1: I was teacher at what we call secondary level in Europe . You are presenting a scope for three different targets here. The kids , the parents and the teachers. They all have different , and often conflicting needs. Teachers don’t necessarily want to be in a discussion board with parents , and students certainly don’t want to be any where near a discussion board with either of those other two groups.

2: Would you build a house without the foundations?

-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-admin@aoir.org [mailto:air-l-admin@aoir.org] On Behalf Of MSJANEW@aol.com
Sent: 28 December 2003 13:43
To: air-l@aoir.org
Subject: [Air-l] IM and Databases

Questions:

1. In your experience, do kids really use discussion boards? IM seems to be the tool of choice from what I can see in the middle school world. The primary audience for sportssmarts is kids--although teachers and parents would be interested in the discussion board, I am sure, as well as some kids.

2. Is a database a must for a content rich site? I am scoping the development costs and it seems this an important determination to make.

Thanks.