Re: [Air-l] laptops and Internet access in class
The experience also highlighted how difficult it was to sit BEHIND someone who has graphical content on their laptop. I consider myself a fairly animated speaker, but I apparently resemble an animated character popular with undergrads these days, and it was distracting for students to see that animation on screens several rows ahead. That is, I have a feeling laptops are far more distracting to others in the room then they are to the users.
I've heard students repeatedly saying that they like full f2f engagement and technology used for particular purposes, but it may depend on a course. There are different levels of engagement while listening and taking notes or listening and multitasking, but lecturers can't control that. I agree that laptops can affect students who don't use them. Recently, I was sitting in a dimly lit room waiting for a public lecture when someone with a laptop sat in front of me. A glare of a small screen was quite unpleasant, especially that there was a large screen switched on to be viewed during the lecture. I had to move to another seat. I imagine that interesting things happening on someone's screen can be distracting to students. This is not to say that laptops and mobile phones can't be used successfully in the classroom. Sam's example shows a successful use of technology integrated in class activities and used by everyone. Has anyone tried to use mobile phones in the classroom? A couple of years ago mobile phones were successfully used at UTS to boost popularity of some very unpopular but compulsory 1st year finance courses. Students were asked to send answers to questions, which were diligently reviewed during a break and presented to the class. It turned to be a really good way to engage the students. Suzana Suzana Sukovic _________________________________________ Information & Knowledge Management Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Technology, Sydney PO Box 123 Broadway NSW 2007, Australia
In light of the conversation, I thought I would share my laptop and cellphone policy for my first-year composition students. It's worked great: when a student's cellphone rings, I point out that the student is "doing it the right way," and then I ask the student if she needs to take the call. If it's not an emergency, she's usually embarrassed enough to remember to turn the phone off next time. Likewise, if I see folks' eyes wandering to laptop screens more often than the class conversation, I say, "okay! Let's see the screens!" I do this often enough and sporadically enough that no one was banned from bringing them this semester (some students did get 2 warnings though; a couple of students stopped bringing theirs voluntarily). And most students, when I ask them to turn the laptops around, are either doing research on something that we're talking about, at which point they share, or they're taking notes in a word processor. It has seemingly increased class involvement in some ways. Maybe I should mention that I've been teaching in computer classrooms for 10 years now. Laptop and Cellphone Policy You may bring your computer to class with you, assuming that you use it in a scholarly and responsible fashion. This means that you will only have applications and windows related to the current discussion open. You may not check email, news, or box scores, surf the web, use chat applications, play games, or otherwise distract yourself and those around you from the class conversation with your computer. I will, at various times during class discussions, tell everyone who is using a computer to turn it around so that I may see what you’re doing on it. If you have distracting applications and events open on your computer, you will receive one warning; if you persist in such activity after two warnings, you will no longer be allowed to bring your computer to class with you. You are likewise expected to use cellphones in a responsible manner: turn them off when you come in to class. If you have an emergency for which you must be available, you should leave your phone out on your desk with the ringer ON. In the event that it rings, you may retrieve it and then leave the room to take the call. Under no conditions are you allowed to text message, take pictures or video (illegal in class), play games, or use the cellphone in any other manner during class. Best! Deanya http://www.velvethedgehog.com/deanya/blog/ http://www.deanya.com
A hunch, not yet a hypothesis. The "classroom" is a an ICT: perhaps 600-square feet of enclosed space, 30 chairs, a lectern or desk for a "teacher" who faces the "students" in the chairs, a "chalk board," and various recent enhancements. This older communication technology and the new one are yet compatible, and may never be. Thus: there is now evidence that when an instructor puts lectures, syllabus, resources, opportunities for access to faculty and other students. . .all online, the students choose not to come to "class." Do most faculty members here require class attendance? Steve Eskow ----- Original Message ----- From: "Suzana Sukovic" <suzana.sukovic@uts.edu.au> To: <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 11:33 PM Subject: Re: [Air-l] laptops and Internet access in class
The experience also highlighted how difficult it was to sit BEHIND someone who has graphical content on their laptop. I consider myself a fairly animated speaker, but I apparently resemble an animated character popular with undergrads these days, and it was distracting for students to see that animation on screens several rows ahead. That is, I have a feeling laptops are far more distracting to others in the room then they are to the users.
