Innovative Uses for a Computer Classroom? 350
flard asks: "I will be teaching a Freshman English class at a medium sized public university, in a computer classroom for next semester. Every student has their own machine with an internet connection. I am thinking about using a weblog for them to post their work and critique each other. Do you guys have any other cool ideas on what to do and what NOT to do?" How can the computers best be applied to assist in teaching a non-technical class? Use of a weblog is a start, but are there other pieces of software that can be deployed in such a setting?
Waaay back in the 90's (Score:5, Informative)
A couple of negatives but at least a suggestion... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:A couple of negatives but at least a suggestion (Score:5, Informative)
In the early 90's I worked on a project sponsored by AT&T to install classrooms of the future in a few universities. While there are undoubtedly things we did poorly and have been improved upon, one of the most striking findings of the project was that some classes did very poorly in the room. They had booked a variety in the theater the first year and found while some technology & science classes obviously benfitted a lot, other classes such a arts & history had a harder time in the room than in a normal classroom.
A few of the findings:
* students often appeared more distracted
* time spent learning software was not made up in efficiency
* less personal contact with the professor & with the material
* transient failures would disrupt the class
If you are searching for ways to use the classroom i would wager that at least to a degree you will be changing your course from english to one that also involves learning about computers or techniques such as blogs. Is that really what you want to teach? If it was me i would seriously consider asking for a room change or for students to turn off the computers during the class but i'm no professor.
Don't get me wrong they had great uses but i think the biggest thing we learned (somewhat as suspected) was that they are not for everything.
Re:A couple of negatives but at least a suggestion (Score:2, Insightful)
My ultimate suggestion (Score:4, Insightful)
The second year of my teaching career I had a principal who said that the teacher himself/herself was the curiculum. At the time I disagreed in that some classes necessitated the transference of knowledge regardless of who or what the teacher was.
Several years later I now see his point.
If the class is about computers and how to use them in a particular fashion then go for it. However, it is apparent that the class is about language and the use thereof to communicate. Typing on a computer is a slow means of communicating. It follows then that precious time can/might/will be lost via that means.
Re:My ultimate suggestion (Score:3, Insightful)
Becuase I taught writing when I was in grad school, I actually found that some peer-editing was done better over the computer if the posts are annonymous. At first, people are shy and overly-sensitive when their w
Re:Computers in class are good, the internet howev (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Waaay back in the 90's (Score:3, Interesting)
Currently I'm teaching technical writing in a networked classroom. The advantages are many; the disadvantages are pretty much web-surfing, game-playing and reading email.
My university uses Blackboard, a commercial product that works very well, does a lot of different things, and is easy to use. There are other pro
Submission System (Score:5, Informative)
1. Minimum assignment requirements met
2. Plagiarism
3. Submission/Deadline requirements
Hope you can get that setup
- Santosh
Re:Submission System (Score:2)
I could see how it would be possible to design to a plagiarism avoidance system using expert and/or knowledge-based systems techniques.
Obviously you can check to make sure things are attributed properly to their sources -- this entails merely looking at the syntax of the of the quote in question and verifying that all the attribution requirements are there and cross-referencing that with the references page, verifying t
it's usually to catch cheating (Score:4, Interesting)
As for unattributed quotes, you're certainly correct there. It's a completely intractable problem: the only way to know for sure that a particular sentence (or paragraph) was not plagiarized from somewhere is to check it against every single paragraph ever written in the history of the written word. Checking against some common sources might work decently though, especially if limited to a specific field (i.e. you can probably catch a significant percentage of plagiarized paragraphs in an anthropology paper by using a database of the 1000 most-cited anthropology books/papers).
But in any case, these things are mainly targetted at outright cheating: copying entire essays or large portions of essays from someone else.
Re:Submission System (Score:2)
Yeah we also got this weak-ass system for checking all the CS projects, cheat checking, submission timing, and minimum effort requirements.
