technology and the English classroom

Article review:


I read the article "Expanding the Possibilities of Discussion:  A Strategic Approach to Using Online Discussion Boards in the Middle and High School English Classroom" by Sean Ruday, from Contemporary Issues in Technology and English Language Arts Teacher Education, the current edition. The purpose of the article is to provide information, advice, and other food for thought for current and future secondary school teachers of English who use or might use online discussion boards in the classroom. After analyzing studies and articles as well as interviewing teachers, Ruday offered a series of benefits to online discussion boards. Some of these benefits include an authentic audience that is not the teacher, more time for response, and more inclusive discourse. Ruday also suggests some guiding questions that teachers might ask themselves in order to determine both whether and how such discussion boards will align with specific course goals. Finally, Ruday also offers several points of caution. 


I chose the article because I have used online discussion formats and seen both their benefits and downsides. Certainly this article emphasizes the benefits. I am more skeptical (about online discussion boards, not the article per se) than I once was, largely for two reasons: (1) It is difficult to sustain an authentic discussion without eventual repetition unless you have a particularly small class and/or particularly motivated students without eventual repetition, or unless you write better questions that I do; and (2) I like to discuss in class as well, and I have struggled to find the right way to extend virtual discussion into the classroom and vice versa. I was intrigued to see this article's arguments in favor. I can't say that it offered anything I had not already considered, but I continue to use such boards periodically and remain interested -- there's always a chance I'll swing further back in that direction. On reflecting again in reading this article after taking a course this summer that used discussion questions (among adults) well, I am thinking that questions that are unresolvable, i.e. based on opinion or difficult to negotiate, work well in such a setting. I should do more!
http://www.citejournal.org/vol11/iss4/languagearts/article2.cfm