I've heard students repeatedly saying that they like full f2f engagement and technology used for particular purposes, but it may depend on a course. There are different levels of engagement while listening and taking notes or listening and multitasking, but lecturers can't control that. I agree that laptops can affect students who don't use them. Recently, I was sitting in a dimly lit room waiting for a public lecture when someone with a laptop sat in front of me. A glare of a small screen was quite unpleasant, especially that there was a large screen switched on to be viewed during the lecture. I had to move to another seat. I imagine that interesting things happening on someone's screen can be distracting to students.
This is not to say that laptops and mobile phones can't be used successfully in the classroom. Sam's example shows a successful use of technology integrated in class activities and used by everyone. Has anyone tried to use mobile phones in the classroom? A couple of years ago mobile phones were successfully used at UTS to boost popularity of some very unpopular but compulsory 1st year finance courses. Students were asked to send answers to questions, which were diligently reviewed during a break and presented to the class. It turned to be a really good way to engage the students. Suzana
Suzana Sukovic _________________________________________ Information & Knowledge Management Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Technology, Sydney
PO Box 123 Broadway NSW 2007, Australia _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
Dr. Steve Eskow wrote:
... Do most faculty members here require class attendance?
Yes, absolutely. I take attendance and take away points for unexcused absences. But once in awhile I will declare that our class will have a "silent discussion." Everyone sitting in the classroom is told to log into a Moodle chat session, and I pose a question by typing it into the chat. It's an interesting dynamic. And sometimes instead of typing "LOL" they really *DO* laugh out loud. The classroom IS an information environment, just as the chat room is. Both spaces have different characteristics that can be exploited for learning. It's always fun to talk about the differences between what kind of interaction takes place online and how it differs from F2F. -- Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Communication Studies Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/ ----------------------------------------------- "Get the facts first. You can distort them later." ---Mark Twain
Dr. Johns, I can't imagine someone paying for concert tickets and then choosing not to attend the concerts. But students pay their money for our courses, and if we didn't compel them to come, they would not. But we--and they--spend much time communicating with each othe voluntarily--online. What does all this mean, if anything? Don't they find value in our face-to-face classroom encounters? Did they feel differently about our classes before the laptop? Steve Eskow ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark D. Johns" <mjohns@luther.edu> To: <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2007 7:45 PM Subject: Re: [Air-l] laptops and Internet access in class
Dr. Steve Eskow wrote:
... Do most faculty members here require class attendance?
Yes, absolutely. I take attendance and take away points for unexcused absences. But once in awhile I will declare that our class will have a "silent discussion." Everyone sitting in the classroom is told to log into a Moodle chat session, and I pose a question by typing it into the chat. It's an interesting dynamic. And sometimes instead of typing "LOL" they really *DO* laugh out loud.
The classroom IS an information environment, just as the chat room is. Both spaces have different characteristics that can be exploited for learning. It's always fun to talk about the differences between what kind of interaction takes place online and how it differs from F2F. -- Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Communication Studies Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/ ----------------------------------------------- "Get the facts first. You can distort them later." ---Mark Twain _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
I just finished an interesting book that addresses these questions (except for technology related ones, and in fact technology is conspicuously absent, which is one of several possible flaws, but nevertheless the book provides some interesting insights). It's title is "My Freshman Year," and it's by Rebekah Nathan, a pseudonym for an anthropologist who spent a year as an undergraduate student doing fieldwork. It's a very quick read, and would probably be of interest to anyone teaching undergraduates in the U.S. (or teaching U.S. undergraduates elsewhere, I suspect). Sj On May 19, 2007, at 11:31 PM, Dr. Steve Eskow wrote:
Dr. Johns,
I can't imagine someone paying for concert tickets and then choosing not to attend the concerts.
But students pay their money for our courses, and if we didn't compel them to come, they would not.
But we--and they--spend much time communicating with each othe voluntarily--online.
What does all this mean, if anything?
Don't they find value in our face-to-face classroom encounters?
Did they feel differently about our classes before the laptop?
Steve Eskow ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark D. Johns" <mjohns@luther.edu> To: <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2007 7:45 PM Subject: Re: [Air-l] laptops and Internet access in class
Dr. Steve Eskow wrote:
... Do most faculty members here require class attendance?
Yes, absolutely. I take attendance and take away points for unexcused absences. But once in awhile I will declare that our class will have a "silent discussion." Everyone sitting in the classroom is told to log into a Moodle chat session, and I pose a question by typing it into the chat. It's an interesting dynamic. And sometimes instead of typing "LOL" they really *DO* laugh out loud.
