Potential? SchoolForum.net

[G5Unit]

I have put together this website: SchoolForum

I have been working on the idea for over a year now, yet countless other things have gotten in the way.

Basically the concept is that people tend to remember everything they read on the internet, yet forget everything they read in a book. So I came up with the idea for making a forum where high school students can discuss school related material(math, science, clubs, events, etc.) online in a forum.

For example, someone is having trouble with conversions. They go into the chemistry section, type out the question, and get an answer from someone who knows the answer to their problem.

Through the person asking(typing) the question and the other person answering it, I feel as if the person is more likely going to remember it during the test or quiz.


I won't go into too much detail here. But does anyone have any suggestions to improve? The site goes public at the end of the month, as I am uploading the list of students from my school to the site then.

I am 15 and trying to make up for my 3.83 GPA by doing some extra curricular activities.


I have met with representatives from the school district and my principal is excited about it, I have their full backing.

 

[mariahlullaby]

A) A 3.83 GPA is nothing to be ashamed of....that's a fantastic GPA, trust me!

B) I love it, looks great! The biggest testament will be the amount of people posting on this page. You'll really have to promote it and make it a good place for people to be. Because, I'm guessing most HS students want instant gratification, and if they have a problem, they're going to want it answered while they're doing it (in a couple hours) and not in 2 weeks. So, make sure you get users active!

C) How about a main page of the site, so you don't go straight into the forum?

Good job!!

 

[Cleverboy]

I am 15 and trying to make up for my 3.83 GPA by doing some extra curricular activities.

I have met with representatives from the school district and my principal is excited about it, I have their full backing.

Good job, then! Congratulations on making something more than an idea, that's more than what most people accomplish. It sounds like your next step is enrolling other students into participating. If you can gain critical mass and attention for your project, it will start to pick up steam. Ironically, no one likes to post to a forum that isn't already bustling. Getting other students interested in participating sounds like the largest hurdle to jump. Get a small group posting and answering regularly if you can.

You may want to consider posting basic subject references up there.

You have the basic areas:
MATH, SCIENCE, ENGLISH, and SOCIAL STUDIES

Consider posting reference material forums under each of these categories, linking to great resources from around the Internet related to each subject, even if that resource ends up being another forum, just make sure your forum continues to offer unique value. Take Apple's model... stay simple, useful, and easy to approach.

Regarding reference, for instance... you might post an image of the Periodic Table of the Elements under SCIENCE, in its own topic (as a "sticky"), and publish some popular links related to it (like to a Wikipedia article). Likewise, English has a rich list of high level topics like grammar and structure you can offer resources to.

Ask your teachers for ideas and tell them what you're doing (your best resource!) Don't make it bigger than you can handle, but make sure you don't end up working on this by yourself. Get other students excited by finding out what matters to them, and show them what they can do to help.

Provided you create a clear "mission statement" of your websites purpose, it could really have legs.

http://www.businessplans.org/Mission.html

Best of Luck,
~ CB

 

[angelwatt]

One thing very important thing I see missing is a search field.

I didn't look around much, but one thing the school will be worried about is students using this for cheating on homework and such. Make sure the rules are easily seen and such activity can get them in trouble. If teachers get involved on the site (and the students are aware they're there) they'll be less likely to have inappropriate discussions (though of course they will still happen).

Promoting:

• Get teachers involved posting items from class and giving feedback to the students.
• Maybe try to have connections to MySpace and FaceBook to make it more alluring.

Not to scare you, but if you're the one running the site you'll want to watch out for legal issues. If students start bullying each other or cause issues you may be held responsible. Kind of like when people sue YouTube because their son/daughter was made a fool of in a video on there. Just something to remember. I wish my school would have had this type of resource. It'll be interesting to see if students take to it. Good job.

 

[DaveF]

I have put together this website: SchoolForum
For example, someone is having trouble with conversions. They go into the chemistry section, type out the question, ...

Out of curiosity, how will you handle equations, formulas, special symbols, etc. Typing math or chemistry formulae with a typical forum editor is tedious at best, and the results confusing or unintelligible at worst.

 

[edesignuk]

The red you're using is horrible, it's just way to intense on the eyes IMO. I can barely stand to look at it for more than a few seconds!

 

[iBert]

Cool idea and good job on starting this. Just read and hear other peoples comments on ways to improve and try to outline how and when you could have the improvements. I'll second the thing about the math and chem equations, should try to have something to make it easy to write those before launch or even a few days after launch ready.

Anyways, good luck in this endevour!

 

[G5Unit]

Ok heere's a little question:

I have an excel spreadsheet with every students name in school plus theit student ID's. How can I mass upload the users to the website and set the ID as their password?


Oh and as for the red and black, they are my school colours.

 

[BillyBobBongo]

Personally I'd reduce the number of forums until you have more members. A discussion board with many forums and not many posts/users is not very inviting. I do however think that this is a terrific idea!

Get that community going first and then check with your members if they feel the need to expand the number of forums!

 

[jstad]

I have an idea similar to this (however slightly more innovative to things that currently exist). You are going in the right direction with this project and many of the suggestions people have made above are correct. Just to not put you down, when I was 15 I started a webforum (intelfanboy.com ) and ended up selling it for a significant amount. So anything is possible. If you need any help, feel free to hit me up on MSN for some tips or something. Its looking good (even better with the recommendations above)

 

[edesignuk]

Oh and as for the red and black, they are my school colours.

Maybe so, I still think they are way too strong. Could you not still stick to the colours, but tone it down a little?

 

[matperk]

Personally I'd reduce the number of forums until you have more members. A discussion board with many forums and not many posts/users is not very inviting. I do however think that this is a terrific idea!

Get that community going first and then check with your members if they feel the need to expand the number of forums!

Agreed.

I made a forum for my high school that had a few forums. I had a private forum for each class and a general forum as well as a general clubs and sports forum. The faculty and staff were excited about it, but I never got any other interest in it. No one ever made a post. Start small. Same with your expectations.