The problem with the system they use ( aptly called 'try' ) is that when it checks for your minimum requirements, it will tell you that something is wrong, ("Your program has failed test 1!!!" ), not exactly what is wrong.
Oh yeah, and if you can't make minumum submission by the set date, you fail the class.
Re:Submission System (Score:2)
Well... (Score:3, Interesting)
*shrug*
Let's see... (Score:5, Funny)
Of course, with a good packet sniffer, you can snatch the notes from their grasp and read them aloud. Just like with paper!
unless (Score:3, Interesting)
of course they might stick out a bit too
(insert subversive evil cable-theft voice)
unless all the clients use encryption and then you'll never know muhaha
How about (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How about (Score:2)
Re:How about (Score:3, Funny)
However, it would be a good source of assignments.
Teacher: Class, today we're going to spell-check and grammar check the front page of Slashdot.
I had a computer lab English class once... (Score:5, Interesting)
The class could have been much more efficiently run without computers, or at least without a live Internet connection. Some (like my case) will always find a way though the campus network, but if it can be minimized, that's the only way it will work.
I Second This (Score:5, Insightful)
Computers are a tool. In this setting, they'll be a distraction. They're not going to make a very non-technical class like this more interesting. They'll just provide an outlet for disinterested people to keep themselves busy.
Back in my day, we used books and notebooks. When it came time to write a paper (a formal effort, not a weblog), we did use a computer. But that was not during class.
I think you really need to look elsewhere for ways to get students interested and involved. Computers will be a mistake.
Well then thats the teachers fault. (Score:3, Insightful)
If the teacher cant give an interesting lecture the teacher shouldnt expect everyones attention, however if people dont pay attention and they get a bad grade the students shouldnt blame anyone but themselves.
Re:I Second This (Score:3, Informative)
Of course, I never got to take a class using one of these labs, but I did get to play with the systems when they were first installed at any rate.
Teacher problem, not computer problem (Score:5, Interesting)
I adhere to the other extreme: school computers should not be in "computer labs". Students should be using them all the time: taking notes, looking up references on the internet, IMing relevent data to classmates without disturbing the class as a whole, etc. Yeah, this can be abused. But if students are not motivated and involved in the classwork, they'll find ways to goof off, period.
Don't take my word for it. Look at schools that have followed this philosophy. Higher test scores, increased attendance, increased interest in writing...
I don't think so... (Score:3, Interesting)
Education is dictatorial. You're not supposed to get what you want, you're supposed to get what the educational institution offers. By and large, students don't like this. The ones that do are usu
Thank you Bill Bennet (Score:3, Interesting)
You've got a lot of half-assed generalizations and pet theories. My lack of interest in these is extreme. Let's talk about real-world teachers. I've known good ones and bad ones. Good ones don't care about distractions -- they even use them. Bad ones blame their failures on distractions, immoral influences, "human nature" -- everything except their own lack of skill.
But I am grateful to yo
You Obviously Don't Teach (Score:4, Insightful)
Obviously YANAT. As someone who is, let me respond to this:
Just as you can't please all of the people all of the time, you are not going to have every student totally interested and completely focused all of the time. The only way you might be able to achieve this (for a brief period) is with some theatrics which probably adds nothing to the lesson as a whole.
Now, lets say a student mind wanders off... if there are few other distractions one of two things are likely to happen:
- The student will daydream a bit then snap out of it, or
- The student will daydream for the rest of the class.
Either way it's an isolated student. They may miss the lesson entirely, but that's their problem later on.
Now, lets create an environment where it is easy for someone to access the web, IRC, IM, etc:
The same student drifts off and decides to check, say, Slashdot. They start reading an article. Decide to post a response, etc. Suddenly 20 minutes has gone by. At this point even if they turn back to the lesson odds are they've fallen way behind in it and will have trouble following it. This can lead to less than brilliant questions about content covered 10 minutes before - wasting other peoples time (and irritating those who are paying attention). They may distract and disturb those around them.
