I read an article that made an excellent point: Simply having a website does not automatically enhance the learning. Just like a book cannot teach a class, it is the activities and teaching strategies used with that class helps students engage with the material. Just by creating a website and handing it over to your students does not make the lessons being taught anymore effective (Singh, 2011*).
One of the ways around this is to encourage discussion. I have tried various ways to encourage discussion on my VLE.
On GoogleSites, there are comment boxes on the bottom of every page - but only if you're part of the admin. If you're a visitor to the site you cannot comment. This is a shame as it would have been ideal but I have been trying out other ways to allow students to take part in a discussion:
1. Google Groups
This works like a forum. The admin (or page creator) makes a posts and others can login in to respond. It's a nice tool as discussions can be organised into folders and there is no word limit for replies. Also, it's easy to see who has posted as their name will come up (unlike TodaysMeet where people can post something daft and you have no way of knowing who did).
I've used it a few times throughout my VLE, the only issue with it is that you cannot embed it as that specific thread, you can only post the main menu which is a little bit annoying as I have to provide instructions of what discussion and topic to take part in.
As you can see, I've created my own private discussion group and have created topics within this group - but I can only post it showing all the topics, not the one topic. If anyone knows a way around this then I'd be grateful.
2. Chatzy/TodaysMeet
We're all familiar with TodaysMeet - it's a great for short replies in order just to get feedback from your students so I've used this on my site.
I also came across a site called 'chatzy' - it has the same function and purpose as TodaysMeet, except it does not look great, it has a very 'Windows 98' look about it.
It reminds me of old MSN, but I think that's why I like it (ah, nostalgia). You can have longer discussions and is more of a chat room. I think this is a nice alternative to Google Groups as it's much more informal so is useful for when you need somewhere on your VLE to just have a 'chat'. For example, if you post a homework assignment, it could be useful to set up a Chatzy page next to the assignment that way if people are having trouble/difficulty they can just ask you or discuss it with others in the class. That way, as the teacher, I can log in to see what everyone has been having trouble with and hopefully provide some answers.
This is really handy for me in my placement as students don't have a VLE or student email and don't have anyway of communicating with their teachers (other than finding them on facebook or going into school).
Virtual chat rooms on Chatzy are free and can be as private as you want - so you can invite students by private emails for max security. As admin, you also have the power to clear a room, delete a chat etc.
*Article reference: 'Virtual Learning Environment: An Overview' by Sandhya Singh, technoLEARN (2011) Vol 1 No.1 pgs 87 -94
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