My classes are rarely comprised of only native English speakers, so as I was reading, I looked for a means of incorporating Bartholomae’s self-confidence building with Ferris’ work on L2 immigrant and international students to seek a harmony between these two divergent texts. Ferris argues that L2 learners work well with specific types of feedback and that, generally, these forms of feedback focus on lower order concerns, but correctly crafted higher order statements and suggestions can lead to successful revisions for students as well. The key to effective revisions is learning what works specifically for individual students. I would further argue that we cannot just provide students with the type of comments they already work well with, but we must teach them how to address comments that may not fit this mold. Ferris recommends using marked papers to teach students revision strategies and I believe this is not only a good idea, but also the key to helping build self-confidence in the writers.

Ferris’ suggestion worked well with what I considered the strongest part of Bartholomae and Petrosky’s course model. Their course utilizes the students’ texts as course reading, and I believe this method could not only garner more effective revisions, but also build confidence in the writer. Often, I use student models from previous classes as examples and I know that students appreciate having a sample to work with. Several semesters ago, I used a sample from the class I was teaching and it made a great impact on the way students responded to the text. They were able to ask specific questions of the actual writer and get concrete feedback about how she had revised. Previously, I was only able to provide hypothetical information about how the model student had undertaken revisions. This shift in paper forms led to two specific changes in my classes. First, the writer gained self-confidence in her revisions and began to demonstrate this improvement in her next drafts. Second, other students began to start experimenting with more revisions on their own papers and asking that we discuss their paper during the next revision workshop. There was a gradual change in the writing styles of several members of the class, both L1 and L2 learners and this change came as a result of using a current student’s paper.

Unfortunately, I cannot give concrete evidence of the success of this model in Basic Writing; my experiment was with a Composition II class. However, I would hypothesize that this model would aid in the confidence building of Basic Writers, and improve their revision strategies. My rationale for this hypothesis lies in the fact that students gain confidence when their work is selected as the class sample; it demonstrates that their writing was “good enough” for this display. Also, given the opportunity to speak to real writers about real revisions has the potential to aid students in better understanding the revision process by providing them with concrete examples that are well explained.

Teachers of writing struggle every day to help their students overcome the belief that they are “bad writers.” Teachers of Basic Writing struggle even more with this problem because of the stigma automatically attached to the class they teach. Students of Basic Writing register for a class that, I believe, should require a supplemental class in self esteem. These students pay for a class that they receive no credit for at most universities and yet a class they are required to pass just to become a “real” college student. I’ve always faulted K-12 education for this stigma; the students in Basic Writing, regardless of what we call the class, know they have now been relegated to the same status as the remedial students led away to separate math and reading classes throughout the K-12 period. I never thought I would find fault in the academic world to which I belong.

The problem started when the American dream entered academia. The Civil Rights Act, The G.I. Bill, the Morrill Land Grant and many similar programs all encouraged a different group of minorities and lower class citizens to include college in their American dream. Unfortunately, the elitists in academia did not feel this American dream belonged to everybody. Their response to the desegregation of American colleges in the 1960s was segregation. Students who failed to reach appropriate scores on standardized tests were segregated into a program segregated into its own “subdepartment” (McAlexander and Greene 4). The courses were taught in second class locations segregated from other academics and were taught by instructors segregated from the elite tenure-track faculty (McAlexander and Greene 8-9). As if this was not enough emphasis on the separation of academic and Basic Writing, students also had to grapple with the fact that even after paying the money and working hard to pass the class, there would be no credit for the class.

The problem has not stopped. Yes, there are tenured professors teaching Basic Writing and many programs have access to the same classrooms as regular composition classes. Yet, we continue to charge students for classes they will receive no credit for and we continue to grapple with segregation in the program. Now, though, the segregation has changed.  We concern ourselves with the question of separate writing classes for ESL learners and native speakers. We argue over the placement of Basic Writing within the university or the community college. We argue over the experience of the Basic Writing instructor. It seems that the issue of segregation is one that Basic Writing Programs cannot escape; there will continue to be problems of segregation at some level in the program.

At the core of the problem lies the question of marginalization or mainstreaming. Do we marginalize students by placing them in Basic Writing classes? Do we avoid the potential for marginalization by placing students in regular composition classes and hope for the best? I think that to place these students in traditional composition classrooms with a list of resources is detrimental to the student. Do we continue to stigmatize these students, as David Bartholomae argues, by marginalizing them into Basic Writing classes? Do we offer a hybrid system where students take a regular composition class and are required an additional workshop course that runs concurrent with the class? None of the solutions solve the segregation problem, nor do they remove the stigma from the Basic Writer.

I don’t think the solution lies in desegregating the Basic Writer; these students are in need of separate classes that help them prepare for their college writing careers. We cannot ignore the problem by mainstreaming the students. I think that we need to work to help those outside the Basic Writing program to realize that these students are not Basic Writers because of their affiliation with any specific minority group. Instead, I think we need to find a way to spread the idea of these students not as Basic Writers, but as New Students. Mina Shaugnessey maintains a powerful influence over Basic Writing programs today not only for her influence on the teaching of the classes, but also for her recognition that there are variant factors behind the student population of Basic Writing classes. To end the stigma of Basic Writing, we need a means of demonstrating this fact to those outside the department.