You're right when you say if they're not interested they'll find ways of goofing off. But when it's a student on their own they aren't likely to disturb others, or encourage them to stop paying attention. If they're ICQing classmates, banging away during a lecture, and what not, they are far more likely to be a disturbance to others.
Since we are in networked computer lab, and actually need it for our classes, this sort of thing can happen. The students who are totally wiped out from work and need a few Zzzz's I'll tend to leave alone. Those who are just goofing off, well, they get called on a lot. Hearing your name and looking up to see the lecture has stopped and everyone is staring at you tends to encourage people to follow along.
Learning is work, nobody likes work. It's a balance though, a sterile and boring class will hold nobody's attention. You try to mix things up and keep it interesting as much as you can while keeping it relevant... but sometimes rules and enforcement are needed for the good of both the distracted student, as well as the class as a whole.
(and this is coming from a one time class clown turned into College teacher. If I ever had myself as a student, I'd have kicked my own ass!)
Blockwars [blockars.com]: you know you wanna play.
another funny unrelated lab story. (Score:2)
We did this all the time in our CAD labs and Structural Systems lab class. Where ever you were on campus we could log into our vax acount then intern log unto IRC, or e-mail. One teacher had a system of walking around the classroom then reading peoples e-mail out loud. It was pretty funny when one girls crush became public as she desperately tried turning off her monitor.
Think Network Not Computer Re:I had a computer lab (Score:4, Insightful)
And, your Weblog idea falls in the memory space. You are trying to save the written conversations with one or many in a chronological fashion. So, in a way you are trying to create an institutional memory.
You could show your students what a wonderful "institutional memory" Google is. Do searches or exact quotes by remembering just a few words of the quote. By showing how easy it is, you can teach your students to be more precise in their use of references and paraphrasing ideas.
You could also show the students a wealth of english literature on the web that is freely available, You could introduce them to efforts like the Guttenburg project [gutenberg.net] http://www.gutenberg.net/ and let them know that good books don't have to be expensive or out of easy reach locked up in some library somewhere.
You could explain to the students as to how things can be so easily checked for plagiarism, that it is better to give credit where it is due rather than claim it. It might help cultivate a new generation that has no hesitation in acknowledging where the ideas came from - thus, later allowing for a better public discourse in their civic life.
You could show them the power of weblogs in the evolution of ideas, by exposing the various stages of idea development to criticism by peers - seen and unseen. Though a lone author can come up with a great work after being in isolation, I think the probability if a great work is higher if it is exposed to some criticism as the ideas are coalescing in the writers mind. You could also introduce them to literary discussion groups.
You could expose your students to the chunking of ideas in electronic and cyberspace , because ideas have to be expressed in screenfuls, and thus a sort of an unnatural frame is created around the idea. You could also expose them to the different style of organization of chunks of ideas needed when the reader has some element of choice in deciding the sequence. If there is another post on this subject soon, I will try to put more of my thoughts across. I think, as long as you keep you focus correct, and not get caught in the computing aspect, by explore the networking aspect, you can't go wrong. After all, what is writing - it is just a network of words and ideas.
Try a wiki (Score:5, Interesting)
The Wiki Way (Score:5, Informative)
Warning: the book was originally bundled with a CD with all the Perl source files in Mac format. (Sad how often this happens.) Perl interpreters on other platforms don't grok this, so they withdrew this printing and replaced it with a corrected version. The screwed-up version was sold off to remainder houses. You can save money [bargainbookstores.com] buying the screwed up copies, but you have to convert the files, or download corrected files [wiki.org].
TWiki is a nice tool (Score:4, Informative)
Use Slashcode (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Use Slashcode (Score:5, Interesting)
Or better yet, use Scoop [kuro5hin.org] and let everybody moderate. Picking favorites is just asking for trouble. I'm sure you could give mod points to everyone in Slashcode as well, but I don't know how much hacking this would involve.
