Two innovative high school teachers have teamed up to engage their students in a 24/7 conversation about contemporary events.

Imagine high school students eager to discuss current affairs and other weighty topics with their teachers and fellow classmates – so eager, in fact, that they’re willing to give up some of their off-school hours for the chance.

No, we’re not describing the remake of Goodbye, Mr. Chips. This story, in fact, might be titled “Hello, Mr. Chip.” Because, of course, there are computers involved.

It’s all part of an ongoing, cross-curricular activity devised by Hewitt-Trussville High School teachers Jennifer Cardwell (English) and Tim Shull (History) that combines writing, civic literacy, social networking and student opinion-gathering into something that’s not quite homework—and not quite schoolwork, either.

Cardwell and Shull are using networking technology built into Trussville’s Microsoft SharePoint intranet to stimulate weekly dialogue among students about current events, school issues, and serious questions linked to popular culture. (The same effect can be had using web-based group chat or social networking sites – or even blogs.)

Each teacher maintains a SharePoint “discussion board” (similar to Yahoo or Google Groups) where they post agreed-upon discussion questions for their combined classes. Students can access the discussions from any computer, provided they have proper accounts and passwords. Typically, Cardwell and Shull will each receive responses from 50-60 students per discussion prompt. “The students really enjoy the conversations,” Cardwell says, “and we rarely have a low response to a question.”

Although the discussion boards are technically not “blogs,” the teachers and students usually refer to them that way – and the conversation has a blog-like feel: informal, lively, and occasionally contentious. In February 2007, when we visited, the teachers were prompting students with questions as varied as “What should our next steps be in the Iraq War?” and “Are professional athletes overpaid?”

Cardwell notes that the dialogue takes place “completely outside of class. All of our conversation occurs through the blog. We don’t take any class time to do this.” Since many Trussville students have Internet connections at home, the boards are most active in the evenings. Other students find time to reply while studying in the school or public library or visiting a friend’s house.

Sometimes a student’s first post will spark vigorous debate, with comments and replies piling up rapidly. When Bailey wrote of Iraq that “I think we shouldn’t be over there in the first place,” his opinion drew nearly two dozen replies, pro and con. “Iraq is getting better!” said one. Another student responded: “We went and killed the bad guy and now they’re in a civil war. How’s that better?”

Students from all of Shull’s history classes (ninth grade) and all of Cardwell’s English classes (grades nine, eleven and twelve) take part. “It’s just a great way to have conversation about current issues,” Cardwell explains. “To me that’s part of educating the whole child, so they’re not just learning about English but about what’s going on in the world.”

During the week of our visit, the discussion question focused on high school reform, and the responses became part of a dialogue already taking place among teacher committees in the building. Students shared ideas about electives, better scheduling, the need for a student court, liberalized dress codes, and research indicating that high school students need their morning sleep. Here is the teachers’ prompt for the high school improvement discussion, with several replies.

“On a question like ‘how can we improve our high school,’ the ninth graders and 12th graders will likely answer quite differently,” Cardwell says. “The students enjoy having conversations with other grade levels. It’s very interesting to see a senior go back and say something to a freshman about his or her opinions that really validates that freshman. That’s been an interesting outcome that I did not anticipate.”

Trussville’s technology integration specialist, April Chamberlain, said she has used the Cardwell-Shull blogging project as a demonstration for other high school teachers.

“We were looking at some of the students’ comments in Jennifer’s blog, and one of the teachers saw a name and said ‘Click on her comment. I have her in one of my classes.’ And the comment was very strong and assertive, which surprised the teacher because the student is very soft-spoken in class. She was kind of amazed that the student could express herself in this way. That got her thinking (about her own assumptions).”

Cardwell believes the blogging opportunity not only helps give more voice to students who are quiet in class, but also encourages students to reflect more deeply about what they say. “The students will really take time to craft their responses, because they know people are watching and they don’t want to look uninformed.”

Although the teens can suggest topics for the discussion group, Cardwell says that in the early stages of the project, students have been content to leave that task to the teachers. “They enjoy seeing our topics. They get excited about it, and if I’m a little late posting this week’s question, they ask me about it. But I think as the comfort level grows with this kind of activity, we may well see more students interested in suggesting topics and questions.”

The before-and-after school blogging activity also allows the two Hewitt High teachers to push their interaction with students beyond the traditional boundaries of the school day, Cardwell says.

“It actually replaces the journaling I once required of my students several times a week. This is so much easier for students and teachers to read and share. It makes a difference, too, when you have an audience.”