The classroom IS an information environment, just as the chat room is. Both spaces have different characteristics that can be exploited for learning. It's always fun to talk about the differences between what kind of interaction takes place online and how it differs from F2F. -- Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Communication Studies Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/ ----------------------------------------------- "Get the facts first. You can distort them later." ---Mark Twain _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http:// aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
_______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http:// listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
Dr. Steve Eskow wrote:
Dr. Johns,
I can't imagine someone paying for concert tickets and then choosing not to attend the concerts.
But students pay their money for our courses, and if we didn't compel them to come, they would not.
It depends on what kind of attendance you expect, what you are doing in the class to make things relevant, make it worth their while in terms of a cost benefit analysis (do I go to class at 8 AM after only getting 5 hours of sleep?) I teach large sections of general education courses and never have required attendance at the lecture, and discussion sections have assignments in the class that account for 25% of the grade. Tests are drawn from a mixture of electronic and good ol' book materials, with lectures.
But we--and they--spend much time communicating with each othe voluntarily--online.
What does all this mean, if anything?
Don't they find value in our face-to-face classroom encounters?
Are the encounters relevant to their learning? Do we pose questions that a bright undergraduate can't think up on their own? Do we communicate in such a way that it is worth their time to show up, and I don't mean entertainment? If we as faculty/ practitioners perceive no value to something, do we attend it? Not that I am saying we provide no value. I am concerned about the perceptions that students have of our education processes in general, and what the future of the university will be in 20 years. What will out students' children's perceptions be?
Did they feel differently about our classes before the laptop?
Doubtful, students have been skipping classes since I was a freshman (Fall 1986) and it won't change unless we deliver something solid when we are face to face. We should use technology as our aid, but without of quality at the core of what we teach, in those face-to-face settings, we are wasting our time. Darren Purcell
Steve Eskow ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark D. Johns" <mjohns@luther.edu> To: <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2007 7:45 PM Subject: Re: [Air-l] laptops and Internet access in class
Dr. Steve Eskow wrote:
... Do most faculty members here require class attendance?
Yes, absolutely. I take attendance and take away points for unexcused absences. But once in awhile I will declare that our class will have a "silent discussion." Everyone sitting in the classroom is told to log into a Moodle chat session, and I pose a question by typing it into the chat. It's an interesting dynamic. And sometimes instead of typing "LOL" they really *DO* laugh out loud.
The classroom IS an information environment, just as the chat room is. Both spaces have different characteristics that can be exploited for learning. It's always fun to talk about the differences between what kind of interaction takes place online and how it differs from F2F. -- Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Communication Studies Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/ ----------------------------------------------- "Get the facts first. You can distort them later." ---Mark Twain _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
_______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
Dr. Johns, Would it be cynical to conclude that it depends a) on what you are doing in the class to make things relevant, and b) insuring attendance at the discussionsections by having assignments in the class that accoount for 25% of the grade? And that there are two quite different kinds of logics at work here? And that you're not sure there would be attendance if all you had to work for you was relevance? Why not give the exam online, depend on the exam to demonstrate what the student has learned, and ignore attendance? S. Eskow ----- Original Message ----- From: "Darren Purcell" <dpurcell@ou.edu> To: <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2007 7:54 PM Subject: Re: [Air-l] laptops and Internet access in class
Dr. Steve Eskow wrote:
Dr. Johns,
I can't imagine someone paying for concert tickets and then choosing not to attend the concerts.
But students pay their money for our courses, and if we didn't compel them to come, they would not.
It depends on what kind of attendance you expect, what you are doing in the class to make things relevant, make it worth their while in terms of a cost benefit analysis (do I go to class at 8 AM after only getting 5 hours of sleep?) I teach large sections of general education courses and never have required attendance at the lecture, and discussion sections have assignments in the class that account for 25% of the grade. Tests are drawn from a mixture of electronic and good ol' book materials, with lectures.
But we--and they--spend much time communicating with each othe voluntarily--online.
What does all this mean, if anything?
Don't they find value in our face-to-face classroom encounters?
Are the encounters relevant to their learning? Do we pose questions that a bright undergraduate can't think up on their own? Do we communicate in such a way that it is worth their time to show up, and I don't mean entertainment? If we as faculty/ practitioners perceive no value to something, do we attend it? Not that I am saying we provide no value. I am concerned about the perceptions that students have of our education processes in general, and what the future of the university will be in 20 years. What will out students' children's perceptions be?
Did they feel differently about our classes before the laptop?
