Internet Message Boards
Objective:
Students will understand the purpose and function of internet message boards,
as well as the rules of etiquette when posting on these boards.
Objective:
Students will be able to locate internet message boards that are useful both
professionally and personally.
Introduction:
Internet message boards, also known as internet forums, trace their current
web-based form back to the mid 1990's. They are facilities on the World Wide
Web which are created and designed for holding discussions and to promote the
free exchange of ideas. The formats of these boards often vary widely, as does
their stated purpose, expectations, rules for posting, and quality. The best
message boards are easy to navigate, often have some sort of monitoring system,
and usually require you to sign up in order to post (to keep spamming,
inappropriate posts, and internet trolls to a minimum.)
Activity:
Read the following sites for a brief history and explanation of message boards
as well as some general guidelines for posting on them.
Message Boards, defined
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum
Message Board Etiquette
http://www.navweaps.com/default_boards.htm
What is an Internet Troll?
http://members.aol.com/intwg/trolls.htm#WIAT
Assignment: Find
at least five message boards and create A HTML page that for each site provides
a link, web address, and a brief but complete description of the message board
including both strengths and weaknesses of the board. This list should contain
sites relating to your chosen profession as well as personal interests. At your
discretion, you may also include (no more than) one really bad message board -
chosen because of a particularly bad design or format.
The
following sites might be helpful to you in your quest:
BoardReader This search engine scans
multiple internet message boards for the stated search criteria.
http://www.boardreader.com/
Big Boards Another engine that searches
message boards. It offers a variety of search criteria and displays matching
forums as well as message threads. http://www.big-boards.com/
ezboard Forum Find Advertising itself as the
Internet's largest message board network, this engine will search the ezboard
network for matching message boards. http://forumfind.com/
Submission:
Post your activity as a html file to the school server
and send me an email that includes a link to the assignment.
Rubric: This
assignment will be graded as follows:
|
|
Unacceptable |
Developing |
Accomplished |
|
Web site Citation |
Contains broken or missing links, incomplete or
missing web addresses |
Links are working with complete web addresses, but fewer
than five sites listed |
Five or more sites listed with complete web
addresses and working links |
|
Message Board Annotation |
Short or incomplete description that fails to
describe the message boards' strengths and weakness |
Strengths and weaknesses of each board minimally
described |
Message boards described completely giving the
reader a sense of both the quality and usefulness of the site. |
|
Selection Diversity |
Message boards selected fail to reflect both professional
and personal interests |
Sites selected are repetitive or too broad to
adequately reflect personal and professional interests |
A variety of message boards targeted to specific
professional and personal interests are listed |