particular type of speech. However, I feel like there are better discussion
topics.
Jovana,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you are on the right track and thank you for the link to the article you found. I will be sure and check that out. Without knowing your ideas for discussion topics, I can not provide specific feedback, but one idea may be including a quick survey that may give you insight into the interests of your students. Another idea (which was used in one of my online classes) is to give the students several options to choose from for each discussion board. This allows students variety in responses as well as the ability to pick a question/topic of more interest. I hope this helps. I am sure you will do great!
Jovana, thanks for the article I will be sure to check it out! You could use the discussion board for so many things. In my Primary Reading class, the teacher uses the discussion boards to present us with a scenario in which we have to develop an appropriate response. You could present your students with a scenario and have them write a speech. For example, the scenario could be about a fundraising event for saving the turtles in which the student has to write the speech. The options are endless and would allow for a diverse range of creativity. You could even tie your scenarios into current events, such as political issues or things happening in the communities your students are from. You could probably even do an Internet search for more possible topics. I hope this helps! Good luck!
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