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The structure of the forums contains four basic elements:
forums, folders, discussions and messages.
Forums. A
forum is a broad subject area that can contain multiple
folders, discussions and messages. Examples of different ALI
forums can be found on the Forum Community Menu and include
such areas as Language Arts Round Table or The Math
Room.
Folders.
Once you click a link on the Forum Community
Menu, you are considered to be within the main folder of
that forum. This idea is communicated with the folder icon
and the title of the folder, Technology in Education,
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in the image to the right. You may also notice
that there is a brief text description of the
folder underneath the title. On occasion there will
be another folder within this main forum folder.
These folders are focused around large subtopic
areas within a particular forum subject area and
contain multiple discussions inside. For example,
the Technology in Education forum may have another
folder inside on Internet in the Classroom. If a
forum has subtopic folders, they will appear with a
folder icon below the forum
folder description and above the list of forum
discussions.
In the majority of ALI forums there will not be
additional folders. Instead you will see a list of
links underneath the forum folder description. In
the example image, Multimedia Education and
Computers in Labs or Classrooms? are items in the
list. Each of these items are links to
discussions.
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Discussions.
At first glance it is easy to confuse a
discussion with a message, but they are very different. A
discussion is a group of messages that surround a discussion
topic. The text in parenthesis underneath a discussion
indicates how many messages are inside that discussion. For
example, in the discussion titled Multimedia Education,
there are sixteen messages on that discussion topic. Each
discussion topic is an invitation to comment, reply and
discuss. ALI members have the option to participate in
discussions or create discussions of their own. Discussions
are always marked with a special discussion
icon.
Messages.
Once you click on a discussion you will be able
to see links to all of the messages in that discussion
listed in an outline with dates and authors. Pick any
message of interest and click the link. You will see a long
screen of text messages from different users. If you have an
idea to add that is relevant to the discussion topic, you
can post a message or reply to a previously posted message.
If you have an idea that is not relevant to any of the
posted discussions, you may add your own discussion and post
your message inside of it.
For more information, see one of the following forum
sections:
Return to Handbook menu
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Overview
of forum structure