I haven’t been doing as good a job this semester with discussion board involvement, and I think I found a solution for that this week with the help of some online teachers and Pronto.

We found that in the discussion board ‘modify’ button beside each forum, there is an option to subscribe. When you select this option and then hit the subscribe button at the top of the screen, you get an email every time students post to the discussion board! The email contains their post and a link to their post… with the reply button right there!

I know that Gary Langner is great with discussion boards. He keeps a screen open just for the discussion board throughout the day and checks it every few minutes. I have multiple monitors with one already designated for the Wimba Classroom, but I just don’t think I could do it the same way as Gary -although I gotta commend him for his excellent connections with students!

I found that I’d log in every couple of days to participate, but when I logged in, I’d see tons of discussion board contributions from students. Replying to all of them just seemed intimidating and redundant, and I worried that nobody would read what I wrote. I’m GREAT at replying to email though; I usually respond in just a few minutes, because it comes right to my cell phone.

Using the subscribe feature in the blackboard discussion board helps me treat the discussion board like I treat my email, keeping up with it reactively on the instant rather than letting it back up and handle it as a weekly proactive duty. I can even hit the link on the email and reply to a discussion board post directly from my phone!

I like to handle my proactive responsibilities (like daily grading) in the morning and then get away from my home office for the rest of the day. I go on long walks and contact students, logging the contact from my phone.  I answer email from my phone and follow up via synchronous contact.  And now, I can reply to students’ discussion board posts via my phone!  I love being mobile!  I hope that subscribing to the discussion board helps others, because it’s going to help me a ton this summer!