The Differences
How does my "five eyes" and response option approach to the discussion board differ from what I sense is the practice of most other teachers?- Online classes: I suspect that my approach is better suited to online classes, where the discussion board is, in effect, the classroom and the teacher is not present in so tangible a way (though, of course, this project was undertaken in a traditional face-to-face setting and the method can work there).
- Self-reliance (de-centering the teacher): My approach is aimed primarily at helping students initiate successful group discussion rather than having the teacher trigger it with a direct question or even prompt it in a certain direction.
- "Discussion": I am trying to push students past the typical one-post, bulletin-boardish use of the board and even past the very common one post/one response practice to multi-step interaction where something more legitimately called "discussion" in my mind can occur.
- Structure: My approach is a highly structured one.