Getting to Know the Consultants

I knew our Writing Consultants before the summer began. I was in classes with some of them, knew others from professional organizations, and some I knew just from speaking in the hall or in another GTA’s office. But this summer, I’ve spent more time with them than I have before. For the most part, our conversations have been brief social interactions, but we do get professional as well. I think it is helpful to know the personality of the Writing Consultants when you plan to rely heavily on their input in your students’ writing development. We all know that some personalities just don’t work well together and I think it makes the relationship between Consultant and student that much better if I can recommend a specific consultant to a student based on the student’s personality.

With the first session of the summer semester nearly over, I can say in good faith that all of my students have found a consultant who best meshes with their own personality. Each of these students has learned that they can request an appointment with this tutor, even if it means that they have to wait until a later time to set their appointment. I know that this will mean that in the Fall semester they will have a better idea who they want to work with. So in the long run, it’s better for both the student and the consultant if I can give out good recommendations in the beginning.

Communicating (Professionally) with the Consultants

It goes without saying that Writing Consultants can only be as effective as you allow them to be. Our Writing Consultants work with students in all disciplines and with this comes the need for clarity on assignments. In the past, I have always told my students to take the Writing Assignment prompt with them so that the Consultant had an idea as to what the students were doing. But that is not really enough for the Consultant to work with.

This semester, I’ve spoken to the Consultants specifically about the assignments that my students have, I have forwarded them handouts I’ve provided the students and spent time speaking to them about questions they had with the assignments. I think that for this reason, the Consultants have a chance to give more concrete advice in their sessions. This is a key for a good writing consultation. If my students are getting advice that is too vague because the Consultant doesn’t know what’s going on in the class, then the students have a harder time applying the advice to their paper. So, if we can create a relationship where the students and the consultants know how to communicate about the specific things that I am looking for in an assignment, there will be much more improvement in the students work.

Availability and Access

One other thing that I’ve been working very hard to do this semester is make myself more available during my students’ writing consultations. This is somewhat simple for me since my office is literally next door to our Writing Center. With students setting up appointments during class, the Consultants know how to reach me for questions. But for students who do not have appointments during the class period, I encourage them to schedule their appointments during or close to my office hours or to let me know when they have an appointment. This allows me (for the most part) to make myself accessible to the student and consultant if they have questions.

Now, I am not saying that I’m hovering over the consultation. But knowing I am close enough to answer questions has led to several students coming into the office during a consultation to get clarity on a question. It has also led to several Consultants coming to make sure they are providing the most appropriate guidance on a sticky problem. I don’t discuss the consultation with either the student or the Consultant so that that relationship maintains the privelage that allows it to become a productive session. However, I have found that a student who is going the wrong way with an essay can be steeered back in the right direction in a consultation. I like to be nearby if I can help with this.

I have also given students permission to bring their Writing Consultant to their revision conferences. The revision portfolio is the most important part of First Year Composition and it stands to reason that if a student has worked consistently with the same Consultant for the duration of the drafts, they may want this Consultant to be present at the conference. While I have not had students take advantage of this yet, I have had several who made scrupulous notes in their conferences to take to their Consultant with their next appointment.

FInal Thoughts

I realize that the changes I have initiated over the past few weeks may not be the most feasible to every instructor and are much less feasible during the traditional academic year than in the summer. However, I plan to continue with as many of these changes as I can during the true academic year and see if I can continue to improve student writing as I have done this semester. The fact of the matter is that if only one of these changes becomes a full time part of my writing curriculum, it can make a change for the better. If I can get one more student to realize the value of the Writing Center before they leave First Year Composition, then I have one more student on the track to continual improvement in writing. All of my previous students who discovered the Writing Center in their early days of First Year Composition have continued to use the Consultation services throughout college. The key, though, is teaching the students how to put the Writing Center, the Consultants, and the consultation itself to good practice.

Then, just as class was about to start, another student took her cell phone out of class and a moment later, came back with phone in hand and announced

I have the Writing Center on the phone. Does anybody else need to make an appointment?

One of my other students then stood up, stepped outside and set up her own appointment. This is serious progress for my students. I always encourage my students to go to the Writing Center, but for some reason or another, I’ve never had this much success with one single class. So far, I’ve had all of my students schedule writing conferences at least twice this semester. I am even more impressed that I’m getting them to go frequently. I think the reason for this improvement is in the method I took to introducing them to the Writing Center.

Familiarity Aids in Willingness

I have always taken advantage of the Writing Center’s in-class features. In the past, I have always had them come to the class at the beginning of the semester and talk to my students about the benefits of working with a Writing Consultant on their papers. This will generally perk at least one or two of my average writers up and send them to set up an appointment. I’ve learned that if I can get them to set up the first appointment, it’s more likely that they are going to set up another appointment. The problem was getting more than just a few students to realize the potential for the Writing Center.