Anyway, both engines are probably excessive for the job at hand. Something along the lines of PHP-Nuke [phpnuke.org] would likely be more than sufficient.
Lord of the Files (Score:5, Interesting)
Giving an elite few the ability to moderate posts on the basis of favoritism barely works on Slashdot, let alone a high school classroom.
Imagine the resentment that could be generated towards the class mods for weighted moderation.
Imagine the abuse of power that a mod could use against a classmate they didn't like.
Teachers have favored students, no question. But giving mod points on that basis would undermine at least the illusion of fairness.
I think the only reason Slashdot works at all is the relative anonymity of the posters. Most moderation here seems to be on the basis of the posts alone.
If you use Slashcode in the classroom , give everyone a mod point per topic. I think it will save you a lot of headache later.
If anyone thinks this is some sort of commentary about our beloved Slashdot , you might be right. I'm only a little bitter about never getting any mod points myself.
Collaberative Review (Score:2, Insightful)
I think something like the system that powers http://www.sciscoop.com/ [sciscoop.com] would be usefull.
Provide a forum for both discussion of instructor posted "articles" as well as a way for students to post their own writting samples, which can be reviewed/critiqued/commented-on by other students, in such a way that the "cream" rises to the top, and is more visible by all students.
Answer: don't (Score:5, Insightful)
I say, leave technology out of English. Time would be better spent teaching the way that it has worked for hundreds of years - without the computer. Sure, computers can aid those with good typing skills in getting a paper done faster, but they far and away are useless in such courses as a teaching aid. If it were an engineering course, I would say differently - the world has changed much through the transition from slide rules to calculators to computers. But leave English out of it.
Computers make you write poorly. (Score:3, Insightful)
Check out this article from one of Americas best essayist/poet/fiction write [dircon.co.uk]
Re:Answer: don't (Score:4, Insightful)
OOooh... that might be cool actually.
Re:Answer: don't (Score:2, Interesting)
Most everyone in a given college classroom has at least passing familiarity with web-browsing and basic messaging systems (whether IM or forums), and so, unlike other posters have suggested, there should not be much of a learning curve.
From weblogs, to real-time commenting on what's going on in class, to
Writing (Score:4, Interesting)
I suppose what I'm recommending are forums. Never really used weblogs, so I can't comment on that.
Tablet PC's? (Score:2)
Not sure
Re:Tablet PC's? (Score:2)
hmmm...go figure
don't spend too much time on technology (Score:2, Insightful)
In short, be sure you don't lose focus on what's really important to teach during your course.
Wiki! (Score:2, Informative)
A word of caution: (Score:5, Insightful)
The Weblogs are a good idea, because it allows the students to critique each others' papers on their at their convenience. And of course the Internet is a great research tool.
However most teachers fall victim to the temptation of using computers too often. Putting today's lesson into Flash may be "cool", but it doesn't help the student learn the material. English is about the written word, not about the latest technology.
Also, if you use the computers on a regular basis, there will always be a few students with poor computer skills or who crash the machine that will demand immediate attention. This iterrupts the flow of the class and cuts into precious class time.
Think twice about trying any of the suggestions here. Because college classes should be about learning first, using technology second (or third, or fourth...)
Re:A word of caution: (Score:2)
If you said footnotes, try again. Nobody in uses footnotes after college is over.
computer lab for non-technical courses (Score:5, Informative)
Here are some precautions and some ideas:
* Be careful how much you require your students to learn in order to use the tools you choose -- frustration with technology will overcome any benefit from the tools.
* Identify and use 'peer experts' in your class to help you teach the basics.
* Using Blogging in a writing class is a fantastic way for your students to gain ownership of their writing online, but you'll have to work hard to encourage anything like collaboration, peer reviewing, or even quality. This is a good use for a detailed syllabus.
