NASATalk Provides Forum for Shuttle Mission Discussions
Jun 30 2010
The NASATalk web collaborative created and administered by the NASA-sponsored Classroom of the Future hosted prelaunch forums for the two most recent shuttle missions, helping to meet NASA Education's Open Government goal.
NASATalk invites educators to share ideas, suggestions, success stories, and even frustrations about using NASA resources to enhance STEM teaching and learning. For STS-131 and STS-132 NASATalk created individual wiki and blog mini-sites for each launch and provided information and topics for discussion specific to each event.
For STS-131 educators and industry experts discussed women in robotics and engineering. The collaborative hosted two discussion areas both initiated by NASA staff, and 10 articles of interest were posted, some by participants. The blogging tool is the most active area of the collaborative, because the blog entries allow NASA staff to ask questions and seek feedback from participants. The STS-131 blog averaged 42 hits per blog topic, and some topics received multiple comments.
The STS-132 collaborative engaged career, academic, and school counselors from all over the United States. The blog received an average of 66 hits per blog topic and had a higher number of comments than STS-131's blog.
