Discussion Boards

I liked a recent post I read about discussion boards. I am a HUGE fan of discussion boards and find them useful in many respects. Like you I had never used them prior to starting my education here last year, but I'm a huge fan nonetheless and look for opportunities to mimic their use in other areas within my own organization. 

Today I read an article in the WSJ (link here (Links to an external site.) . . . I'm sorry in advance if their is a pay wall to see it, but it's an interesting article) about the history of distance education in the USA.

I was surprised to see this quote by the author, "Based on my own experience teaching university students, distance learning ought to work well in languages, math, statistics and perhaps the sciences—areas that focus on objective information—but not in fields requiring debate and discussion, such as history or politics. In the study of human behavior, historical events, models of society and philosophy, it is harder to separate the object of study from those participants debating it" (Brenner, 2021). I don't agree with his summation and belief that discussion boards can provide a rich debate medium for people who are able to express themselves via the written word. 

What I find interesting is comparing that article above, this discussion about discussion posts, and this article from last week on a controversy at the company Basecamp (see here (Links to an external site.) . . . same apology if there is a pay wall). In it the authors write that when employees were protected by anonymity of the written word they made bolder more sweeping claims. When asked by the company to only post views via "video message" the arguments and debates online seemed to stop (Bindley, 2021). I wonder what would happen to these discussions if for a week were asked to only post videos? Would it provide richer discussions or fewer, more shallow ones? 

Regardless, I find Discussion Boards invigorating.

References

Bindley, K. (2021, May 2). A tech company tried to limit what employees talk about at work. It didn’t go well. Wall Street Journal (Eastern Ed.). https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-tech-company-tried-to-limit-what-employees-talk-about-at-work-it-didnt-go-well-11619967600

Brenner, R. (2021, May 12). Distance Learning Began in 1890. Wall Street Journal (Eastern Ed.). https://www.wsj.com/articles/distance-learning-began-in-1890-11620837464?mod=opinion_lead_pos7 (Links to an external site.)