Doubtful, students have been skipping classes since I was a freshman (Fall 1986) and it won't change unless we deliver something solid when we are face to face. We should use technology as our aid, but without of quality at the core of what we teach, in those face-to-face settings, we are wasting our time.
Darren Purcell
Steve Eskow ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark D. Johns" <mjohns@luther.edu> To: <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2007 7:45 PM Subject: Re: [Air-l] laptops and Internet access in class
Dr. Steve Eskow wrote:
... Do most faculty members here require class attendance?
Yes, absolutely. I take attendance and take away points for unexcused absences. But once in awhile I will declare that our class will have a "silent discussion." Everyone sitting in the classroom is told to log into a Moodle chat session, and I pose a question by typing it into the chat. It's an interesting dynamic. And sometimes instead of typing "LOL" they really *DO* laugh out loud.
The classroom IS an information environment, just as the chat room is. Both spaces have different characteristics that can be exploited for learning. It's always fun to talk about the differences between what kind of interaction takes place online and how it differs from F2F. -- Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Communication Studies Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/ ----------------------------------------------- "Get the facts first. You can distort them later." ---Mark Twain _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
_______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
Dr. Steve Eskow wrote:
Dr. Johns,
Would it be cynical to conclude that it depends a) on what you are doing in the class to make things relevant, and b) insuring attendance at the discussionsections by having assignments in the class that accoount for 25% of the grade?
And that there are two quite different kinds of logics at work here? And that you're not sure there would be attendance if all you had to work for you was relevance?
Why not give the exam online, depend on the exam to demonstrate what the student has learned, and ignore attendance?
S. Eskow
Yes, I'm certain there are different kinds of logic to be considered in this issue, and my logic is quite situational. I teach at a small, residential liberal arts college, and attendance has never been a big problem here. Most of my classes only have 15-25 students, and it wouldn't be difficult to know who is missing even if I didn't take attendance. Because of the small class size, the teaching style tends to be much more interactive than in a large lecture course. The category in which I award points for attendance I call "participation," and while it is primarily based on attendance, it also factors in my subjective impression of the student's level of engagement in class and his/her willingness to enter into discussions. It is also considerably less than 25% of the grade (more like 10%), and I'm not sure where that 25% figure comes from. The main reason I include such a category is because I came late in life to academia, and in the work world expectations about showing up on time and being engaged in the tasks at hand are not at the discretion of the employee. While I'm sympathetic to the idea that our students are adults who can make their own decisions about what is helpful or not to their education, most people in our society aren't afforded that degree of freedom. The employers these students have upon graduation will not allow them to show up when it suits them. Nor would I expect that the students' mommies and daddies, who are shelling out big bucks for the students to be here, would agree with that approach. My syllabus says, "Most classes involve group interaction and/or projects, and you cheat your colleagues out of part of the interactive experience when you are not there. Someone is investing large sums of money in you so that you may attend this college. Therefore, maximizing the benefit of this opportunity should be your primary occupation during your time here." So while attendance is not a problem, my goal is to instill a work ethic that privileges the academic over other aspects of college life. Further, the notion of conducting a class online rather than F2F rather works against the nature of a residential campus such as ours. Students who are seeking an information cafeteria are more likely to select a large university rather than a smaller school. Expectations for interaction here are high. Situations on other campuses may -- and likely do -- differ. -- Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Communication Studies Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/ ----------------------------------------------- "Get the facts first. You can distort them later." ---Mark Twain
... not everyone's parents pay for their adult children's education (some just can't whereas others won't), which means that many students have to work part time (sometimes full time) in order to pay for their schooling. No offence Mark - but if I saw this on the syllabus "Someone is investing large sums of money in you so that you may attend this college. Therefore, maximizing the benefit of this opportunity should be your primary occupation during your time here." I would be offended. On several occasions I have had students approach me to say that they will be absent from class because of work obligations (and I am aware that they are doing so in order to pay tuition - which I might add, has increased dramatically in Canada over the last 10 years). It's a catch-22 as they need money to attend class, but need to attend class to get their grades. In some cases I've offered other ways to participate in class - such as blogs/web work or in class presentations etc etc. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for attendance - F2F interactivity is very important, but there are reasons for occasional student absences and other ways to participate and be interactive. "my goal is to instill a work ethic that privileges the academic over other aspects of college life." Sounds Calvinist and strangely Weber like - but what other aspects of college life do you think are prominent? Partying? Tracy -----Original Message----- The main reason I include such a category is because I came late in life to academia, and in the work world expectations about showing up on time and being engaged in the tasks at hand are not at the discretion of the employee. While I'm sympathetic to the idea that our students are adults who can make their own decisions about what is helpful or not to their education, most people in our society aren't afforded that degree of freedom. The employers these students have upon graduation will not allow them to show up when it suits them. Nor would I expect that the students' mommies and daddies, who are shelling out big bucks for the students to be here, would agree with that approach. My syllabus says, "Most classes involve group interaction and/or projects, and you cheat your colleagues out of part of the interactive experience when you are not there. Someone is investing large sums of money in you so that you may attend this college. Therefore, maximizing the benefit of this opportunity should be your primary occupation during your time here." So while attendance is not a problem, my goal is to instill a work ethic that privileges the academic over other aspects of college life. -- Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Communication Studies Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/ ----------------------------------------------- "Get the facts first. You can distort them later." ---Mark Twain _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
T. Kennedy wrote:
... not everyone's parents pay for their adult children's education (some just can't whereas others won't), which means that many students have to work part time (sometimes full time) in order to pay for their schooling. No offence Mark - but if I saw this on the syllabus "Someone is investing large sums of money in you so that you may attend this college. Therefore, maximizing the benefit of this opportunity should be your primary occupation during your time here." I would be offended...