This semester, I was having a problem readjusting to teaching 2-hour summer blocks of classes and my first few days of lectures were going way too fast. So, on the second day of class–when I normally would have asked a consultant to come speak about the Writing Center–I took my small class to the Writing Center. It seems like this was a good icebreaker. I had the chance to leave them alone with the consultants for half an hour, they were able to see exactly where the Writing Center is, and they got free grammar handbooks out of the trip.

I think this worked as a great icebreaker for the students not only because they were able to find out where the Writing Center is, but they were also able to meet with not just one of the consultants, but meet all of the consultants that they could work with over the semester. Several of the students set up appointments before they left the Writing Center that day.

Adding Incentives

The familiarity was not the only thing that I did to get students to go to the Writing Center. I also gave them a semi-benefit for going. I’ve used this in the past, but it has only worked with one or two of my average students. What I did was tell them that if they would visit the Writing Center, they could have an extra 24 hours to turn their paper in. In the Fall and Spring semesters, I do the same thing. This time, it resulted in all of my students getting the extra time to turn in their paper. I don’t know how much this has to do with the amount of quick writing the students are doing during these short Summer semesters, but I do know that this is working well for the students. 

I give them this extra time to make it more worth their time to go to the Writing Center. If you think about it, if the paper is due on Tuesday and the student has the chance to make their Writing Center appointment for Monday, they may feel rushed to make the changes and still get the paper in on time. But giving them the extra 24 hours gives them the chance to work with the changes suggested by the Writing Consultant.

Changing up the Idea of the “In Class Workshop”

I think, though, that the biggest reason that the students have taken so well to the Writing Center this semester has to do with the final incentive I gave them. I always set up two days of in-class writing workshops over the course of a unit. This gives students a specific time to spend time working on their essays and gives them the chance to ask questions about their essays at a time when they can get answers before the flow of writing dissipates. In the past, I have requested a Writing Consultant to be present at the first of these workshops. This allows the students to learn what the Writing Consultant has to offer and has led a few other students to set up an appointment with the Writing Center.

I didn’t use this tactic this semester. Instead, I told my students that if they wanted to use part of their class time on these dates for an appointment with the Writing Center, they could do so. I put parameters on this idea, though. They had to attend class between 8am and 9am (our class runs 8-10am), but they could set up an appointment at either 9 or 9:30 and leave for their appointment about 15 minutes early. I also told them that they could only set up these appointments on days that are clearly indicated on the syllabus as In-class writing workshops. Writing Center appointments are not a reason to miss class on any other day of the semester.

My students took a great advantage of this throughout the semester. Just last week, my class was a virtual ghost town. Why? Well, I have 8 students this semester. Three of these students had appointments at 9am, three at 9:30 am, and the two that were diligently working in class after the other six had left both had appointments for later in the day. It has worked really well.

Final Thoughts

So now that I have all of my students frequenting the Writing Center, I see much better essays. I see my students asking more detailed questions about what I’m looking for in an essay. I am sure that some of this comes from the bright students I have, but I also know that it comes from the Q&A session they do with their Writing Consultants as they begin working on the essay.

I cannot say that all of the improvements I’ve seen among students attending the Writing Center frequently are due to the changes that I made in class. Another serious factor to improving student writing using the Writing Center is due to communication between myself and the Writing Center. But this post has gotten a bit lengthy, so I’ll continue in a separate post. 

I’ll be posting a few more times on this subject as we work through this. I firmly believe that keeping up with what’s going on in this unit will give some essential information to me about using PikiWiki in future semesters and I think that this information can help those who are considering using this technology. They’re going to spend only two class periods working on this assignment since it’s a brief assignment and I think that they can accomplish what is needed in the short two days of class. Normally, when I do an oral presentation I spend at least one full class period showing students how to use the technology (PowerPoint, Dream-Weaver, etc.). However, given the ease with which students have already begun picking up this technology, I’m going to see if we can get the discussion and brainstorm of their project done in the same day that I introduce them to the site. I think that this is possible, but we’re going to find out (I have a few “wiggle room” days if it doesn’t go successfully). So here’s the plan for this assignment.

Overview of the assignment

My students have spent the majority of the semester working on an argumentative essay on a specific topic and they will use this topic for their third writing assignment. I am asking them to find a visual aid (YouTube video, poster, visual on a website, etc) that takes the opposite view they argued in their paper. So, if a student wrote about being for abortion, then they can use an anti-abortion sign as their visual aid. I’ve already run each of their topics through the great Google Imager, so I know that finding an image will not be a problem. They are then going to use the sign as a basis for their pikiwiki. They are going to use the image to create a visual/oral response to the image. On their page, they are going to respond to the image using any means they can within the confines of pikiwiki. This gives them the option to:

• Talk about the weakness of the image in an audio
• add a second image to refute the first
• add comments to the image with post-it notes
• emphasize points in text

I’m not giving them an extreme amount of guidance on what to do. I’m telling them that based on the argument they presented in their essay, they need to demonstrate why the visual they chose is wrong. They need to argue, via PikiWiki, for a correct statement of the opposition. For example, if they are using the aforementioned anti-abortion ad, they should point out any fallacies in the argument and refute these through any means necessary. I’ve got a week to nail down the specifics and I want to detail the process and progress of this assignment as it plays out in the actual classroom (these are my favorite types of posts). So, before next Tuesday, I’ll post their official assignment and I’ll be posting on their progress all week (and through any extra time they need).

