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October 1, 2001
Threaded Discussions: A First Step
By Dan Rothermel, PhD
If truth be told, I have few skills when it comes to the use of technology. I use a word-processor reasonably well and regularly send e-mails, even with attachments. As one who has come to the university as an assistant professor in his fifties, I shy away from conversations about developing on-line courses where I teach in the Education Department at Eastern Connecticut State University. Even though the Dean has money for such course development and it wouldn't look bad when I go up for promotion and tenure, I'm at a loss to see how on-line courses would teach my students the interactive and interpersonal skills they will need to successfully negotiate and promote the daily communications with and among students. How does technology develop the vibrant, interactive learning in community that is so necessary for today's classrooms to succeed? I don't have answers, but I am willing to listen to how technology can support the learning of my students as future teachers. Especially, if I am listening in Hawaii.
Thrown the delectable bone of a trip for technology training in Kona, Hawaii, I flew to a ThinkQuest for Tomorrow's Teachers Conference funded by a US Department of Education grant to learn about incorporating technology into the teacher education of pre-service teachers and, specifically, making Web pages, as a part of a five school consortium (Western Michigan University, Knox College in Illinois, City College of New York, University of the Pacific, and Eastern). It wasn't long before I was overwhelmed by my inability to grasp the basics of Web page construction, bummed out that having recently earned a tenure-track university position I was so incompetent, but aware that I was surrounded by other PhDs who were similarly perplexed. I was adrift.
Fortuitously, I overheard talk of "threaded discussions" at the conference and sought out a knowledgeable participant, Dr. Allen Carey-Webb of Western Michigan, to see if these electronic conversations would provide me with a starting point to introduce technology into my university courses. Though later I found little research in threaded discussions, I did learn that electronic conversations could be democratic in nature for they allow peers to discuss issues and concerns on an equal basis (Simpson, 2000). These group discussions provide opportunities for participants to reflect and garner support from their peers as they make sense of their pre-service education. This reflection is fostered as students appreciate the chance to learn from others, gain a sense of validation because their feelings and experiences are similar to others, and like feedback from more than the instructor (Levin, 1999).
Steered to a free Internet site, Intranets.com (which, by the way, is no longer free after the Nasdaq technology stock free fall of the first half of 2001), and willing to bite the bullet, I logged on as site manager to use threaded discussions in an undergraduate course, Middle Level Curriculum II: Reading/Language Arts and Social Studies which I co-teach with Dr. Leslie Ricklin. We instructed our students each week to contribute one observation from their three-hour per week fieldwork placement at 5-8 Killingly (CT) Intermediate School as well as one response to a classmate's contribution. I sat back ready for the good times to roll and the glory of technology to amaze and astound me.
We did have an occasional successful threaded discussion as reflected below.
A contribution:
Hi everyone.
I love Literature Circles (Daniels, 1994) and I would definitely be willingly to use them in my class once I am a teacher. But does anyone have any ideas how they be adapted for a special ed. class? I mentioned to my co-operating teacher about doing one in April, but she says she doesn't have much luck with them in her class. She basically said the kids DO NOT work well together (she says because of all their clashing behavioral problems). Anyway, I thought maybe I could try a mini-lit circle over a three-week period or so. If anyone has suggestions, let me know. Have a great weekend!--Victoria
Two responses:
I would agree with j that I too really like Literature Circles. I feel the students get more involved. My teacher, as I discussed with all of you in class, is wonderful at doing anything to help me out, and she tried literature circles in her classroom and really enjoys them. I am really grateful for that tool, because I get to see them in action and get to participate myself. If any of you care to see them, my cooperating teacher is more than happy to have you come in and observe. Hope you all have a great week.--Melissa
Well everything has been going well so far. My teacher is still great and looking to me for some new ideas. I was surprised to see that she wasn't that open to literature circles. Actually she was but she didn't see it working very well. Some of the points she brought up were that some of the students might not do the reading or their part (roles) and it could ruin it for one entire group. I had never thought about situations like that and she made me realize it may depend on your class, exactly how it should be set up.--Marie
This interplay was the exception rather than the rule. Passive and laid-back, I learned that merely assigning threaded discussions was not enough to have a highly interactive electronic discussion on the "hot issues" in education. The student commentary was often sporadic and brief and, unfortunately, included complaining about the heavy homework assignments of other professors. Aware that the bulk of the responsibility for the superficiality of the threaded discussions was mine, I did see possibilities in threaded discussions that I wanted to mine in the coming semesters. I made some adjustments.
