Jim Woodel has a thoughtful blog post in response to the Complese class blog that I noted in my own last post.
Here’s a sample:
I really, really like the idea of either discussion tools or blog tools that give the instructor some ability to manipulate display based on pedagogy. I’ll have to do some thinking about what this might look like if the instructor wanted, say, problem-based learning to be happening. Could the instructor have the display organize posts by steps in a problem-solving process?
Right on. What discussion board designers really need is a pattern language of educational conversations. What are the types of interactions that teachers want to have with students and what sorts of affordances support those different conversations?
Woodel also added an interesting comment to my original post (which is how I found his blog).
As a side note, I think I’m going to need do something to make posts with comments on them more conspicuous. As far as I’m concerned, the reader responses are at least as important as anything I have to say; and yet the current interface of my blog makes it easy to miss them. Expression Engine probably has a “recent comments” function or plug-in; I’ll look into it.