* An easy way of supplementing a Blog is to require the students to build a web-based portfolio on which they can post edited 'highlights' from their blog.
* Be precise about your requirements. I recommend giving seperate credit for 'participation' and 'attendance' online. This means that they have to do something meaningful to get the 'participation' points, but by simply posting anything they'll earn the 'attendance' points. Sounds hokey, but it really works to show students how to go beyond just posting to posting something worthwhile.
Okay . . . enough edu-speak. Let the technophiles sound off, because I'm curious to hear what these creative minds will offer as alternatives to blogging.
--- Brian Richard
Finding sources of cliche's (Score:4, Interesting)
Now, looking back on my English experiences, I think it would have been pretty cool if each student were given a phrase and they had to use the net to find out what literature it originally came from and have to read enough of the surrounding text to be able to describe the context of the scene where the phrase occured (like Lady MacBeth trying to wash the blood off, etc).
A single weblog? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A single weblog? (Score:2, Informative)
Teach the Dangers of Spell Checkers (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Teach the Dangers of Spell Checkers (Score:2)
"unable to follow directions" was incorrect
"Unable to get an erection" was correct
Something like that... it was something to that effect, which I first learned about it after a niece of mine got a kindergarden report card... and other parents were most miffed.
Re:Teach the Dangers of Spell Checkers (Score:3, Funny)
Did gym and Gibbs in the wake.
All mimes were the borrowers,
And the moderate Belgrade.
"Beware the tablespoon my son,
The teeth that bite, the Claus that catch.
Beware the Subjects bird, and shred
The serious Bandwidth!"
He took his Verbal sword in hand:
Long time the monitors fog he sought,
So rested he by the Tumbled tree,
And stood a while in thought.
And as in selfish thought he stood,
The tablespoon, with eyes of Flame,
Came stifling through the trigger wood,
And troubled as it came
Re:Teach the Dangers of Spell Checkers (Score:4, Funny)
I always liked this:
Eye have a spelling chequer,
It came with my Pea Sea,
It plainly marques for my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.
Eye strike a quay and type a whirred
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write,
It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as the misses ache is maid
It nose before two long
And aye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it,
I am sure your pleased to no,
Its letter perfect awl the weigh,
My chequer tolled me sew.
Wonderful.
Not about computers but, (Score:2, Insightful)
TikiWiki (Score:3, Informative)
Here's how it works at my uni (Score:2, Informative)
* We have our own irc server, which is meant to be used for only Uni related topics but somehow falls short of that
* The uni has a newsgroup server and most subjects (at least that I do) have a newsgroup which the lecturer/tutors check regularly and answers questions
* Each lecturer/tutor has an email address tha
phpBB2 (Score:5, Informative)
The phpBB Community Forum [phpbb.com] is an example of the software in use, if you want to get an idea of its capabilities. All open source. I'm not involved with the project, just a happy user. :-)
MUSHes (Score:5, Interesting)
He has been playing for about 7 years now. I asked him about the character he plays... and he could have gone on for hours. Read some of the "Role Play Logs". Amazing. And amazing that they're ephemeral - imagine if every action were logged! We could spend years just as spectators, watching wars and communities from hundreds of different perspectives.
don't tolerate a single bit of aolspeak (Score:5, Interesting)
oops (Score:4, Informative)
Anyway, yeah, make sure you teach them to be a bit more critical readers than me.
And apply for a room transfer. A computer classroom is a gimmick. Gimmicks have their place in highschool - it's your job to hold their attention even if they'd rather be 100 miles away, but in college anyone who doesn't feel like learning can just leave. The computers will only distract the students. They can post to a blog using library computers or their own computers during time outside of class. I promise you that your class will go better if you get a better room. Ideally one with a table like I talked about above.
Oh and you weren't very clear in your question: is this an English class as in books and composition, or teaching the English language to those who don't know it? There are a variety of useful computer applications for learning language. Literature on the other hand is for dead trees and human discussion. Your students will be reading their email and not listening if you put computers in front of them.