Stay tuned!

I want my students to see how they can contribute to the growing world springing up on the “Information Superhighway” and how they can be a part of this world. Course management software doesn’t always support this. In the upcoming semesters, I want to talk to different groups of my students about internet safety. As I envision my semesters, they look something like this:

Semester I — Writing I

• Personal Narrative–(constructed throughout the semester). This essay will focus on what students are learning over the course of the semester and be turned in as a final paper at the end of the semester. A blog would be awesome for this.
• Exploratory essay–Students explore the question of how well they need to protect their safety on the Internet.
• Visual Analysis– In this essay students will analyze a MySpace of Facebook page to see how the user considers their own Internet safety.
• Informative essay–Students write to the owner of the page they used for their visual analysis and inform them of their “safety rating” and why they received such a rating.
• Persuasive essay–Students write to the owner of the page they used for their visual analysis and persuade them to either keep up their consideration of Internet safety or (more likely) urge them to consider their Internet safety.

Semester 2

• Argument Analysis–students analyze the current debate on Internet safety
• Argumentative Essay–students argue either for or against a topic related to Internet safety (i.e. teaching Internet safety in schools, age requirements for Internet access, rating system for websites, etc.)
• Argumentative Letter–Students write a letter summarizing their argument to an individual or group that could implement the changes they are arguing for.

Now, I’ve planned these two semesters to build on each other because I tend to have a “following” of students in my composition classes. Of the students who take my first semester course, about 20% also enroll in my second semester course. I like to theme the two semesters together when possible so that those who followed me out of interest in the topic have a chance to continue exploring the topic. Unfortunately, course management software impedes using material from the previous semester. Sure, I can upload parts of it, but it still has to fit into the categories provided to me. I also have to consider the chances of students who voluntarily look at these extra resources. Then, I have to consider what to do if I choose to revive the theme in the following year. Course management software keeps everything separate. It’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine. And, if I wanted the students in one semester to see what I was doing in a previous semester, I have to add them to that class. At that point, it seems that they are being fed the leftovers.

So what if I chose to stray from the school’s path and venture on my own? What if I chose a medium that would allow me to build onto semesters? What if I designed a wiki for my students? I’m envisioning it now. A blog page where each student has their own subpage for their personal blog. They can change the look as they wish. Then, I create various pages for the work we do with each of the assignments. In the future, if a student wanted to use a person previously used by another student, then they could add to that page. They would have the opportunity to look at how the information available has changed. Students could create “open letters” and send a link to the recipient. We could discuss how the project has evolved over the previous semesters. I could even get other instructors to let their students into the project as well. It could become an even larger collaboration than it is at the moment. Wow!

I know that there is nothing in the course management software that I can’t do with a wiki. Okay, with a wiki and an external gradebook. But the program I use allows me to send grades to students. It could will work. This summer, I’ll create the basis for the wiki and get things rolling. This is going to be great. AND I’ll get others involved in it. As soon as I get the ball rolling on this, I’ll add a link (or possibly a post) to the site so you can follow it if you wish.

But one thing I have never done with my students is give them the link to my blog. I don’t require students to read my blog and I don’t usually talk about it in class. But this semester has been different. I’ve talked a lot about my blog, other blogs I’m reading, blogs my students might be interested in and I’ve talked about the blogs they do (and don’t) read. Through this, I’ve learned something interesting.

I gave my students an extra credit assignment. It was only worth one extra point on the midterm and I haven’t had a lot of response (though I have quite a few students who are still looking for the extra credit). The extra credit asked them to interact with Diigo and find the extra credit. This consisted of finding my blog, reading the latest post and adding a comment providing me feedback on what they thought about the post. When I mentioned this to my students, I had just posted the pikiwiki post. I wasn’t expecting anything “phenomenal” from my students. But, as usual, they surprise me.

I had one student who not only commented on the post, but made an excellent point about why I should implement this into our syllabus this semester. The other student, well, she didn’t follow the directions and post a comment, but I gave her the extra credit anyway. Why? She created her own pikiwiki and sent it to me. How can I not give credit for that? The fact that she took the extra step and played with the technology demonstrates that my students are willing to play with the technology without being required to do so. I had planned to postpone pikiwiki until next semester so that I had more time to play around with it, but I think they’ve persuaded me to use it this semester. But they’ve also persuaded me to do something else.

