Scenario 8 - Online discussions - Web conferencing

Sometimes you might come across a Web site that enables you to participate in an online discussion. This is known as Web-conferencing.

ICTS provides a Web site, www.inclusive.net for those participating in our training. This holds lots of information, including all the training materials. Your school will have been provided with a user name and password which will allow you access to the site.

This inclusive.net Web site also provides an online, Web-based discussion forum accessible to all ICTS participants and trainers. This is a private forum where members can discuss topics of mutual interest and can ask and answer questions in a sympathetic environment. Maybe you have a particular problem and wonder if another teacher has come across something similar. Or perhaps you have just tried out something that was absolutely wonderful for a particular pupil and you just want to tell everyone! You can post a message and (hopefully) a friendly response will appear from another teacher or trainer. This can then begin a string of responses on the same topic. Such a trail of contributions to a single discussion is known as a thread. Through this means, you can begin to build up a network of friends and colleagues with similar problems and successes.

All those who have access to the inclusive.net Web site can browse through conversations in the Discussion Forum. Perhaps you just want to see what other people are discussing at the moment – it may have some relevance to your own classroom.

To participate users must register an account from within the forum. Setting up an account is an instant process – an encrypted password is assigned to the applicant and shown on screen. The initial password can be changed by the user at a later date.

Once a user has an account, they may participate in existing conversations or begin conversations of their own. Any messages that the user posts are first previewed (though this step may be bypassed by the user if required); this allows users to check what they have written before the message is posted to the forum. Even after a message has been posted, the user has around 30 minutes in which to edit the message if they wish to.

Procedure for participating in the forum

Getting an account

Visit the inclusive.net Web site at www.inclusive.net, click Enter the Training Areaand log on. Enter your school’s user name and password, which will allow you access to the site. Go to the Discussion Forum; immediately you will be able to browse any current conversations to help you get an idea of how the forum works.
To register an account select Get an account from the main navigation area.

Passwords

When you have supplied the required information and have pressed Continue Registration, a new screen will show the encrypted password that has been assigned to you (assuming the information you supplied was accepted). Write this password down or print the screen. The password is generated by special software and stored securely; nobody will be able to tell you your password if you forget it. The password will also be emailed to the email address you supplied on registering. If you wish to change you password you can do this in the Profile Editor (see below). Should you happen to forget your password, contact one of the forum administrators with your user name and email address and a new password will be assigned to you.
Please note that this user name and password are unique to your use of the Discussion Forum and will not allow you overall access to the inclusive.net Web site. Your school will have been assigned a user name and password to log in to the main Web site.

Joining in

Once you have an account you may participate in any of the available conversations. To post a message to an existing discussion fill in the Add a Message box at the bottom of the page. Where available, you may click on a Create New Conversation button to start a new discussion. This will add a sub-topic with the subject you specify and start a conversation with the initial message that you write. After filling in the subject line, post a message as described above.

Key features and navigation of the inclusive.net Discussion Forum

Discussion

Topics
This displays the opening page of the forum which lists all the available topics open for discussion.
Last day
Show a list of all the messages posted to the forum within the last day.
Last week
Show a list of all the messages posted to the forum within the last week.
Tree view
Show a list of topics and subtopics in a tree view.

Utilities

New messages
Display all the new messages posted since you last visited the forum.
Keyword search
Search the forum by keyword, setting optional restrictions to a specific time frame or topic.
Profile Editor
The Profile Editor may be regarded as a control panel; users can log in to the Profile Editor and change various features of the forum to suit their needs. It allows the user to set their email address, to receive certain posts to the forum as direct email and to change their forum password. Profiles of users are available to anyone browsing the forum by clicking on the user name shown at the start of a posted message. The user may upload a small picture of themselves (up to 20 kB) and supply other personal information to create their profile.
One powerful feature of the inclusive.net Discussion Forum is that the user may choose to receive certain messages as direct email. Using the Profile Editor the user may choose to receive all posts to a certain topic, any replies to their own posts or copies of their own posts as email.
Get an account
To participate in the forum users must register an account. When you choose to ‘Get an account’ you will be prompted for a desired user name, your full name and your email address. Your user name must be unique so you may have to use your imagination! Your full name and user name will be displayed next to any messages you post. The email address you supply must be valid.

Help

Quick start
A short overview of the forum and how to begin using it
Getting started
A more detailed outline of the forum
Troubleshooting
The first port of call should you have any technical difficulties with the forum
Contact
How to contact the forum administrators
Leave the forum
Leave the Discussion Forum and return to the main inclusive.net Web site

Example 8

Web conferences are sometimes put up for a limited time to cover a particular event and some have a ‘real-time’ slot so that people can log on at a pre-announced time and take part in a debate. Web conferences can be a useful supplement to face-to-face discussion and have the advantage that you can ‘attend’ a conference whenever it suits you without having to travel anywhere. You choose the bits that interest you and make a contribution if you want.

A teacher working with pupils who have severe learning difficulties subscribes to the American journal ‘Closing the Gap’, which has articles about using ICT to support the education of learners with special needs. Every year the journal organizes a conference in the USA and although he cannot attend in person, the teacher is able to log onto the Web site (www.closingthegap.com) and participate in the post-presentation online conference. The site displays the text of the presentations given by key speakers so that he can read them online or print them to look at later. There is also a feedback facility where readers can make comments on the presentations or put questions to the speakers. These comments appear on the Web site and the presenter responds, creating an online discussion. It gives the teacher in the UK an opportunity to interact with some of the most interesting practitioners in the USA as well as share discussions with colleagues around the world who join in the online conference.

Key skills and equipment

The key skills for the above example are:

• logging on
• typing in a URL
• participating in a Web conference

The key equipment is:

• a computer linked to the Internet
• browser software

Some issues to consider about the Web

The Web can be a source of valuable information for enhancing the curriculum. Some pupils find the interactive nature of Web browsing motivational, because they can follow their own route of exploration. Many will need help to tap into that information, perhaps starting by looking for information on a topic that particularly interests them. Or they may be helped by visiting a Web site that you know will be appropriate. Unlike email the Web does not always rely heavily on text for communication. Web pages often have pictures, sound, and even video clips or animation. Although these take longer to download, information presented in more than one mode may be more accessible for some pupils than that which relies on text alone. Even with text, Web authors tend to present work in smaller chunks that can be viewed at one go on the screen page.

Because it is easy for individuals and groups to write their own Web pages there are many that contain undesirable material such as pornography or racism. Most ISPs catering for schools screen content before it is passed on, to filter out such material. But even with screened content it is essential that schools establish ground rules for Internet use by their pupils. If possible pupils should be encouraged to consider the sort of material that might cause offence or be unacceptable. Parents may also wish to be involved. The school can insist on pupils signing a contract to cover these issues and wider ones such as security, copyright and transmission of materials between school and home. It is not practical for teachers to monitor what pupils are viewing at every minute, but the browser software record what has been viewed so it is possible to keep a check. Just as pupils are taught basic rules for avoiding danger in the world outside home and school, so should they be taught to avoid danger when exploring cyberspace.

This ICTS website is maintained by Inclusive Technology.