Try a forum, not a weblog. (Score:5, Informative)
For these purposes, a forum would be much better; forums allow for multiple, separate discussions to take place in a centralized area. They also allow the forum administrator to lock down the forum in such a way that only members can post messages, and the administrator gets to say who can be a member. This would help keep the discussion on topic. Each student's work would go in a different thread -- say Sally M. Haverforth posts the first draft of her argumentative essay on Milton's treatment of women in a thread called "S. Haverforth -- Milton: Masochistic Misogynist?". Subsequent comments from her peers would be replies to that initial posting, keeping the whole thing neatly organized.
If you have access to an appropriately equipped server, I recommend phpBB [phpbb.com] for the job: it's easy to set up and administer, open source, free of charge, and fairly easy to use.
Do not allow (Score:5, Informative)
Journalism (Score:2)
I'm really not keen on computers in the classroom unless it is required for technical reasons. Face time is too precious as it is, it seems stupid to waste those fifty mi
Classroom Computer (ab)use (Score:2, Informative)
Consider your intended curriculum (Score:4, Insightful)
Imagine teaching a basic math class to second graders and giving them calculators. They'll learn how to use calculators. They won't learn basic arithmetic.
You'll have to look very closely at what you want your students to learn. This might be the ability to spell-check and grammar-check their own writing without being dependent on a word processor. It might be to write regularly. It might be to read available text and review them.
Whatever it is, you will want to make sure the computer is nothing more than a tool - like a pencil. As several others have pointed out, it is very easy to abuse computers in a classroom setting. Access to the Internet is very hard to control completely and IM/IRC are not much more effective than group discussions.
The main benefit of computers might be minimizing paper. Sending the assignments and notes to each computer and having students do their assignments on the computer to send to you could be a great savings in paper.
Information (Score:2)
What is my grade? What did I get on that last assignment? When is the next assignment due? Any errata on that? Can I chat with other students in the class re whatever I want?
etc etc etc
Im so borring. Sorry
Prior knowledge (Score:3, Informative)
Do they have experience using a computer?
Are they comfortaqble using a mouse?
Do they know where the any key is?
The first thing I was taught in my teacher ed classes was not to assume any prior knowledge.
My advice would be to forget the computer room for teaching English. If not your class will turn into a computer class.
The answer is Don't (Score:4, Insightful)
Now if there is an additional "writting lab" or something like that that isn't instructional, but hands on (in otherwords the students are expected to be doing something rather than lectured at) that is a great use for a computer lab. Each student can use the time to do what they need to do.
#include
Why not use a forum/bulletin board? (Score:2, Insightful)
Setting up a forum allows you to create different areas, with diferent themes. It could also be interesting that users could pick their own avatars, theme, and you can set static user titles, titles by post count, etc.
phpBB [phpbb.com] is incredibly easy to setup. If you have a running DB (MySQL, PgSQL, whatever), instalation is is a snap. I suggest you take a look at it. Visit
Slashorcizes instead of busy work... (Score:3, Funny)
Shouldn't be to hard to find them errors eh?
Privacy concerns (Score:5, Interesting)
Provide it as an alternative (Score:2)
Anonymous posting/critique (Score:2, Insightful)
The critique portion being anonymous is simple. If someone wants to point out negative aspects of the assignment, they don't have to worry about the other students thinking they are a "teacher's pet" or just being malicious. Once the novelty of posting anonymously wears off, you should start getting some honest fee
I had a class like this (Score:5, Insightful)
To illustrate the difference between writing for print and writing for the web, one of our projects was to write a research paper and then adapt the content for a website. She taught us the bare basics of HTML, as well as some design styles.