Next semester, I’m going to give students the link to my pedagogy blog. I think it’s good for students to see their teachers writing as much (if not more) than they are required to. But I also think that this might provide a new means of dialoging with my students about what will “work” in their class. I’m contemplating this because I just finished reading an interesting post on Educational Discourse. In her latest post, Kelly talks about “Losing That Tech-Edge Feeling” and he makes two very interesting points in this post that I want to address here.

First, Kelly talks about using technology less in the classroom so that it doesn’t overshadow the student-teacher connection. He writes:

As I work with the teachers in my building, looking for ways to involve students, I’m wondering if the time being put into technology wouldn’t be better used working WITH THE STUDENTS.

I think this is a valid point. We cannot let technology overshadow our own interaction with the students. We need to keep the focus on engaging our students in their learning, not on just finding new ways to use technology in the classroom. If we aren’t using the technology to engage students, then why are we considering this technology in our classroom? He got me thinking here. I taught my students to use Survey Monkey last Thursday. It wasn’t a planned technology workshop, but came up somewhat out of the blue. As we were working on their argumentative essays, one of the students asked if she could use a survey in class. I agreed and recommended the site. Then, after recommending the site to another student, I rethought the approach. I asked the entire class if they would be interested in incorporation a survey and they were wild about the idea. So, right there in class, I taught them how to use it. They loved the idea and are returning to class tomorrow with their final surveys and we’ll discuss who (outside of the class) they might want to send it too.

I did a similar thing on Tuesday, also without thinking about it. I had only one student show up with the required materials for the class. I’ll admit that I was upset; I had gone to the trouble to put the daily lesson plans on the Blackboard calendar and tell the students where to find it. They forgot. I understand that. So, instead of getting angry and lecturing them about responsibility, I pulled out my techno-teacher best. I gave a “pop” quiz (I use that term loosely) in which I instructed students on how to put the calendar on their Blackboard homepage. When they had completed it gave them credit for the quiz. They all showed up this afternoon with all the materials they needed for class. I felt gratified–they did not do this because I screamed at them on Tuesday, but because I gave them the resources to be prepared for class.

I think that what Kelly is saying about working with the students is right on target, but I want to add a twist to this. I don’t think we can stop keeping up with the latest trends in technology, but I do agree that they don’t need to overshadow what we’re doing in the classroom. If I had not learned to use these tools, I would not have been prepared to teach them when my students needed or wanted to use them.

This brings me to Kelly’s second point.

Never mind that the students are texting each other and that they like the technology. Even with all that, there is still a piece that is missing – the human contact. Someone who will listen to them, right next to them. Someone who is in the building that they know really cares whether they are successful or stumbling and helps to provide the means necessary for the them to pick themselves up. Yeah, I know all about embedding technology in the learning and capturing the students but it just seems to be missing something. Once the “Wow” factor is over, what do you have?

Again, Kelly is right. We need to make sure that students are still getting the human interaction they need. But I think that for a teacher who is not ready to give up the technology fight, this human contact can be combined with the use of technology. I think that I’m going to structure it this way.

• At the beginning of the semester, I’m going to start by introducing them to RSS feeds. These are helpful for students doing research or planning to follow a specific blog or page for the course of the semester. I want to see if there’s a way to link an RSS feed to Blackboard to put this in a central location for them, but I need to look into that further before I make promises.
• I’m asking students to subscribe to my blog and read all of the posts that I put into the technology section. I may ask them to read specific posts in other areas too, but I want them at least reading these.
• I’m asking them to post comments to any of the technology posts that they would like to learn to use in class. I’m hoping this will get a discussion started that can be continued in the classroom.
• I’m expanding the roundtable section of my class to include discussions about the comments they left on the blog and ways that we can consider incorporating the technologies in the classroom. As it stands, we use roundtable discussions at the beginning of every class to talk about recent developments in students’ lives (from getting a new puppy to their first fight with their roommate), interesting stories in the news (my students this semester voted in their first primary) to problems they’re having writing their essays (they get great feedback from their peers in these discussions). So, next semester, I’m going to start mentioning posts that I have coming up or posts that they have commented on. I want to use this as a means on listening to what my students want to learn about with their technology opportunities and get them thinking about their own learning.

The plan for the semester is to get students thinking about how technology works in their lives. I think that it’s one thing to tell students that a technology can be advantageous for them to learn. I know that this can be effective–it worked with Diigo and my students this semester. But in the upcoming semesters, I want this to be something that they have more input into. My theory is that if they have the desire to use technology in the class, they are more prone to use the technology later in life. Only time will tell, so check back in the fall to see how this is developing. I’ll keep you posted.

A history professor asks students to choose a specific aspect of World War II and write an informative essay over the topic. Now, consider two students (I’ll call them John and Shane) who both decide to write on the battle of Pearl Harbor. Let’s say, for sake of argument, that John had a composition teacher who stressed the importance of collaboration and introduced students to resources that would allow them to collaborate on the research portion of the essay. John introduces Shane to one of these resources. We’ll say that the students are using Diigo to share links. Now, during the research process, John and Shane create a Diigo group in which they both add links to collaborate for the paper. They both add annotations to the resources and use some of the same resources in their papers. The papers, when graded by the professor, vary in content, but contain several of the same quotes from the same sources. The professor thinks this is suspicious, so he compares the two documents and discovers these similarities:

• Three of the eight required sources on the papers are the same.
• Of these three sources, at least one quote from each source is in both papers.
• The organization of the papers is vastly different.
• None of the content is the same in either paper.