As I indicated, other situations differ. The "someone" investing large sums may indeed be the student themselves. Or it might be the scholarship fund of the institution. Or possibly some other source. If I taught across town at the university, I am certain the situation with working students would be prevalent. Among my students it is not. I also have a fairly liberal policy for excusing absences, and do so readily if a student has a work conflict. But just as their employer would not tolerate them simply not showing up for work, I don't excuse them when they simply don't show up for class. They contact me in advance and ask to be excused -- whether working, ill, or whatever -- just as if they had to call in sick at work.
"my goal is to instill a work ethic that privileges the academic over other aspects of college life." Sounds Calvinist and strangely Weber like - but what other aspects of college life do you think are prominent? Partying?
Lutherans are not Calvinists. It may be Weber-like, but I see nothing strange about it. Extracurricular groups, musical ensembles, sports teams, Grey's Anatomy, facebook, Guitar Hero, and yes, for some students, partying (and I have nothing against the tradition of the weekend college beer party, by the way). So are you trying to tell me that your students have none of these conflicts, but simply divide their time between working hard to pay the bills and studying? Reality check! My point, however, is that my situation is not the same as yours. So you may be as offended as you like by my syllabus language. If I taught on your campus, wherever it may be, I'd likely do things differently. But when teaching a privileged clientele at a pricey private college, I find this works for me. -- Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Communication Studies Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/ ----------------------------------------------- "Get the facts first. You can distort them later." ---Mark Twain
Agreed, our situations differ - and yours seems to be located in a particular context (privileged clientele at a pricey private college), whereas I teach in a blue collar university town and a university in a large city with mostly immigrants. The attendance issues I have the most are in relation to balancing work and school but almost of my students attend every class (lecture & seminar). Must be the technology I'm using ;) t --- My point, however, is that my situation is not the same as yours. So you may be as offended as you like by my syllabus language. If I taught on your campus, wherever it may be, I'd likely do things differently. But when teaching a privileged clientele at a pricey private college, I find this works for me. -- Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Communication Studies Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/
Dr. Johns, Your message below brings into sharp relief, for me at least, the issues of the older academic technology--campus, classrooms, time clocks, attendance,all of the apparatus of instruction and compulsion that are part of the instructional system--and the new communication technologies. The time clock, workers "punching in" and penalized for not being on time--is that still a common part of the industrial apparatus and routine? For what level of workers? Apparently students still have to punch in. Is the effectiveness of a worker in the new work order based on a scoring system, a "point" system? I am puzzled at this way of motivating adult learners. I think I am asking if your point system and attendance requirement are really the way the world of work now operates, and whether the structure of rules and the routines of the residential campus are now really able to prepare students for the modern workplace--which increasiongly is not a physical place at all. Probably the "campus" is the organ at the heart of the present instructional technology. As Giddens and others point out, such structures are not merely containers for work to be done, but are "constitutive"--they shape the nature of the activity that goes on within them. So: "instruction" at the "residential campus" is shaped, determined by the spatial and temporal structures of the "campus." Or: what do we do with the "campus" and the "classrooms" if our student can "learn" without them? Abandon the campus? Suppose, for example, our students could actually be scattered in space and time, engaged in work or service anywhere in the community, the nation, the world, and the "learning community" is online--lectures online, if they are needed, discussion online, collaboration online, libraries online? What would we do with the buildings? What we might need to do, then, to protect the current instructional technology, is argue for the richness of the face-to-face experience, and insist that speech and proximity generate values that online communication cannot approximate or equal. But Derrida and others call that fixation on the face-to-face and speech "logocentrism" and "phonocentrism." And meanwhile millions and billions for buildings that remove students from encounters with the learning spaces of the rest of the word: the college as a "heterotopia." Bourdieu calls the university ideal "the scholastic enclosure," a way of insulating students and teachers from the world for which they are nomially preparing. It used to be called "the ivory tower." Steve Eskow ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark D. Johns" <mjohns@luther.edu> To: <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Sent: Monday, May 21, 2007 8:46 AM Subject: Re: [Air-l] laptops and Internet access in class
Dr. Steve Eskow wrote:
Dr. Johns,
Would it be cynical to conclude that it depends a) on what you are doing in the class to make things relevant, and b) insuring attendance at the discussionsections by having assignments in the class that accoount for 25% of the grade?
