Challenging and Manageable Discussions

Discussion Forums foster lively interaction, serve as a catalyst for active learning and can motivate students to become highly engaged in learning activities.

Authors: James Kirk and Robert Orr -2003

Educational use of ICT outside of school is positively associated with a modest rise in pupil's attainment...it brings wider benefits such as motivational effects, raising self-esteem and confidence of low achievers and enables those with special needs, or high achievers to demonstrate their skills.

Prof Gill Valentine (Leeds University, Dr Jackie Marsh and Professor Charles Pattie (Sheffield University) together with the British Market Research Bureau - 2005

Delegates and pupils from Ashbeach Primary discussed their own experiences of Forums:

"I like it best when we can have a real discussion...we have been taught to respect everyone's point of view, not everyone thinks the same" - Pupil

"Our best discussion was on UFOs and whether we thought they were real" - Pupil

"Not sure how to use them with my pupils" - Teacher

"I chose to start a topic in our class forum as I did not understand my homework. I knew that by asking for help this way I would reach more people than if I just emailed my best friend."

The Daily Challenge:

During December 2012 all Starz pupils were invited to participate in our Advent-style Daily Challenge...

2558 Postings received
734 different pupils participated from 107 different schools
Approx. 23% of participants were boys

Postings received from Year 1 pupils and from a student in one of our Special Schools
Many posts received before school (On 1st Dec first post at 6:50am)
Many posts also received after school (On 5th Dec last post at 23:33pm, on 21st Dec last post at 00:10am)...What other sites were these pupils accessing?
On Christmas Day 33 posts received, the first at 6:04am
Pupils also used the forum to highlight other issues that were then passed onto the relevant schools - Bullying, Child Protection and concerns about falling behind with work.

Click image to take a look at what Cambridgeshire children produced as part of the Daily Challenge during December 2012

Topic Starters - Ideas produced from collaboration of delegates

What should our PTA invest their money in?

Which book should we have as a class reader?

What would you like to find out about (New Topic)?

How could I start an adventure Story?

What objects can you find around your home that weight more than and less than X?

What is your favourite toy and why - can you draw a picture of it?

Further ideas from the Starz Team

If you could have 3 wishes what would they be and why?

What would you do if you were invisible for a day?

Life is a journey...what does this mean?

What objects can you find around your home that are: Square, rectangle or circle shaped or cuboid, cone sphere? ...or beginning with the letter X

Look at the above set of numbers...work out the mean, median and mode, then choose some more numbers for the next person to work with. (Threaded discussion)

What is the best method for removing salt from a glass of salty water?

How can you tell if an egg is raw or boiled?

To Manage or Not?

Delegates were shown how to manage forums (See hand-outs) and then discussed the relevant benefits of having all postings moderated or just topics. They also discussed giving pupils free access. The general conclusion drawn was that there are times when moderation is imperative (forums where pupils can share their worries) and others when it is not so important, all decisions should be teacher/school decisions.

Note: it is not possible to moderate just one topic within a forum; it is either one thing or the other. Schools that wish to use a discussion forum for pupils to share their worries should create a new community for this.