"The Final Post"

The “final post” was the technique used to start this week’s discussion. Students were asked to make a comment (based on a quote from last week’s reading). Then other students commented/critiqued your original comment. You were not to respond to other students’ posts on your original post until everyone had finished responding to your original post (meanwhile you could happily comment on other’s original post, just not your own). In your final post you finally have the chance to respond back to others on your original post.


I was not too sure about this discussion format. I thought it would feel like being “dog piled” on by one’s peers. But, I was pleasantly surprised. It turned out to be a good thing. It forced me into a reflective posture. While I couldn’t respond to the comments of others, I had to figure out how my original comment might have seemed from another person’s point of view. I found that to be beneficial. I could better understand some of the concerns raised by my peers on my original post after doing this.


The quote I selected was about the importance of “to do” activities. Some peers were concerned that in my original posting I did not acknowledge, that while learning is active, it is not always visible….much of learning is internal processing and reflection. I very much agree. Much of what goes on in learning is metacognative, reflecting on what is being learned. I think my final post was my most significant contribution because it was a statement that acknowledges the value of “to do” activities not just as “activities” but as part of a strategically planned educational experience that supports, and compliments cognitive processing.

Another advantage of using this discussion starting technique was that more voices were heard. Everyone had to participate, and the groups were broken into smaller sub-groups of five students. It was nice to hear more from some classmates who maybe would not have posted as much in larger group format where the “rules” for discussion weren’t so formalized. There were postings about learning to teach within constraints, reflections on using experiential learning in the classroom, and using games in a purposeful way to teach. None of us solved the problems of the world, or for that matter resolved the tensions inherent in some of the topics in our discussion, but it was a nice way to have us pull ideas out of the Horton text for this week.