And that there are two quite different kinds of logics at work here? And that you're not sure there would be attendance if all you had to work for you was relevance?
Why not give the exam online, depend on the exam to demonstrate what the student has learned, and ignore attendance?
S. Eskow
Yes, I'm certain there are different kinds of logic to be considered in this issue, and my logic is quite situational. I teach at a small, residential liberal arts college, and attendance has never been a big problem here. Most of my classes only have 15-25 students, and it wouldn't be difficult to know who is missing even if I didn't take attendance. Because of the small class size, the teaching style tends to be much more interactive than in a large lecture course.
The category in which I award points for attendance I call "participation," and while it is primarily based on attendance, it also factors in my subjective impression of the student's level of engagement in class and his/her willingness to enter into discussions. It is also considerably less than 25% of the grade (more like 10%), and I'm not sure where that 25% figure comes from.
The main reason I include such a category is because I came late in life to academia, and in the work world expectations about showing up on time and being engaged in the tasks at hand are not at the discretion of the employee. While I'm sympathetic to the idea that our students are adults who can make their own decisions about what is helpful or not to their education, most people in our society aren't afforded that degree of freedom. The employers these students have upon graduation will not allow them to show up when it suits them. Nor would I expect that the students' mommies and daddies, who are shelling out big bucks for the students to be here, would agree with that approach.
My syllabus says, "Most classes involve group interaction and/or projects, and you cheat your colleagues out of part of the interactive experience when you are not there. Someone is investing large sums of money in you so that you may attend this college. Therefore, maximizing the benefit of this opportunity should be your primary occupation during your time here." So while attendance is not a problem, my goal is to instill a work ethic that privileges the academic over other aspects of college life.
Further, the notion of conducting a class online rather than F2F rather works against the nature of a residential campus such as ours. Students who are seeking an information cafeteria are more likely to select a large university rather than a smaller school. Expectations for interaction here are high. Situations on other campuses may -- and likely do -- differ. -- Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Communication Studies Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/ ----------------------------------------------- "Get the facts first. You can distort them later." ---Mark Twain _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
Dr. Steve Eskow wrote:
... Suppose, for example, our students could actually be scattered in space and time, engaged in work or service anywhere in the community, the nation, the world, and the "learning community" is online--lectures online, if they are needed, discussion online, collaboration online, libraries online?...
I think you are describing the University of Phoenix. It's an interesting experiment, and it may be the paradigm of the future. But my contract for fall makes it pretty clear I have to show up in the appointed classroom at the appointed time if I wish to collect my paycheck. And for the moment, the vast majority of workers in the world are likewise still punching clocks in one way or another.
Bourdieu calls the university ideal "the scholastic enclosure," a way of insulating students and teachers from the world for which they are nomially preparing.
It used to be called "the ivory tower."
To the extent we allow students to make up their own rules about participation and regard it (in the words of a popular comic strip in this morning's newspaper) as, "basically four years of fully-funded, unsupervised, independent living," I suspect most working folks would still consider it pretty insulted and most definitely "ivory." -- Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Communication Studies Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/ ----------------------------------------------- "Get the facts first. You can distort them later." ---Mark Twain
----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark D. Johns" <mjohns@luther.edu> To: <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Sent: Monday, May 21, 2007 11:14 AM Subject: Re: [Air-l] laptops and Internet access in class
Dr. Steve Eskow wrote:
... Suppose, for example, our students could actually be scattered in space and time, engaged in work or service anywhere in the community, the nation, the world, and the "learning community" is online--lectures online, if they are needed, discussion online, collaboration online, libraries online?...
