4 Online Discussions Activities

Observe & Consider

UW-Madison provides awesome support and consultations for learning technologies.  Units like L&S LSS, DoIT Academic Technology, MERIT (School of Ed), Wendt Commons (Engineering), and more combine to help meet many of the learning technology needs across campus. While UW-Madison supports a number of technology tools for teaching and learning, it is also helpful to be aware of the changing technology landscape as tools evolve and new features become available.

The two activities below are designed to help us investigate technology tools that could be used to facilitate an online discussion!

Connect & Share

Activity 1: Discussion Tool Wiki

Let’s create a list of technology tools that enable online discussion. Our emphasis for this exercise: Quantity!

• Do a web search
• Draw on your past experience at other institutions
• Survey UW-Madison supported technology tools, or
• Talk to friends and colleagues

When you find a your tool, visit the wikispace page and write the name of the tool and provide a link (if available).

Activity 2: Discussion Tool Insights

Now that we have a list of discussion tools in our wikispace, choose a technology tool from the wikispaces list (one you found, one that looks interesting, or one you’ve used before). After performing some light research and initial testing, briefly describe the tool and note a useful feature or two along with some pedagogical applications you see for the tool.