Yes, Roger, I think analysing this type of activity would be a valuable
addition to a discussion of online teaching/learning. I did this sort of
thing for a couple of years before actually risking the online course.
One of my challenges in asking students in regular classes to
participate in, say, an electronic discussion was that many of them did
not have computers or Internet access _except_ in class. So if I
required participation in an electronic discussion, many of them would
do it during class instead of participating in face-to-face activities.
(And then there was always the problem of the server crashing in the
middle of class.)
Moving to an entirely online format helped solve some of these problems,
but of course it introduced new ones.
Keep on slouching toward Bethlehem.
Janice
Roger Graves wrote:
>
> OK, here's what is confusing me about all this talk about online courses.
> They've been pushing a bit on that here, too, although it isn't taking off.
> But what I have done is a kind of half-step toward online courses by
> creating web sites and discussion lists that supplement and extend the
> in-class experience. This is a kind of hybrid activity--does it fall under
> this heading or maybe something like "Slouching toward Bethlehem"?
>
> At 01:03 PM 4/12/99 -0400, you wrote:
> >Janice and all:
> >
> >The fact that _only_ Cathy has raised her hand to say that she has
> >anything to say on the on-line course issue confirms for me that this
> >group is not ready to present papers on the topic. The fact that, as
> >Janice notes, "many of us are doing the online work, ready or not" and
> >many for the first time in 1999-2000 from what I can gather, does not
> >encourage me further.
> >
> >I guess the resolution to the issue depends on what you think the forum
> >is for. If it is to be a pooling of limited experience to talk to each
> >other, then we might as well take this topic, either that or "the
> >efficacy of advanced neurotransmitters in imagining [note the use of the
> >conference theme!] multicultural/multilinguistic ornithography."
> >
> >If, however, the goal is to share with the wider (ie. international)
> >writing community something about which we are uniquely knowledgeable,
> >then I'd say we should wait another year before launching this topic, so
> >that we can speak from a perspective of experience. Let's get more than
> >one or two with experience behind them before we go proposing the topic.
> >
> >If I'm the only naysayer, I'll shut up, but I haven't noticed much on
> >the list since Cathy raised her hand to say she for one could/might be
> >interested in saying something on the topic. Is this the silence of
> >complacency? end of term? ignorance? acquiescence? How, in short, am I
> >to read my colleagues' (doubtless pointed, maybe even guilty) silences?
> >Oh for Tania's ethnography so that we'd know how to construct the
> >inter-e-textual gaps!
> >
> >Boy, can you tell that classes ended here on Friday? Anyway, the worst
> >part about being a naysayer is that I don't have an alternative
> >proposal. Did one emerge at the SIG in Atlanta, Anthony?
> >
> >Rob Irish
> >
> >
> Roger Graves
> Assistant Professor
> DePaul University
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