How to Make Threaded Discussions Successful
1. Make them a priority. I fell into the trap of making threaded discussions an add-on, not a priority, as I introduced this technology. Some weeks, just two or three students responded, other times only six or seven of the twelve did. Clearly, I had not given our students enough reason to care about threaded discussions in order to learn of their potential. If we had had our students earn points for the number of entries they made and the quality of their responses, I believe we would have grabbed the students' attention so that they would have seen that regularly attending to the threaded discussions was important (i.e., the more they put into the threaded discussions, the more they would get out of them). This past semester we made the threaded discussions worth just two points out of 100! No surprise that the students didn't commit to threaded discussions. Once their attention was gained, I believe, the satisfying and stimulating nature of the threaded discussions would be sufficient to engage our students in these electronic conversations.
2. Assess students' understanding of technology. Quite surprised, I learned both our twenty-something and non-traditional students were often not as technology savvy as I thought they would be. I know about e-mail, but not much else summarizes a common assertion of theirs. By being more directive and offering regular weekly feedback to the class on their contributions and responses during the previous weeks' threaded discussion at the beginning of the semester, I would have been far more effective. In the future, I would weekly tally up the contributions and responses of the students and use that data to initiate discussions about becoming threaded-discussion proficient as well as meeting with individuals who were still technologically unable to participate. With such guidance, I could avoid the following threaded discussion entry which came from one of our top students at the end of the semester:
I am finally on the threaded discussions. I am sorry everyone that I have been neglectful. The past two weeks I have been trying to be a part of these discussions but my computer has not been letting me do so. Catherine
Of course, she had a big part in the responsibility for getting involved, but so did I.
3. Be both directive and allow some choice. By alternating weeks of topic selection, we as instructors would one week select a theme (e.g., dealing with a reluctant or angry student, making team meetings worthwhile, discussing the appropriateness of test preparation for standardized testing) and the next our students would choose what to contribute, based on their experiences and readings. This method would enable us to have our students address certain issues of the curriculum, allowing our students to attend to what struck or concerned them about the classroom lives of teachers.
4. Find a mentor. By getting myself a mentor who understands and expects "stupid questions," I could regularly seek feedback so I wouldn't become lost, discouraged, and unwilling to give technology another chance.
As it turned out, threaded discussions were an excellent place for me to take my first steps in learning about technology's place in the teacher education of our students. I've learned that threaded discussions can give our students opportunities to be thoughtful as they reflect and dream about their own possibilities and learning as teachers. "L" suggested such potential as was evident by her end of the semester contribution:
Oh my goodness, it's almost overwhelming when I think about how long this journey has taken me and it's almost over. Maybe I'm putting too much on the fact that I (we) are almost done getting our certifications, but it seems more than just a certification. It's the culmination of a long road of ups and downs and detours. There were quite a few holdups and I feel so close to having an almost normal life. We are graduating at a time when teachers are in dire need. We are all so enthusiastic about teaching and I know that everyone in the class is going to be great. We should make a pact to have a meeting place 10 years from now and see how everyone is doing? What do you think?--Alice
An on-line course for me? I've got some more exploring to do.
Email: Dan Rothermel
Note: All student names are pseudonyms.
References:
Daniels, H. (1994). Literature circles: Voice and choice in the student-centered classroom. York, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.
Levin, B. (1999). Analysis of the content and purpose of four different kinds of electronic communications among preservice teachers. Journal of Research on Computing in Education 32(1): 139-156.
Simpson, C. (2000). Internet Relay Chat. Educational Media and Technology Yearbook 25: 62-65.
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