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Technology has exploded at a somewhat
intimidating rate, and at times you may feel that you are doing so
much maintenance on your individual Web site, Internet searching,
or e-mail/forum communication with students that you have less even
less time for a personal life outside of Rutgers. It doesn't help
that students keep somewhat different hours than we do and do not
understand why we didn't immediately answer an e-mail sent frantically
at 2:00 am. They want instant messages to be answered instantly, even
if you are talking to a few other students, working on your website,
posting to the forum, and checking out the Link-O-Mat simultaneously.
Here are some tips from people who are in various stages of recovery
from technology overload.
A Caution on Bulletin Board Forums
by Michael J. Cripps
I have used forums in my Writing Program classes since 1999. I migrated
to forums out of frustration with the reading journals I used to
require students to keep. I required a reading journal in my Writing
Program classes for a whole host of reasons. I wanted students to
read carefully (and critically), to isolate difficult passages in
the texts and to work with them, and to reflect on initial ideas
once they had read an essay several times. Students hated the reading
journal requirement and (to be honest) I hated having to collect
(and grade!) the journal.
Bulletin board forums offered me a way to retain the benefits of
a reading journal without the weighty burden of lugging around notebooks.
Moreover, they made it possible for students to share thoughts on
the readings, and more. My first semester with a forum on WebCT
was a disaster. I quickly learned that bulletin board forums, like
any element of instructional technology, do not magically improve
classroom practices, reduce the instructor's workload, or make students
write more effective essays. Forums can do all of these things,
but only if you locate ways to put them at the center of your portfolio
of requirements.
Here are four tips:
- Make forum usage a requirement.
Students are very busy. They will not visit and post regularly
if it remains "optional." I require 5 posts per week.
This seems like a lot, but it really isn't. A student can meet
this requirement in about one hour's work each week. And the assignments
I give make it possible for the students' posts to feed right
into the drafting process.
- Seed the discussion and monitor regularly.
Productive forum activity does not spring forth spontaneously.
I like to get things rolling during the first few weeks by modeling
the kinds of posts (questions and responses) I'd like to see students
making. Like all bulletin board forums, they require some sort
of monitor. If students think you're not visiting the forum they
won't take care with their posts.
- Bring posts into class.
I use the discussion on the bulletin board forum to help me with
my class plans for a given day. When there is a new reading due,
I'll often visit the forum just before class to see what students
are writing about it. This helps me gauge where the class is on
the reading, and enables us all to benefit from more focused class
discussion.
- Encourage students to experiment.
Treat the bulletin board as a place for students to test their
ideas. Assignments can help students try out their prospective
paper topics, and can even help them refine specific components
of a particular draft. If the forum can develop the culture of
a functioning peer group, students will treat it as a great place
to advance ideas in a low-risk environment.
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