But the main thing she focused on was how we had to adapt the content for the medium. Paragraphs had to be much shorter--preferably not paragraphs at all, but rather a list of bullet points. As a rule of thumb, she told us that we had to cut the length of the information to 25% of the length of the paper. Much less than that and you lose important information; much more and you lose the interest of the audience.
Also, she demanded that the websites be readable in any page order. No fair making users click through the pages in order, because they simply won't do it. So while you can lay out a nice long cohesive argument in a research paper, you can't do that in a website. You have to post your conclusions right on the home page, and then have links to other pages that have supporting material, but in such a way that each page can be read without having read or seen any of the other pages.
Competant communication in online media is a deceptively difficult skill, so if you can teach your students a few simple things like that (and if they actually learn) you will have helped them immensely.
Do you really want peer critiques? (Score:5, Informative)
This is not to say that you will end up with a bunch of people who are morons critiquing everybody else's work and ending up with them all dumbing down even more, but it's a possibility. Another possibility is that they'll all rise to a level of Borg-like hive mind and produce amazing work. Personally, I'd bet on the former more often than the latter. Although in classroom settings people often open up the door to peer review and discussion about works and ideas, it's almost always moderated and on subject, so that the instructor/moderator immediately has the opportunity to call "Bullshit" when Sally is full of it, or "Bravo" when she has a deep insight. If you've got blogs gone crazy, you don't have that control.
Peer review on something technical probably works much better because you're focused on getting something done, and on getting the correct results.
It might be better if we knew what type of English class this is? Are you teaching them the basics of the English language? Are you teaching creative writing? Is it literature, comparative or not? Is it focused on a particular style of writing and literature? English covers so many different things that the possibilities for effective use of technology are really different for each of them.
But something that you probably should do if you don't pay heed to the many people telling you to get the heck out of hte computer lab for the English class is something I've seen for business meetings. They're systems which are essentially whiteboards where students can post questions online for you to cover during the lecture, as well as comments, anonymous or not. So if you're covering Wuthering Heights and aren't properly covering the psychosis of Heathcliff, someone can say something like "Please cover more Heathcliff's obvious lack of proper seratonin function" or even just "slow down, you're going too fast" and you (and/or everybody else) can see and/or respond live.
Re:Do you really want peer critiques? (Score:3, Interesting)
Each student was assigned to quickly review everyone else's submission for that week and choose at least two essays that they wanted to respond to.
The incentive, was purely positive. As a student you push yourself harder not only because your paper would be available for public review, but also to get positive feedback from classmates.
Unlike most classroom peer-review, the feedback w
Tail wagging the dog.. (Score:4, Insightful)
This sounds like 1998 style overenthusiasm for the net.
Better question: (Score:2)
For every thing you come up with, ask yourself if that could just as easily be done outside of class - the blogging suggestion does not need to be done dur
Everything2 comes to mind (Score:2)
You can write weblogs, technical articles, reviews, however the majority of t
Annotation of literature (Score:2)
Instant, Anonymous Feedback (Score:2)
Let's say you're teaching a rhetoric course: use a voting booth to let the students vote which of two takes on a topic was the more persuasive. Then the class discussion can roll on into the why.
Many students feel inhibited from raisin
WTF? (Score:2)
Computers make no sense at all for this kind of thing - except possible for rock bottom (~$100) old machines that can function as a cheap yet flexible typewriter. You want them to lean how to write, not how to participate in the endless circle jerk that is blogs (and
At least make them write their essay in vi - that way they might learn something useful at the same time.
"Cool ideas"? How about focusing our your job? (Score:3, Insightful)
Focus on your job, which is teaching English, grading your students' papers, and discussing the appropriate literature.
J.R.R. Tolkien never had a computer, and he wrote masterpieces. Twain, Dickens, Kipling, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Faulkner, Melville, and Poe didn't have computers; can you imagine how computers would have affected their skills?
J.K. Rowling doesn't even use a word processor; she just writes her Harry Potter masterpieces in long hand on a yellow pad of paper. (That's a bit extreme.)