MDJ: I think you are describing the University of Phoenix.
It's an interesting experiment, and it may be the paradigm of the future. >>
Actually I wasn't describing Phoenix, although Phoenix offers much to learn from. If I was thinking of an existing institution it would more likely be The British Open University, and the other mega-universities of the world. See, for example, John S. Daniel's MEGA-UNIVERSITIES AND KNOWLEDGE MEDIA: TECHNOLOGY STRATEGIES FOR HIGHER EDUCATION. MDJ:But my contract for fall makes it pretty clear I have to show up
in the appointed classroom at the appointed time if I wish to collect my paycheck. And for the moment, the vast majority of workers in the world are likewise still punching clocks in one way or another.>>
If I were in your position, without tenure and with an institutional climate that doesn't allow for differences in practice, I would undooubtedly do as you are doing--in order to collect my paycheck. I will think about whether I would defend those practices--compulsory attendance, "points" awarded and deducted, etc.-- in public. I want to think more about your comment on the vast majority of workers who still punch time clocks. I think you're suggesting that the college should prepare people for this kind of life, this kind industrial discipline--and this level of employment-- by organizing instruction around the punching of clocks. Have I misread you? As opportunities for the college educated in the work force contract, it may be a good idea to prepare college graduates to work as data collectors and processors who sit at work stations along with a thousand others and do repetitive work for $7 an hour.
Bourdieu calls the university ideal "the scholastic enclosure," a way of insulating students and teachers from the world for which they are nomially preparing.
It used to be called "the ivory tower."
MDJ: To the extent we allow students to make up their own rules about participation and regard it (in the words of a popular comic strip in this morning's newspaper) as, "basically four years of fully-funded, unsupervised, independent living," I suspect most working folks would still consider it pretty insulted and most definitely "ivory."
Insular? Isolated? Insulated? Is the only alternative to the world of time clock and the industrial logic and the campus as factory "four years of fully-funded. . ." etc.? There's an 1995 UK report from UK's Higher Education Funding Council which studied the academic quality of 70 tertiary institutions of England. Public expenditure per full-time student at the Open U was the lowest in the UK system, "yet it was one of only 13 of the 70 universities. . .to receive excellent ratings in more than half of the subjects assessed." That is: the alternative to punching the clock is not mindlessness, nor indiscipline, nor the endless party. Indeed, the party disappears as part of the academic lifestyle in the technology-enabled open university, as does much else of the "extra-curriculum." We might be able to invent a new way, neither Open U nor Phoenix, for connecting the power of the Internet and the Web to the work of learning. Steve Eskow
--
Dr. Steve Eskow wrote:
... If I were in your position, without tenure and with an institutional climate that doesn't allow for differences in practice, I would undooubtedly do as you are doing--in order to collect my paycheck. I will think about whether I would defend those practices--compulsory attendance, "points" awarded and deducted, etc.-- in public....
Gee, and just the other day I was chiding my friends on this list for taking troll bait, and now look at how I've spent my day! Only a true ivory tower academic would vilify the notion that an education ought to actually help prepare students to bear some responsibility for their actions and inactions. I have better things to do than to read further condescending posts. No more time to play this game. There's work to be done. -- Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Communication Studies Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/ ----------------------------------------------- "Get the facts first. You can distort them later." ---Mark Twain
What is happening here may be making genuine intellectual disagreement difficult by insisting that all such encounters are "trolling." If the paragraph Dr. Johns cites is in any sense trolling, I'll apologize. It seems like a piece of a position to me. The new communication technologies--the technologies with which this list is concerned--suggest a rethinking of the foundations of the college and the university. The "campus" and the "classroom" as the spatial and temporal shapers of instruction need to be made visible for the role they play in defining learning. The passive and active resistance of undergraduate students to what goes on in the lecture hall and classroom needs, I believe, to be discussed openly. The correlative practices of compulsory attendance via grading systems, and their impact on genuine learning, and the possibilities for other ways seem like important topics. So, again: there is this possibility: The campus and the lecture hall and the classroom as containers of learning, and the instructional practices to which they have led, are ancient technologies.They are the "commonsense" of current higher education, and often invisible to those who use them. In 1841 Carlyle predicted the transformation of the university by the new technologies of mass printing which he felt would make the physical apparatus of the medieval university unnecessary. He was wrong. So was Edison, who predicted that the motion picture would undo the university. And the university form, the university organizing technologies have successrully reisted the telegraph, and