Tamika A. Madison
I&L 2749
Project 3
25. April 2006
Chemical Forums and Online Tutoring
Chemical forums
Description of the Online Community
The online community that I decided to join is called Chemical Forums. Chemical forums is a basically a collection of message boards and resources. The main purpose of this community is to provide online help for chemistry students on all levels and to provide a place for chemists to discuss issues pertaining to the discipline. This online community was started by Mitch Garcia in 2001. Mitch is currently a graduate student at the University of California-Berkley and he is studying nuclear chemistry and radiochemistry. Many of the forum�s members are chemistry students from all over the world. There are also a great deal of chemistry professionals including teachers, professors and researchers. However, there is no restriction of who is allowed to join the forum.
The chemistry help forum contains a variety of message boards for basically every area of chemistry. There are message boards for high school chemistry, general chemistry, organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, physical chemistry, nuclear chemistry, inorganic chemistry, and chemical engineering. There is also a parent message board for other areas of science that include �child boards� for physics and mathematics. There are also other message boards for chemistry related and general discussion that include message boards for the topics of chemical education and the �Citizen Chemist�. There is also a parent message board for chemistry help in languages other than English.
On the main page, the list of message boards is in the center panel. On the left side of this panel is a listing of site and external resources. Site resources include a chemistry dictionary, list of pKa values, periodic table, and a Student FAQ page, which contains archived posts of frequently asked chemistry questions. There are also several search engines available in this section like ACS Journal search, MSDS searches, �Chmoogle�, and Chemindex. There is also a �Shout box� for members to post short �shout outs� to other members of the board. On the right side of the message board listing is a list of site sponsors.
Mitch and a few other members who have been around a long time moderate the message boards. There are some rules for posting questions such as the poster should show that he or she has at least attempted to answer the question and gives enough information for someone else to be able to help them. Anyone can post or answer a question on any of the message boards. Most of the questions that are asked by chemistry students are answered in at most 24 hours by one or more members. Therefore it is safe to conclude that the forum is very active. However, some message boards are more active than others.
The culture of the forum is pretty laid back, but still rather intellectual. Many of the posts to the message boards are appropriate and are also answered in an appropriate manner. In the chemistry help forums. In the other message boards, everyone is very respectful of other�s ideas. You can also express your gratitude (or displeasure) for a post by awarding the poster �Scooby Snacks�. Sometimes there is humor and fun (there is a �chemistry humor� message board as well). One funny example is one member, a chemical engineer, posted about his upcoming wedding to a math teacher. He wanted some examples of chemical reactions to perform at their wedding to symbolize their union. We gave a great deal of examples and had a great time talking about this.
The Role of Technology
There is a great deal of technology tools that support easy interactions between members. The interface used to post messages is very �chemistry friendly� and has a great deal of options. These include tools to make words bolded, italicized, or underlined and tools to make subscripts and superscripts. There is also a tool that can be used to quote other posters. You can also insert html code, hyperlinks, and links to ftp pages. Another very useful posting feature is that a member is able to add images (as gifs or jpegs). This is particularly useful if you need to include chemical structures to your posts.
More helpful technology tools have to deal with creating your member profile. Not only can you choose a username and screen picture, but you can also include more direct ways for other members to contact you. This includes email, AOL instant messenger, Yahoo instant messenger, etc. All of these tools are accessible from most computer systems. All you really need is a computer with internet access. There does not seem to be a difference in posting using different browsers or different computer systems (PC vs. Macs).
In short, the features of this forum do make it easy to navigate and use. There does not seem to be any distracting aspects nor is this forum really lacking any features. It is also seems to have the chemist in mind because it makes it easy to express chemical formulas and structures. I suppose one thing that could be added is an �equation� writer and access to Greek letters and such.
My Participation
From the beginning of my membership in this forum, I was very active, averaging at least one or two posts a day (I have been a member for about a month). My initial goal was to do some online tutoring and provide help to those struggling in chemistry. I did get to do a great deal of tutoring. I answered questions about nearly every area of chemistry, from very basic conceptual questions in high school and general chemistry to more advanced problems in my area of interest, physical chemistry. I would say that these types of posts took are the majority of the posts I did. I also earned most of my Scooby Snacks for these posts. I suppose this is where my learning occurred. When you get to show someone else how to understand a concept or do a problem, it enhances your understanding of the subject area as well. Doing this kind of learning in this environment is helpful in another interesting way. For one particular question, there can be so many different answers encompassing many different thought processes. It only enhanced my learning to read how someone solved the same problem as I did in a different way.