How many of your students are going to win a Pulitzer Prize or a Nobel Prize in literature? How many of your students will write a book worthy of Oprah's Book Club (TM)?
You should concentrate on that. If you want to be "innovative" in education, make sure you have a set of measurable results that you will achieve. Otherwise if you want an excuse to play with computers, switch to another job. Don't waste your students' or taxpayers' money just so you can goof around pretending to be "innovative".
Take a look at Moodle (Score:4, Informative)
Moodle.org [moodle.org] is an open source package that allows several features of what everyone has been mentioning here. A neat feature is the journal that allows the teacher to critique their writings privately. It also has forums, online quizes, etc.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How about English? (Score:4, Informative)
Each student will have his or her own machine with an Internet connection.
"Their" is plural. You have a singular subject that you are replacing. You have to use "his" or "his or her" if you want to be PC.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
My $0.02 (Score:3, Interesting)
By embrace I mean do not try and treat it like a regular classroom. Students WILL type constantly either on topic or off topic especially if they have a live internet connection and if that is disruptive to your method of instruction run far and run fast from the lab NOW !!! Seriously it will never work and even if it does all your going to do is frustrate the students sitting there with computers and not being able to use them. Quiet click keyboards would help immensly but boards in labs are generally loud clackers and the very lively accoustics of most rooms don't help.
My suggestion would be to not plan on Verbal lecturing at all, if you do need to have lectures schedule them in a room away from the computers if at all possible. I would suggest some sort of obvious progression where students read and post their thoughts as directed by your questions to answer or discuss etc.... Classtime can be used for class discussion thread style. I would set up some sort of scoring system with you as the score keeper... IE offtopic and flamebait takes points off, pertinent posts score according to some scale you have. Goal of students is to reach a passing point.
*** random idea which would need software that could handle it *** Student is given 5 posts per topic. Posts are rated by the teacher in say two or three categories ( say grammer, quality of content for starters ) score is on a 1-10 scale which can be multiplied by 2, added all together and divided by the number of categories for ye olde 100 point scale
At anyrate you get the idea. Instead of verbal lectures you outline the discussion in a written aggenda. I personally would say take the lecture notes, note the pertinent areas of discussion and link in the text to the appropriate place to post responses... In passage I want you to the consequences of actions. Then Repeat ad neaseum for all needed points of discussion. Include your lecture material in addition as well. Then spend the time during calss monitoring what is being added to the discussion and offering one on one feedback going around the room.... constant moving will also enable you to keep something of an eye on poor choices of web pages for information sources.
internet connection...? (Score:3)
and yes, walk trough the classe once in a while (not when you're not talking)
Wiki. (Score:4, Insightful)
With a Wiki you could see how they go when they have to work together to get something done. Simple wiki software such as UseMod [usemod.com], might not cut the mustard but you could try setting up a PediaWiki [sourceforge.net] based site for them to work with.
I'd imagine that there would be lessons in online anonymity to be learnt here as well....
Re:why not use slashcode ? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:why not use slashcode ? (Score:2, Funny)
I don't think your average C compiler is going to do well with Freshman English compositions.
Re:why not use slashcode ? (Score:2)
no offense (Score:2)
A wiki textbook might be a better idea.
Groups bad... (Score:2, Informative)
Yahoo! Groups is not a good idea for something that is University Curriculum, especially if it is required. If someone managed to break into the system, there is not IT department to run to, and if Yahoo! changes policies, then you are left holding the bag. If you intend to use collaborative efforts digitally (which I strongly recommend against), at least use something that is available locally, provided or maintained by someone that you can go yell at
Re:Two possible uses... (Score:2)
Who the hell is going to spank their monkey in the middle of class? Duh!
Re:Its Too Bad.... (Score:2)
Re:Don't Don't Don't (Score:3, Interesting)
Some people know how to multitask, dont ruin it.