1. The WebBoard: What is it?
A pedagogical tool of considerable potential for teaching writing, it is …

• an advanced computer-mediated conferencing system that is easy to use
• an interactive web-based forum with real time chat functions
• an extension of the writing classroom
• a collection of messages posted by course participants

Hardware: A Pentium-II class computer with 128M RAM will be able to run the system.
Software: WebBoard is a software that can run on Microsoft Windows operating system, preferably under Windows NT server. It's not difficult to install and set up for an end user. O'reilly WebBoard Version 3.0.is available at O'reilly Ltd.
Company home page - http://www.software.ora.com/
WebBoard home page - http://webboard.oreilly.com/

2. Pedagogical Issues
A new learning environment of changing roles, classrooms, and processes.

Changing Roles and Processes	Classroom	WebBoard
1. Teacher role	Lecturer, fact-teller, always content expert	Motivator, facilitator, partner, sometimes learner
2. Student role	Listener, always learner, consumer	Writer, user, collaborator, producer, sometimes peer tutor
3. Number of meetings per week	Meet twice a week	Unlimited meetings
4. Place	At a specific place / room	Anywhere, a virtual community
5. Time	At a specific time / period	Anytime
6. Classroom activity	Teacher-centered, didactic	Learner-centered, interactive
7. Interaction	less interactive	highly interactive
8. Major activity	Lecture	fora / conferences /writing projects
9. Mode of communication	F2F	CMC
10. Timing	Synchronous	Asynchronous or both
11. Direction	One-way	Two-way
12. Control	Teacher	Student
13. Student requirement	Passive	Active
14. Pattern of communication	Linear pattern, one-to-many	Network pattern, many-to-many
15. Concept of knowledge	Accumulation of facts	Transformation of facts
16. Instructional emphasis	Principles, rules, facts, memorization	Practice, inquiry, invention, relationship, linking to resources
17. Reader / Assessor	Teacher	Teacher and the whole class
18. Giving / getting feedback	Slow on paper	Fast by electronic communication
19. Monitoring students' work	Difficult to monitor	Easy, archival, always stays.
20. Assessment	The written product	The writing process or both, e.g. portfolios and writing models
21. Teaching-learning paradigm	Instruction	Construction

3. Why use WebBoard to teach English writing courses? Because it is…

• Interactive - moving from one-to-one to many-to-many; from written work to writing on-line.
• Collaborative - all can bring something to the class on the topic.
• Cumulative - It's there! Students may not notice that they are writing and keeping records of it.
• Exploratory - Inquiry. It's all homework and we are exploring together the topic.
• Collective - Archival, always stays. People go away. What they did stay.
• Evolving - Every time a course participant says something, something is added.

4. Strengths of WebBoard in teaching writing

• WebBoard can help encourage active learning. Learning to write by writing. Learning by doing.
  "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." - Chinese proverb
• enables teachers to design interactive exercises without scripting or programming.
• allows teachers to cover topics they do not have time to cover in 12-13 weeks.
• promotes fluency and interest in writing.
• enables all users to give and get feedback promptly.
• allows students who are shy to speak in class to "talk" and express themselves freely.
• facilitates debates, intelligent discussions and illuminates controversial issues.
• organizes info. systematically in a tree structure: classBoard, conference, topic, message
• provides a central and orderly forum and yet allows topic-specific discussion.
• can provide statistics on users (e.g. top 10 users, top ten posters)
• can help search users and messages.
• is better than newsgroups in that it can be protected by passwords.
• can send public messages (as postings) and private messages (as e-mail).
• allows users to attach files to messages (e.g. spreadsheet, graphics, sound/video files)
• can spell check writing before posting.

