blogs & forums

Invite participation in the universe of ideas for learning and community-building.

Sharing and discussing ideas via a blog or forum is the ultimate way to change the passive viewer into an active participant.  Foster discussion of a classroom subject, solicit ideas for a development project, facilitate alumni relationships and networking, enable on-going discussion of administrative issues without additional meetings…the possibilities are endless.  Web administrators have total control over who can see or participate in a given blog or forum, and posts or comments can be subjected to review before going onto the live site.

Features:

Quick Setup With just a few clicks select a blog or forum page, enter a topic, and send to the live site.

Unlimited Blogs/Forums Use them for board members, alumni, students, teacher sites, staff collaboration and discussion, etc.

Password Protection Keep certain blogs or forums completely private by issuing passwords to allowed individuals.

Permissions Allow public read-only rights to certain blogs/forums and assign posting permissions to specific moderators.

Moderator Review Option to require moderator review of all posts/comments before appearing on live site.

Moderator Alert Option to have e-mail alert when new posts/comments are submitted.

Dynamic Content Moderators can use the full WYSIWYG editor to create blogs and forum topics so pictures, multimedia links, hyperlinks, and file links can be included.

RSS Feeds Provide interested viewers a convenient way to stay apprised of new content.

Blogs & Forums Benefits: 

For Administrators:

• Provides a convenient format for handling communications of a brief, ongoing nature.
• Greatly facilitates collaboration with less time commitment and fewer meetings.
• Popular blogs and forums for students and teachers can be permitted without risk of inappropriate content.

 For Faculty:

• Blogs can be used for student journaling, as well as teacher-student/teacher-parent communications regarding on-going projects.
• Forums can be very effective teaching tools for encouraging discussion, developing writing skills, and stimulating critical thinking.
• Permits discussion of internal issues when time for meetings is limited.

 For Parents/Students:

• Today's students recognize blogs and forums as being important forms of communication, so using them in school makes sense to them.
• A teacher blog of a project or classroom activities can keep a parents informed of what their children are (or should be) working on and encourage parent involvement.
• Students can have an on-line means of communicating with each other in a safe, controlled environment.
• Students who are shy in classroom settings often participate more in online discussions.