Another outcome of my participation in this online community that I was not expecting very much is getting to communicate with others about issues in chemistry and chemistry education. I spent some time discussing some very important issues in chemistry education. One interesting thing that we discussed is the importance of math and physics in chemistry. Some members felt that math and physics do not play a very large role in teaching chemistry and that we should teach concepts in these subjects as we go along. I argued, along with several others, that math and physics are not only very important in chemistry but that students should have the proper background in these two subjects before taking chemistry. I also argued that physics should be taught first since it is the fundamental science.
The final aspect of my participation in this community is the socialization I experienced. It was nice to talk to other people who were interested in topics that mirrored those that I am interested in. It was also nice to share some experiences with others. For example, I participated in a discussion about favorite chemistry experiments, choosing graduate schools, and if getting a PHD in chemistry is worth it. In short, I feel that I made some great professional connections and got to help a lot of people as well.
Reflection- Forums and Teaching
As teachers, we all face the restriction of time. We do not have enough time to work individually with each student for as long as we like, or as long as they need us. For some students, this individual time is integral to their learning. We also may not have time for collaborative work. Using online communities, such as Chemical Forums may help alleviate these problems. However there are some aspects of online communities that may not replace qualities that �face to face� tutoring possess.
In higher education, professors have �office hours�, specific times when students may come for extra individual help. However, this is not feasible for a secondary teacher. A secondary teacher may only have two free periods during the day, one of which may be spent doing various �duties� such as covering a colleague�s class or supervising lunch periods. The rest of this �free time� is used to prepare for classes and performing administrative tasks. These tasks may even extend to times before or after school. Even if the teacher had a completely �free period�, it is most certain the student does not have the same time free. Of course during class is also difficult. So how can teachers spend that extra time with students?
Imagine if the teacher would start an online community, such as a forum for his or her classes. This is certainly easy to do using free services such as Yahoo Groups. The teacher can then hold �virtual office hours� where the teacher designates a time during the day when they are available for student questions. This is very convenient for both the student and the teacher. Teachers can monitor the forum while doing other tasks, in the comfort of their own home. Students also have this luxury. Students are able to get help with homework questions sooner than the next day in class. Another added bonus is that students can answer other student questions. Teachers could even make �appointments� for individual students to have a live chat. These are only a few ways that teachers can use online communities to provide individual instruction to students.
Starting an online community is also very useful for class activities, such as collaborative work and classroom business. The teacher could post assignments on a community message board for students who are absent. Also, the online community can be used by students as a safe means of communication. For example, if a pair of students is working on a laboratory experiment together, they can discuss their data and the lab write up on the forum. A far more advanced thing that the teacher could do is hold a whole class discussion or review session for an upcoming test.
There are a few downsides to using an online community as part of the classroom culture. One problem is availability of computers to students. In order to successfully use an online forum as a component of the course, students must have regular access to a computer with Internet access. This may be a problem for some students. Also, there is the aspect of �real-time� tutoring. When a student is tutored face to face, it is easier to show the thought processes behind solutions to problems and concepts. The teacher is able to talk about the reasoning behind Lewis Dot structure of a molecule, for example, while drawing the structure or how to solve a stoichiometry problem while showing the math. Online forums, including the one I participated in, do not have the capability to facilitate these kinds of interactions. Even features such as live chats do not have these capabilities since we cannot show what we mean while we �chat� about it. However, this can be accomplished to some extent. When I was taking Organic Chemistry as an undergraduate student, our Blackboard website contained a live chat with a �virtual white board� capability. A person could use his or her mouse to write or draw on the white board. I could log on and talk to my professor about problems with reaction mechanisms and such while drawing out what I was having difficulty with. In turn, my professor could discuss problems with me while modeling his thinking on the white board. This was one resource that was very helpful to me, and did not require me to have a face to face meeting with my professor. One final problem concerning �real time� is the delay in answering a question. In the online forum I participated in, it was possible to wait as long as 24 hours for an answer to a question. This delay could be problematic for students who need an answer as soon as possible.
Online forums can be very useful in classrooms. They can help teachers find the time to do collaborative work with students and to give individualized instruction. However, online forums do not completely simulate �real time� instruction. However, having access to technology such as a �virtual white board� may help to provide the benefits of face to face interactions.