5. Reactions from students

"Oh, WebBoard is GREAT." - Yat Man "WebBoard is very easy to use." - Siu Tai
"This lesson is funny and I enjoy it. Will every lesson be so funny?" - August Lee
"The WebBoard is a very good idea as we can communicate with you and other classmate easily " F.C.
"Hi all, That's somewhat like the newsgroups on the Internet which I often use. The interface and keywords are similar to those web communication applications, so quite easy to master the WebBoard operations." - Malcolm

6. Weaknesses

• WebBoard is text-based. Some students prefer oral communication face-to-face.
• It discourages students who have poor typing, and computer skills
• It disadvantaged students with no computer and internet connection at home.
• It might create stress if postings were graded. Some students resent forced participation.
• It can be very time-consuming on the part of the teacher. It is tiring to read lots of text on-line.
• The teacher's effort in teaching students with the Web may not be recognized by the University.

7. Opportunities

• WebBoard can be used to promote collaborative teaching and learning with universities abroad.
• It helps to promote authentic use of the English language.
• It helps students maximize their international exposure.
• WebBoard enhances IT literacy and uses of electronic communication.
• WebBoard archives all the message text and can help with research on writing such as second language acquisition, discourse analysis and English language corpora.

8. Threats

• Dangers of plagiarism, copyright issues, time-consuming to respond to students after class.
• Dangers of being resource-based and technology driven. Technology tends to dictate our goals.
• Dangers of technophobia and technocentrism. One is the fear of technology and the other is the delusion that technology can fix anything. What is wrong with education cannot be fixed by technology. Technophobia and technocentrism are equal and opposite dangers.
• Technical support, tips and warnings: O'Reilly offers email support and technical support from their WebBoard. (http://webboard.ora.com). However, one must note that there is no local support; this means if you could not solve a problem, you have to wait for the support for them. Our experience at CUHK found that the server sometimes hangs up after running the service for a couple of weeks. Our solution was to re-start the WebBoard and the Windows NT. So far we have had no loss of data.

9. How might the WebBoard be used to achieve curriculum goals?
What is measured gets done. Participation in writing online must be integrated with the curriculum and be part of the formal assessment. Some productive activities by the WebBoard include: keeping electronic journals, reflective writing, "minute paper", debates on controversial topics, writing research papers, project work, writing portfolios., etc. It is helpful to set up an FAQ when introducing WebBoard to students. (Visit the FAQ link for an example.)

10. Inventory of good practices and teaching (AAHE)

1. Encourage contacts between students and faculty
2. Develop reciprocity and cooperation among students
3. Encourages active learning
4. Give feedback promptly
5. Emphasizing time on task - learn to use time well
6. Communicate high expectations
7. Respect diverse talents and ways of learning.

11. Evaluating collaborative learning of small group discussion via the WebBoard

1. Quality of the writing and thinking task set by the teacher
   • Clearly worded
   • Students know what to do
   • Stimulates critical thinking
   • Challenges students
2. Teacher's WebBoard management
3. Facilitates group work and allows students to gain independence and confidence
4. Bringing it together
   Synthesize views, discuss similarities and differences, reconcile differences and assimilate views into a larger vision
5. Comparison of findings: To those of peers and to those of research and scholars. (Adapted from ideas of John Centra's Reflective Faculty Evaluation, San Fransico: Jossey Bass, 1993)

12. Implications

• It helps to promote collaborative learning/teaching paradigms - learning from each other
• WebBoard writing has tremendous potential of promoting active learning. But it is up to all stakeholders to realize that potential. Teachers and students must work together to provide elements of a favourable climate such as being supportive, caring, trusting, balancing learner autonomy and commitment, freedom and responsibility.

13. Recommendations

• Promote electronic communication between students and faculty and help students learn to write with computers.
• Exchange recorded sound / video / PowerPoint files.
• Encourage web-based teaching and reward teachers for doing so. (e.g. "With Web Skills - and Now Tenure - a Professor Promotes Improved Teaching." Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb.26, 1999 A24-A25.)

14. Courses using WebBoard at The Chinese University of Hong Kong

• To date, there are 27 courses offered with WebBoard in six faculties: Arts, Business Administration, Education, Medicine, Science, Social Sciences involving about 1,200 students at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/csc/learning/webboard/course.html
• Technical Communications: Course web site - http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/~cmc/1111new.html
  Course WebBoard - http://learning.csc.cuhk.edu.hk/webboard/$webb.exe/~jor (serving six teachers and 264 students).