Talk to the world

The use of email has become widespread and most us could not imagine being effective without it. But for many people, on-line discussion is not yet part of their repertoire. Indeed, you may not even be aware that it exists although you may have heard of chat rooms and even Usenet newsgroups. And if your knowledge comes from the British press then most of it will almost certainly involve danger to children or pornography - or both. In reality the potential of on-line discussion is enormous and although dangers undoubtedly do exist, as with all of the Internet the benefits far outweigh the risks.

It would be well worth your exploring on-line discussion. Your local Education Authority or Board, or your Internet Service Provider almost certainly have discussions and it you want to be very adventurous you can also look for links to newsgroups.

On-line discussion is set to grow nationally in the same way that email has grown and its importance will be equally great. Without doubt, the future of local and national decision-making will increasingly involve direct participation by the public through the medium of on-line discussion.

At a classroom level, it could be argued that there is little point in children studying any topic with no access to other schools and experts in the outside world - to answer questions and share findings. In the new connected world we now live in such isolation is a nonsense. On-line discussion provides this opportunity.

In the world of Education, the Virtual Teachers' Centre hosts on-line discussions and one in particular - Classroom of the Future - is being monitored by the DFES and BECTa. Have you contributed yet? If not, one could ask why not - the opportunity is there.

So why does on-line discussion not yet feature more heavily in our lives? There are many reasons and BECTa is investigating them. One is the need to take time out to go to a discussion area and check for new messages - busy people simply don't have time for yet more meetings, even if they are 'virtual'. Another is the complexity of discussion software which usually requires you to register, then log in at each visit. Having to remember yet another username and password successfully blocks most people out of the discussion. (Note: you can now read messages in the Virtual Teachers' Centre without registering although you do have register if you want to contribute).

The simplicity is self evident - you just click and you are there. You can either just read the messages (known on the Internet as 'lurking'), or you can contribute to the discussion as you wish. Of course such simplicity has both advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, even very young children are able to communicate with other children in schools across the county. Disadvantages include the fact that you can't edit messages you post so typing and spelling errors do end up being sent by even the most fastidious amongst us.

What is available to you in your local area? I would urge you to find out by exploring the TeacherXpress web site. Future editions of this newsletter will include further news about discussion together with web links.