Allow and moderate comments

Allowing students to post gives them the opportunity to share documents, you tube videos, etc, in addition to their comments.  This may allow students to more easily convey or share their thoughts, understandings and discoveries related to a particular topic.  I use this when I'm looking for a comprehensive post from students.  For comment only, they can not share other material and it is just their own thoughts.  This can be valuable in response to a specific question of comment made by myself or other students.  I also can see times in certain classes, with certain students where I may want to turn commenting off for the class or just for individual students who are posting unnecessary or inconsiderate/immature comments.  This may be useful for when I just want students to share a thought and allow others to read/see the thought but not respond.  Maybe save the responses for class time.  This may eliminate those students who feel brave enough to bully behind a keyboard that you'd like to avoid.  At the same time, there are students who feel empowered behind a keyboard and can express themselves more freely in this way.  There is no perfect way for every classroom, you must adapt to the needs of each individual class and each individual assignment/post.  

I allow students to comment because this can be useful for gathering feedback and inspiring class discussion; however, giving students the ability to post can be troublesome. Despite their experience with Google Classroom, students have a less than perfect understanding of how the platform works. For example, previously, I left the post option enabled, and a student posted a question for me about his work on a specific assignment.  The whole class could see his comment.  While the student's post was neither personal nor private, the fact that he posted a question to me in the class feed rather than in a private comment showed me that he didn't understand how to use the post feature.  Since that experience, I have disabled posting for students.  They may comment only.  Plus, whenever I want students to comment/reply to comments on the class page, I remind them that everyone will be able to see what they write.  This reminder helps students to keep their comments relevant and useful.  

I believe comments are beneficial for classroom discussion, however, it is important for the teacher to monitor said comments to make sure that the conversation sticks to the topic.

It can be beneficial for students to have the capability of posting comments in Google Classroom because this allows for collaborative conversations beyond the four walls of your physical classroom and beyond the 40 minutes of class time. This tool can be used to extend learning and encourage students to reflect on topics explored during class and on work submitted by peers. When students can be trusted to provide responsible, respectful, on-topic feedback, this tool can be very useful. In contrast, this feature can also cause students to become distracted from the content presented if clear boundaries and expectations are not set and followed for posting comments in Google Classroom.