Forums 4U

FORUMS 4U

What are online forums?

Forums, also known as discussion/bulletin boards, are text based communication tools that allows for asynchronous communication with users all over the world.
    
Online forums are normally themed around a particular topic, such as a book series or particular hobby like gardening. This helps like-minded people to communicate with others with similar interests. These forums can become a cultural melting pot with residents from different countries chatting with each other as easily as if they were sitting next to each other on a bus ride.

Forums have topics (sometimes called 'threads'), that can be grouped under sub categories.  While anyone can usually view the posted comments, only registered users of the board can add comments, called 'posts' onto the threads.  Most discussion boards register users under “usernames” which give the 'posters' a degree of anonymity.

Search You Tube. There are a number of items that give advice about using forums.

For example How to Get Along in an Online Forum vlog by Chris Pirillo. 
Watch the chat room feed below the video.

For more details on online forum etiquette try the Peoples Open Access Education Initiative guidelinles.

Where can you find forums?

It is common to find forums being attached to other sites. The social networks of Ning include a forum feature and many popular sites make use of forums to get users’ feedback.

Want to see a forum in action?

Visit one of our Cyber Issues educator forums and add to the discussions:

• Cyber Collaboration 4U
• Cyber Plagiarism 4U
• Cyber Safety 4U
• Cyber Security 4U

Or perhaps participate as a ‘student’ in an E-Rock Social Network forum or go to the students' Your Say forum.

Go to the forum for Classroom 2.0 and start lurking and maybe sign up to start posting!  

How can you make your own forum?

Sign up for one of the many free hosting services that allow you create a forum with just a few simple mouse clicks.

Some of the recommend sties include FreeForums.org, Forumotion and Boardster.

The truly 'tech savvie' user can program a discussion board and add it directly to an existing website if you feel game!

How are forums used in education?

There's more information in Evaluation and Reflection 4U and Socratic Dialogue.