How to Create an Online Forum for Students

Using computers to communicate means more than student email or instant messenger. Teachers can expect their students to work together in a meaningful way with some free tools available online. The mindset of computer usage is toward and understanding of Cloud Computing- working, sharing, and collaborating. Schools can reflect this mindset by incorporating collaboration in the computer lab and beyond.

Understanding Forum Options

Forums, also called message boards or bulletin boards, are built on group communication and collaboration. Generally, one person posts a topic, and other people build on it by offering comments and information that can be read by the whole group. Sites offer different levels of access, and the teacher would want to be the exclusive moderator, to maintain control over topic creation and comments.
If a teacher simply wants students to be able to communicate and discuss in an online forum, a simple message board will be sufficient. If a teacher wants students to share files or work on a topic and add information collaboratively, online web applications, such as wikis, might be more useful.
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Creating a Class Message Board

Many teachers and students already use Nicenet, a free, simple forum that does not have advertising. The site is reliable and powerful, and offers a secure forum for group conferencing, personal messaging (which teachers may want to disallow), and document sharing.
How to Create a Nicenet Forum for a ClassSetting up a Nicenet forum with topics will take a minimum of 20 minutes, so teachers need to have a block of uninterrupted time available.

1. Go to Nicenet.org
2. Click on Create a Class
3. Create a User Name and Password
4. Create a Class Name
5. Fill out the optional name information. It is confusing for students to see "Anonymous" moderating the forum. In the section for " first name", teachers might want to put their titles, so it reads, "Mr." or "Mrs." . That way, when the teacher posts in the forum, it will say "Mrs Smith".

Once the class is created, teachers can create conferencing topics so that that students can post answers. It is good to have a "playground" where students can have off-topic conversation.

Nicenet will give each class a "Class Key" which is needed to join classes. This tool makes Nicenet secure and private.
If the teacher wants to create additional forums, he simply click on "create a class", but it is important to continue using the established user name.

How Students Join and Use a Nicenet Forum

1. Go to Nicenet.org
2. Click on Join a Class
3. Create a User Name and Password
4. It is wise just to have students use their first names and perhaps class hour for the last name, so help students be in the habit of protecting privacy online.
5. Join the class (by entering the Class Key provided by the teacher).

Instead of using personal email, students should use school email addresses or, if that option does not work, the teacher's email address. The email address is used for password recovery and message notification, so if domains are blocked from school email, the students will have to use the teacher's email address.

Teachers need to take students on a tour of Nicenet, showing them how to post messages in the conference area and post documents on the document section. Explain the teacher's policy on messaging (some teachers do not allow it; personal private messages are counter-intuitive to group collaboration). HTML is available on Nicenet, but tends to slow down the site.

How to Create a Class Wiki
A wiki supports the curriculum by giving students shared online workspace. There are multiple sites available for class collaboration, such as class-wiki.intodit.com, PBwiki (which offers password protection) and the extremely powerful Google Apps (which may be too powerful for simple class communication purposes). One excellent wiki site for teachers is Wikispaces, which has a special section for educators.
Once a teacher has selected a wiki or other collaborative-writing and working application, the steps to creating an online workspace for students is similar other forum set up procedures.
Again, teachers will:

1. Create a User Name and Password
2. Name the Wiki Forum based on the Class
3. Create a password for the entire class to share (if the school's network will allow access to password protected sites)
4. Choose Layouts
5. Create Topics
   
   

Students will:

1. Go to the Wiki
2. Enter the password (it is important to have a password protected wiki, if possible)
3. Create a User Name and Password (keeping privacy and security in mind).
   
   

Considerations in Working Together Online

Once students are working as a group, new opportunities and challenges will present themselves. Students will be able to create online projects, but some may be frustrated by the lack of fanciness that a hands-on project can offer in the classroom, with glitter, markers, and colored paper.

Although new leaders will emerge in a technology-based project, the same headaches that come with any group work will appear in collaboration, although the beauty of message boards and wikis is that the teacher can truly determine "who said what" first. The end results are impressive, do not use up classroom supplies or space, and can be shared with parents from home. Other classes can see work examples, and students in other classes can build on each other's work. The positives of working in collaboration online far outweigh the negatives.

Although some school districts are exceedingly restrictive in approved internet sites, there are some sites that have established their safety and reliability, and they are popular with teachers and students.

Originally posted on Suite101 on November 29th, 2008

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