I would do a little happy dance if these two papers were from my students. Why? Because the content demonstrates that the students are not plagiarizing each other, but the sources indicate that they are in fact collaborating in their research (which means they were paying attention to what I said in class). But, it seems that some professors view this as cheating and will, in fact, give students a lower grade on the essay–if they don’t fail them–because they chose to collaborate.

Now, I would be the first to turn in a student who was copying answers from another student’s paper during a test. I would turn in a student text messaging a friend for answers to a test during the test itself. But we have to realize that with the advances in technology that our students use, we need to change our definition of cheating. Or do we just need to reconsider exactly what comprises collaboration. As I said, if I were reading these two essay I would be happy that the students had thought to collaborate on their research. I can easily tell, based on organization and content when students are collaborating too much on their technology and when they are merely collaborating on the research. Testing is another story, so I won’t address that in this discussion because I want to keep the focus to collaboration and writing.

If we can think about the load of courses that our students have to take to meet the requirements for graduation (both in high school and college), it requires a LOT of writing. English teachers require between one and five essays per student each semester. In addition, many history, psychology, and even music or art classes are requiring papers of students. This is just brushing the surface of classes I can remember taking. Now, we also have to think about the friendships that we encourage our students to make in the classroom and how we encourage these students to create study groups for tests and to contact each other if they have to to miss class. So why do we not encourage the collaboration that helps them achieve the goals we want them to achieve?

To return to the history paper, think for a second about the number of sources–books, journals, and websites–devoted to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Now, if we think that a traditional semester runs about 16 weeks and the paper is discussed on the first week of class, but not begun by students until around week four (and I’m being optimistic here) then they have fourteen weeks to complete the research and write the paper in order to turn it in during the final week. There is no way these students can get through all of that research. But, if they form study groups as they will have to do in advanced classes and careers, they can then begin to condense the amount of research that is done in the group. It doesn’t matter how they divide the research, but that they divide it. This allows two people to continue to research longer while gaining more information on the subject and, ultimately, be able to use better research. There is no need for both John and Shane to need to decide that a particular book is not useful to the research. If one can determine this and then notify the other then they cut out a portion of the research.

I doubt that this form of collaboration is new. What is new about it is the way students interact with the books. Using digital libraries and more online sources, students are able to access more sources than ever before. Because of this, I think, many professors are expecting a more diverse group of sources when they could be looking at the way that students are using their research networks to their advantage.

I’m not saying that if John and Shane each included the exact same sources, organized their paper the same way and had paragraphs that had similar wording, we should not consider this a potential cheating issue. However, if the only similarities between the two papers lies in the research of the paper, then the use of research networks should be taken into account.

But let’s say that John and Shane each have completely different sources. John, normally a “C” writer has written a “B” paper that is organized in exactly the same manner as Shane but has different content. Is it a bad idea to look back at John’s previous papers and see if he has encountered comments in the past that focus on his lack of organization? Is it too much to consider that perhaps John knows Shane is good at organization and asked for help with his own paper? Shane would likely tell him how his own paper was organized and John is likely to use this information to organize his own paper. Again, I don’t think that we should consider this cheating. We teach our students using examples. Why then, would we not allow them to use an example they had sought out on their own? It makes sense to me.

I am not saying that a teacher should completely rewrite their definition of cheating. What I am saying, instead, is that teachers need to look closely at what is going on in these situations and determine whether it is detrimental to the student to eliminate collaboration for the sake of keeping students from drawing ideas from other students. I, however, think that if students are using each other to further expand their education, we should encourage this. It could very well lead to a promotion in their future. Should we stand in the way of this?

But I’m curious. What do you consider the difference between collaboration and cheating? Am I living in a utopia where student collaboration is not cheating or am I actually being realistic about these collaborative endeavors? Do I need to explore this idea further?

This article is also featured on TheApple; join the conversation in TheApple’s article discussion

In the fall, I ran across a new social bookmarking site–Diigo. I started using Diigo with a paper that I was writing and loved it for several reasons. First, it’s a social bookmarking site which meant that I could peruse the links of other people on the site. Second, Diigo gave me the Furl functionality of highlighting and annotating, but the format seemed easier and the interface was more aesthetically speaking (in my opinion).  While I was in this stage of tinkering, I met with one of my dissertation committee members and I was talking about the focus of my dissertation–blogging. He very bluntly reminded me that my entire dissertation could not focus only on blogging, but needed to be focused on more features. I was in a bind–I wanted to focus on the advantages to writing that came from blogs, not all medias. But the more I played around with Diigo, the more a little grain of an idea began to grow. My dissertation should note about the advantages to writing–but about collaboration through Web 2.0.