radio and television. The new ICT may similarly be absorbed within the present technological framework of buildings and curriculum and syllabi. There is some countervailing evidence, in the form of the spread of open universities in the world that use communication technologies to instruct hundreds of thousands of students. And the distance learning movement is flourishiing in the US. There is much talk now of "blended learning": bringing together the traditional classroom and the instructional abilities of the new technologies. There is growing evidence that the old and the new technologies often do not blend well, and that when students are given the opportunity they desert the old forms for the new. Sunday's New York Times featured an articles of the inability of Africa's brick-and-mortar universities to cope with Africa's needs for tertiary education. If there is not enough brick and mortar in the world to build the universities Africa needs, how can the technologies we are concerned with here be mobilized to help? Steve Eskow ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark D. Johns" <mjohns@luther.edu> To: <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Sent: Monday, May 21, 2007 5:10 PM Subject: Re: [Air-l] laptops and Internet access in class
Dr. Steve Eskow wrote:
... If I were in your position, without tenure and with an institutional climate that doesn't allow for differences in practice, I would undooubtedly do as you are doing--in order to collect my paycheck. I will think about whether I would defend those practices--compulsory attendance, "points" awarded and deducted, etc.-- in public....
Gee, and just the other day I was chiding my friends on this list for taking troll bait, and now look at how I've spent my day! Only a true ivory tower academic would vilify the notion that an education ought to actually help prepare students to bear some responsibility for their actions and inactions. I have better things to do than to read further condescending posts.
No more time to play this game. There's work to be done. -- Mark D. Johns, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Communication Studies Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/ ----------------------------------------------- "Get the facts first. You can distort them later." ---Mark Twain _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
The sentence of course meant to read this way: "The older communication technology and the new one are not yet compatible, and may never be." SE ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dr. Steve Eskow" <drseskow@cox.net> To: <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2007 7:20 PM Subject: Re: [Air-l] laptops and Internet access in class
A hunch, not yet a hypothesis.
The "classroom" is a an ICT: perhaps 600-square feet of enclosed space, 30 chairs, a lectern or desk for a "teacher" who faces the "students" in the chairs, a "chalk board," and various recent enhancements.
This older communication technology and the new one are yet compatible, and may never be.
Thus: there is now evidence that when an instructor puts lectures, syllabus, resources, opportunities for access to faculty and other students. . .all online, the students choose not to come to "class."
Do most faculty members here require class attendance?
Steve Eskow ----- Original Message ----- From: "Suzana Sukovic" <suzana.sukovic@uts.edu.au> To: <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 11:33 PM Subject: Re: [Air-l] laptops and Internet access in class
The experience also highlighted how difficult it was to sit BEHIND someone who has graphical content on their laptop. I consider myself a fairly animated speaker, but I apparently resemble an animated character popular with undergrads these days, and it was distracting for students to see that animation on screens several rows ahead. That is, I have a feeling laptops are far more distracting to others in the room then they are to the users.
I've heard students repeatedly saying that they like full f2f engagement and technology used for particular purposes, but it may depend on a course. There are different levels of engagement while listening and taking notes or listening and multitasking, but lecturers can't control that. I agree that laptops can affect students who don't use them. Recently, I was sitting in a dimly lit room waiting for a public lecture when someone with a laptop sat in front of me. A glare of a small screen was quite unpleasant, especially that there was a large screen switched on to be viewed during the lecture. I had to move to another seat. I imagine that interesting things happening on someone's screen can be distracting to students.
This is not to say that laptops and mobile phones can't be used successfully in the classroom. Sam's example shows a successful use of technology integrated in class activities and used by everyone. Has anyone tried to use mobile phones in the classroom? A couple of years ago mobile phones were successfully used at UTS to boost popularity of some very unpopular but compulsory 1st year finance courses. Students were asked to send answers to questions, which were diligently reviewed during a break and presented to the class. It turned to be a really good way to engage the students. Suzana
Suzana Sukovic _________________________________________ Information & Knowledge Management Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Technology, Sydney
PO Box 123 Broadway NSW 2007, Australia _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
_______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
participants (7)
-
Darren Purcell -
Dr. Steve Eskow -
M. Deanya Lattimore -
Mark D. Johns -
Steve Jones -
Suzana Sukovic -
T. Kennedy