Week Three - In my initial post I outlined why I felt we need some form of online environment in our district. In re-reading the post, the scope is too vast, one which may be unmanageable without additional suppport. Thus, I have narrowed the scope an attempt to create a forum that will create opportunities for teachers who in turn may want to create opportunities for their students. Thus, my proposal is to create an online forum for teachers to exchange ideas, collaborate and share their classroom experiences. Forecasted are huge budget cuts which would possibly eliminate Staff Development days thus minimizing if not eliminating opportunities to collaborate. . In creating this forum teachers would find supportive and added approaches in assisting their student’s learning projections. Increasing attention has been given to the ways in which technology can be used to facilitate and support collaborative knowledge building. (Li, Q. 2004). Online forums can meet this challenge and provoke sustained knowledge generation because they provide a space not only to develop ideas and questions but to also store these ideas and questions so that they are always available for further discussion and revision (Scradamalia & Bereiter, 1994).
The objective of the forum would be to: (a) establish a friendly, open environment; (b) encourage teachers to give feedback and suggestions (c) use discussions to address sensitive and prickly issues which may emerge in education today, (d) encourage regular reflection and share it.