So, this semester, I went out on a limb and offered my students the option of collaborating on their research this semester. They were already not looking forward to the research, but the idea of using each other to further their research sounded like a good idea. Still, they weren’t jumping at the idea. Then, I gave them a quick walkthrough of Diigo. Their eyes lit up like they had just been given a present–and it wasn’t even their birthday. One student looked dumbfounded and asked:

“Is it really that easy?”

“It sure is.” I replied. So we set about installing the Diigo toolbar and they started on their research. But I’m leaving the student portion of this experiment here. (You have to want to come back, right?). Instead, I want to talk about the pedagogical approach to using social bookmarking–and Diigo especially–in classes that require research.

Students Use Social Bookmarking

Just like I learned with blogging in the classroom, I know that students get more out of methods of learning that they use in their free time. So, social bookmarking was a way for me to engage my students not only in the research, but in conversations with the research. Social bookmarking, regardless of the site used, creates a conversation among members interested in the same tag. Each time a member marks a bookmark, they are speaking to their networks and saying “Read this.”

Annotation is Suddenly Fun

Each semester, I try (in vain, usually) to get my students to annotate their text book. I do this to prepare them not only for future studies, but also for the annotation that research demands they do. Diigo, suddenly, makes the students want to annotate their bookmarks. It is their chance to make sure the world (or their group) knows how important specific words on a webpage are to them.

Diigo allows a More Advanced Conversation

As I mentioned above, social bookmarking allows students to engage in a conversation with other scholars on the same topic. Diigo allows this conversation to move beyond just the “Read this” comment and actually allows the students to create a dialogue. Through Diigo, students have a variety of ways to engage in this dialogue.

• Creating Groups–creating groups of individuals within their network who are researching on the same topic allows students to share bookmarks they have found.
• Using Forums–Within a group, the administrator has the opportunity to create a forum that allows each member of the group to ask and respond to specific issues on a topic. For example, if one student cannot find statistics, they can mention this in the forum and receive an answer (or better yet, a bookmark) from one of the group members.
• Highlighting–This allows one student to specifically show others in the group what they find important about the bookmark. But the highlights are not owned or seen by just the individual. If John shares a bookmark with highlighting, Frank can not only see John’s highlighting, but can also add his own highlighting (which is also available to John).
• Sticky Notes–In addition to highlighting, students can add to the conversation on the page. Their comments can be seen by others who read the page (if the notes are public) and their friends can add to this conversation.

Now, I’m looking at the benefits to what happens when students alone share bookmarks. However, keep in mind that in the most public realm, these conversations can be looked at and added to by anybody else in the Diigo network. Therefore, students have the chance to get information from even more sources.

Now, in the grand tradition of my previous hows and whys, I want to look at how I assigned this to my students. This is a bit complex, but I’ll try to simplify it. It’s also very heavily geared towards a rhetoric focused First Year Composition that spends the entire semester focusing on research.

Assignment Part One–Bookmarking

In the first part of the assignment, I asked students to complete research with Internet sources through specific search engines (Google, Internet Public Library,  and the Librarians Index to the Internet). I told them to simply bookmark and tag any site or article that looked usable in research. (At this point, my students were working with three controversial topics, so they were doing research on three different topics.

Assignment Part Two–Sharing Bookmarks and Creating Subgroups

In class the day students were to turn in their bookmarks, I simply had students log in to Diigo and then share their bookmarks to the class group. Then, I asked them to get together with those who were writing on the same topic (they also chose their final topic in class this day) and create a subgroup for their topic. Then, I asked them to share their bookmarks on their final topic with their group and to browse through the class bookmarks for other bookmarks on their topic. This way, they also had the bookmarks from people who had researched the topic, but not chosen it as their final topic. So, essentially each person in the group had the opportunity to get research from up to 10 other students.

Assignment Part Three–Evaluating the Sources via Sticky Notes

For this part of the assignments, students are to go through each of the sources in their group and create sticky notes throughout the essay to identify the author’s use of the three rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, logos). Then, I’ve asked them to post a sticky at the bottom evaluating the source and explaining how this specific article would fit into their argumentative essay. (What students are not aware of at this point is that this step is essentially creating their annotated bibliography–the next step in the research process for this class).

Final Thoughts

Each of my students is also linked to my Diigo account, so they can see how I interact with the site itself. I’ve encouraged them to look through the bookmarks and ask questions about why I do specific things on my sites. If they’ve kept up, they had the chance to see my resources double for a class that I’m taking as well as for links for future posts on the blog.

Feel free to poke around through their group and visit Diigo if you haven’t. You can see the 1023-Collaborative Group without an account and you can see what the students are doing with their bookmarks. Or, you can see my pubic bookmarks. If you are a Diigo user (or decide to become one), feel free to join my new Diigo group for TRC.  As always, please let me know if you have questions or need feedback. But  more importantly, let me know if you try this in your classroom. I’d love to know how it goes.

