I know my colleagues have tried to set up a similar based system of having an open forum availble to the class. I don’t know how it works with school aged children but it was a flop here in university. At least for the classes tested (Multimedia).

However we have had it work with a custom student generated content system within the I.T. school where they basically created the system (much like a group on facebook).

At Bond we use the “Blackboard” LMS and it is pretty good. I’ve used it now for a year and find students find it easy to get the materials they need for the classes supplied by the teacher, also has support for polls and forums.

However with the development of social networking tools such as Facebook. Just as a social aspect I think it’s an awesome tool for the student to collaberate with eachother and share notes and talk to eachother without the overbearing schools eye seeing what goes on. However it would still be good if it was moderated a little, if at all possible.

Just a little thought while I sit in my classroom with 1 student who descided to stay and do work…

G