Journal #7: "Turning Lurkers Into Learners"

"Turning Lurkers Into Learners" by Jason Alley and Karen Greenhaus

This article discussed how to run a forum or online discussion with your class effectively. The goal of the article was to offer good ways to keep the students engaged and actively posting in the online community. It started with good examples of how to start the community, games etc. It finished with describing how to get people who don't often post to post instead of "lurking." The article itself had an interesting writing strategy as it used a grand metaphor that followed the idea of having the forum is like fishing for students.

What ideas would I might use for my classroom?

I think a lot of the posting advice was quite useful to me. I really liked the game ideas that were offered in the article. I thought the anonymous information one where students were encouraged to try to pick out which student each information sheet represented.

Will I be using the discussion forums in my class and what use are they?

I think I will use them. They are a really convenient way to unite the class and have them all posting on the same thing. It also is a really easy way to collect assignments from students and collect information from each student. I think it is also important for students to be continual writing in the class and practicing their writing abilities.