Some important information on using the a discussion forum

This lesson deals with

The forum

Views

Threads

Attachments

Problems

There are three discussion fora at the moment

• one for each topic and
• one for the teachers and coordinators discussions.

 

Important 1!!

The topic-fora are open for anyone for reading, but for writing they are only open to the Young Minds team.

 

The Teacher's forum is also open for reading to anyone but only the Young Minds teachers and coordinating team can write into it.

 

 

The Forum

Forums are to a certain extend, closed areas for discussion. In our case they are however all open to the public for reading, but they are closed to the public for writing. In other words, if you want to create a new topic or reply to one on the list, you must be a member of the YM team.

 

Basically you can enter a forum from two different angles:

1. coming from the 'outside'
2. coming from the 'inside', which means while being logged into editing-mode on the system (only members of the YM-team can do so).

 

Ref. 1: If you come from the outside, you, as a member of the team, can enter the forum by giving your identification in the dialogue-box connected to the forum. It will appear either when you click 'Log In' or if you click one of the entries.

Note 1: You are not logged into the system by doing this, but only into the forum.

Note 2: When you leave the forum in this modus, remember to click 'Log Out'. If you don't the next person using the computer has got access to the forum.

 

Ref. 2: If you come from the inside, you are automatically logged on the forums as well.

When you log out if the system you also log out of the forum.

 

When you enter a forum it may look somewhat like this:

 

 

No matter who you are you can click the topic-name (in this case: Welcome) and the entry unfolds and becomes readable. If there are threads they can be 'viewed' or 'collapsed'.

 

If you are a member of the YM-team you can now click 'Reply to this message'. If you are logged into the editing mode of the website, you automatically have the privileges to do so. If you come from the outside you will be prompted for your ID and your password:

 

 

 

2 different views

You can view the fora as Collapsen Threads or as View Threads where you can see all the replies with a graphical thread to the entry it replies to:

  

Threads

Keep a discussion ‘inside’ a thread for as long as it makes sense. You can e.g. reply to a reply if that makes sense.

If you feel that your point of view is a new point, which doesn’t link to what has been said before, then you make a new topic.

 

Important 2!!

As mentioned before: It is vital to the security that you remember to 'Log out' of the forum by clicking the 'Log out' text. If you don't then anyone who uses the computer later on can enter the forum.

 

 

Attachments

You can attach jpg-, Gif- and Bmp-pictures and Word-file into a forum entry.

• The maximum size of the file is set to be 500 KB.
• The maximum width of a picture is 480 pixels.
• If you can't live with the limitation in size, you can insert the picture in a Word-file and then attach that one to the entry.
• The maximum ammount of attachments is 3 for each entry.

 

You can see how an attached picture will look by clicking here. In this case the picture is included in the entry itself.

 

You can see how an attached Word-file will look by clicking here. In this case the document is shown in the heading of the entry.

 

In this picture you see where to click if you want to attach something to the entry.

 

 

 

Problems

You may encounter a problem if you are spending a long time (more than 15 minutes) writing in the forum. When you click the 'Send-button' you will see that all the text you wrote not has been send.

 

The reason for this is that a timeout of 15 minutes has been implemented.

 

The reason for having this timeout at all, is that if you forget to logout of the forum, your id is invalidated after 15 minutes, and no one can write entries in the forum in your name after that period.

 

HOW TO 'SOLVE' THIS PROBLEM:
There are three ways (at least) to solve the problem.

1. Just before clicking the send button, take a copy of what you wrote, and the, if you are rejected, log in again, and paste the entry into a new page.
2. We increase the timeout, but this is risky business, but if you ask me to do so, I'll do it. 
3. Finish your entry in Word, log into the forum and copy/paste it into the forum. This is where copy/paste and Word really plays well together.