President's Report	by James McConville
Island Report	by Mike Ireland
Live and In Colour...From the Internet	by Wayne Ulian
Catalyst Conference May 12-13, 2006, Whistler, BC	by Kevin Ambroe
Classroom Jeopardy	by Jolene Mergens and Chris Rozitis
USB Flash Drives	by Dennis Wong
Web 2.0: An Educator's Guide	by James McConville
Demystifying Graduate Portfolios	by Shelley Wilcox
Online Discussions in Biology 12	by Tracy Kimoto
One to One Wireless Writing	by James McConville
CUE-Van Meeting April 27, 2006	by CUE-Van Executive
Fall Conference 2006: Teaching to the Multiple Literacies	by CUE Executive
Call for Presenters	by CUE Executive
Get Published: become a CUE newsletter contributor	by CUE Executive
Renewing your CUEBC membership	by James McConville

Online Discussion in Biology 12

By Tracy Kimoto, Biology Teacher at Charles Best Secondary, Coquitlam
Introduction by Dennis Wong, SFU TLITE Mentor

Tracy Kimoto is a Senior Biology teacher in Coquitlam and a Graduate student in the TLITE (Teaching and Learning in an Information Technology Environment) Graduate Program at SFU.  As part of her graduate work she explored the use of forums, Blogs, and other online discussion boards to engage students in Biology 12 in meaningful discussions.  Tracy shares her experience with us.

Before I started my SFU TLITE Graduate Program, I had a phobia about using technology in the classroom as I had very limited knowledge about information technology and its potential uses for enhancing student learning.  However, I was also getting frustrated with some of the limitations of classroom teaching, especially with my Biology 12 classes.  Due to the enormous amount of content that must be covered in Biology 12, I found I had little time to explore and delve deeper into different topics and to have students develop and share their opinions and thoughts.  As a result of wanting to include more discussions into the Biology 12 course, I chose to use Microsoft Sharepoint as a discussion board for my classes this semester.  At various times throughout the semester, I have posted (and will continue to post) discussion topics and have asked students to either respond to the original question or statement or respond to another student’s posted discussion (i.e. agree, disagree, add additional information).

I was amazed at how some students responded to the discussion board.  Interesting and in-depth cross-dialogue would occur amongst some students.  Many new viewpoints were being expressed and also new information, which some students had taken the initiative to research, was being shared with the class.  I found the information that students shared on the discussion boards expanded my own personal views and knowledge on topics.  I actually learned a lot more about the discussion topics from my students.  Quite a few times I found that the students were teaching their teacher new things.

In addition, some students, who usually did not say very much in class, expressed in-depth thoughts and beliefs on the discussion board and I was amazed at how many students readily shared their personal thoughts and views on various topics such as human cloning and stem cell research.  These students expressed their ideas very articulately and supported their viewpoints extremely well.   I got to learn more about my students then I would have from just regular in-class interactions.

Using a discussion board also allowed me the opportunity to introduce ethics in science in a relatively “safe” environment in which students could have more time to develop their thoughts before sharing with the class.  I found that the questions related to ethics (i.e. would you want to be cloned) elicited the most responses and also the most opinionated and varied responses.  I did feel that quite a few students seemed to be genuinely interested in the discussions.  However, I will need to wait until the end of the semester since that is the time when I will be asking for feedback from the students about their thoughts on using a discussion board as part of the course.  One of my main concerns at the onset of using discussion board s was whether or not students would feel forced into participating in discussions because part of their classroom mark comes from their contributions to the forums.  I am hoping that students did not find the discussion board another thing to check off on their “To Do” list.

On a personal note, using a discussion board helped me to decrease my “technophobia”.  I am usually someone who follows an instruction book step by step and am not accustomed to “playing around” with technology and discovering things by trial and error.  I found Sharepoint to be very user friendly and figuring out a lot of things on my own was very liberating and helped me develop more confidence in using info technology.

I think one of the most gratifying moments of this experience so far was when a group of students approached me about wanting to set up a Biology Club in which students can meet and have more time to discuss what was posted on the discussion boards.  It was after this conversation that I understood how much the discussions, at least to some students, were stimulating thought and interest in Biology.  As a teacher who really wants to make courses “life applicable”, I am extremely excited at the potential discussion boards on Sharepoint can have in the classroom.