[K12OSN] Teacher Forums

[Rob Owens]

One thing to consider in the mailing list vs. bbs discussion is how often an individual teacher will be utilizing this resource.  

A teacher who only wants to check in once a week or once a month will probably be quite unhappy with 100's of emails in his inbox which he doesn't have time and/or interest to read.  A bbs would be a better choice for this person.

One the other hand, a teacher who wants to read almost everything he can about this subject (and maybe needs a little reminder to keep himself up to date) would probably appreciate getting the information right to his inbox.  Using a bbs for this person might result in a lack of participation.  I myself stopped participating in an offroad truck discussion group when they went from an email list to a bbs, simply because I had no constant reminder to check it.

I have all my K12 emails routed to a special folder in my email client, but a true novice might see this as an extra and possibly confusing step.  Getting 100's of emails to their main inbox folder would probably cause a novice a lot of grief.  My parents are novice computer users, and I know that they would be much happier if they could see all the posts without them "actually being on my computer".

Just some food for thought, before you make a decision as to the format of a teacher forum.

-Rob

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