Happy Techno-Teaching

Then, after finishing my M.A. and moving on to a new university to pursue my Ph.D. and teach, I discovered that my students were a lot less receptive to the idea. I diligently provided my information to the students, but of the 60 students I taught this time, only about 5 sent me friend invitations. After the first few weeks, I assumed that the students were just not going to add me as a friend until it got closer to their essay’s due date. But, as the semester progressed and I added no more than students to my friends list, I began to wonder just why there was such a change. So at the end of the semester, I sat down with my students and asked them about this. I was in for a new discovery.

The students had wanted to use the Virtual Office Hours, but could not. Many of these students did not own their own computers. This, I realized, was the luxury of working at a private school where each student was packed off to college with a shiny new laptop. In the world of public education, few students get new laptops or even have computers at the school. I still did not understand this problem. I teach at a university that literally oozes technology. Students have access to about 6 computer labs and 2 cyber labs, a library that allows students laptops with wireless internet, multiple computer classrooms (including the one I taught in), and various computer kiosks around campus. So, I could not see why not having a computer in the dorm room was a problem. Since I required students to turn in their assignments via email, I knew that they were finding computer access somewhere. But then the students opened my eyes.

“We can’t download software onto the computers.”

That posed a bit of a problem. So, I walked away at the end of this Fall semester curious about how I could go about re-implementing Virtual Office Hours for the entire class. The following Spring semester, I tried Blackboard’s Virtual Office. But I had little success. It was not that the students were not using the Virtual Office, but Blackboard automatically logs you out after a pre-determined amount of time. Unfortunately, it also does not tell you that it has logged you out.

Then, I found Meebo. With Meebo, I found a solution that my students could use without having to download any software. They could use the site from any computer on campus and never had to do more than log into the site. My students love it. So, I want to pass this information on to you about not only how to use Meebo for Virtual Hours, but also how to set up Virtual Hours so that you and your students get the most out of these hours.

Two Different Ways to Use Meebo

From the Website

To use Meebo from the website, all you have to do is log in with an instant messenger account. It’s that simple. If you prefer, you can set up a separate account through Meebo so that you can manage multiple accounts through a single login. If you provide your students with various Instant Messenger preferences, this is the way to go. Once you create an account, you can log in and add your other accounts to this one. It works like an online version of Trillion or Adm.

From Your Course Homepage or Blog

The other way to use Meebo is to sign up for a meebo account and then get the widget to put a Meebo box on your class website or blog. You’ll notice off to the right of this entry is a Meebo box. This is a simple widget that you get from the Meebo website. You can put it on any site that allows you to add HTML to the site. To be seen as online on your website, you still need to log in to Meebo. If you’re running Firefox they have a plug in that allows you to log in while bypassing the actual site.

A Few Guidelines for Initiating Virtual Hours

Since creating a means for students to access you during your Virtual Hours, let me also share with you a few things that I have learned about setting up Virtual Hours over the past few years.

Do

• Be Flexible. Remember that your students have lives. If you consistently set up virtual hours weeknights between 4 and 9 p.m. then you are putting students who have a part time job in a bind. On the other hand, if you only set up weekends, you’re putting those students who work weekends or spend their weekends with their family in a bind. So be flexible; choose a night or two during the week and a few hours over the weekend that you can feasibly stay close enough to your computer to answer an occasional student question.

• Be Consistent. Set up a plan for Virtual Hours at the beginning of the semester. If you want to be available to your students every week, then make that commitment. Make sure, though, that you are available at the hours you said you would be. If, however, you decide that you only want to maintain Virtual Hours when students are finishing up a major assignment, make sure that you let these students know a week or two in advance (and I recommend email as well as verbal notice) that you are having Virtual Hours. Remind them of days and times.

• Set Guidelines. Make your students aware of things that you simply will not accept during Virtual Hours. These are best presented on the handout that you provide to students with your contact information. This way, everything is there together. Here are a few of my rules.
  • Do not IM me to ask what was done in class when you were not there.
  • Do not use text message language in the Virtual Office setting. Please, use plain English.

• Keep a Log of Pet Peeves. Trust me, after a few weeks of Virtual Hours you will have discovered several things that bother you. You will want to add these to the list for your next group of students (or at the least address them with that group).

Do Not

• Do Not Be Unrealistic. It’s easy to think that if you’re at your computer all day Saturday, you can just set up an all-day marathon of Saturday hours. Inevitably, something will come up on Saturday that must be done before the end of the day. Make sure that you give yourself time to prepare for these problems.

• Do Not Be Shy with Rule Breakers. If a student breaks the rules that you have set up with the Virtual Hours, do not hesitate to end the conversation and (if need be) block the user. Remember, the Virtual Office is an extension of your own office. Don’t put up with anything there that you would not put up with in the classroom or in the office.

• Do Not Give Up Mid-Semester. If the Virtual Hours are not working for you, wait until the end of the semester to stop using them. It’s just bad form to quit in the middle of the semester.

If I can clarify anything in this post (or if you wish for me to post a step-by-step guide to using Meebo on your homepage, please let me know.

Happy Techno-Teaching!