Discussions boards are becoming increasingly more popular in education and can be very beneficial in giving every student a voice. Traditional math classes provide little opportunity for discussion and student ideas. Oftentimes the packed curriculum calendars barely leave enough time to cover the content much less discuss further ideas. A discussion board would provide students with an opportunity to review concepts while researching real-world applications to those concepts when class time is limited. Students could discuss the real-world applications and interesting career paths that utilize these careers. This would provide insight to various unknown college/career paths as well as help students become increasingly engaged in the content. Motivation to study can be much easier to find when the purpose is clearly known.
However, discussions of current math content could be very difficult and time-consuming for students because math symbols, equations, pictures, etc. are not easily typed on a computer. Ruday (2011) stated that “Is it worth the time and effort?” should be considered by the teacher. Geometric proofs that can be written in paragraph form, abstract explanations of concepts, and some verbal concepts could benefit from discussion boards, but many mathematical concepts need equations or diagrams with the discussions. Discussion boards such as sidevibe.com or others that provide an outlet for discussion while linking to other sites and/or pencil and paper work could be very beneficial because students can write an explanation and carry on conversations with peers while linking to example problems, pictures and online manipulatives to demonstrate their point. Students often do not know how to explain what they are accomplishing in math, and a discussion would create a means for students to learn this skill.
Discussions in this course provide everyone with a voice and the opportunity to share ideas and responses without the pressure of needing to come up with something great on the spot. Students can read, re-read and spend time thinking before responding. This provides us with more intellectual discussions and more insightful ideas. As an online class the discussions provide a means of collaboration as well because students are reminded that they are not in the class alone. Discussion posts that are time-consuming to access are read less frequently, though. Social media sites such as facebook and twitter provide small discussion opportunities where it is easier to read each person’s post or intro to their post than not to. If the EDU 6384 discussions were set up in this manner I believe it would be more beneficial.
Ruday, S. (2011). Expanding the possibilities of discussion: A strategic approach to using online
discussion boards in the middle and high school english classroom. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 11(4). Retrieved from http://www.citejournal.org/vol11/iss4/languagearts/article2.cfm
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