Posted January 2007 Using forums in agricultural science
		The Nambour SHS agricultural department is located on 22 hectares with a commercial diary Context At Nambour State High the agricultural department is located on 22 hectares with a commercial dairy, the facilities are positioned some distance from the school. The agricultural department has access to a mini lab of 6 which are part of the school network. The year 11 class had a range of IT skills which formed the basis of this project.

The Learning Place communication area was utilised to provide a facility outside of the classroom to allow students to communicate with each other and the teacher. The expectation was that this was done by the students outside of class teaching time. The students all had Internet access at home but were also encouraged to use the school facilities in their own time.

A Learning Place Forum was set up, this allowed students students to share research ideas and experimental data for assignments and trial carried out throughout the year. In the lead up to exams it was also used to post revision questions and share answers.

The teacher was the moderator of the forum and was therefore able to steer the direction of conversations. The expectation was that the students made an entry each week this was considered a homework activity which allowed the teacher to determine where students were in terms of their knowledge and understanding.

The use of the Learning Place Forum worked very well, however the expectation of weekly entries while appropriate in peak times was not appropriate all of the time. It allowed students to improve their problem solving and communication skills by carrying on discussion based around research and experimentation.