But what makes this group even more different is that this is the first group of 18 year old students I’ve had who have not decided to vote based on the candidate that their favorite parent is voting for. For some strange reason, I have 15 students just barely old enough to vote and they are doing the unthinkable. They are trying to decide who to vote for.  I discovered this the first week of class when they bombarded me with questions not relating to deadlines and grading scales, but how they could register to vote and whether they have to  claim the school or their home as their voting precinct. I was floored. I’ve never had a group even ask me about this. I gave them the best advice that I could and sent them on their way. I assumed the political activity in my class was over.

It wasn’t. The second week of classes, my students returned. Our topic of discussion for the day was Ronald Reagan’s speech at the Brandenburg Gate (the famous “Tear Down This Wall”) speech. I had asked them to read the text of the speech and watch a few minutes of Reagan delivering the speech. Yes, I teach composition. No, Reagan is not out of place in a composition class. His speech oozes rhetorical appeals. It is also a wonderful means of teaching students how the modes of writing are not only aspects to writing individual essays, but can be be incorporated into one complete essay. As we discussed the speech, I noticed that they had not only paid attention to what I asked of them, but they had opinions on the speech. Yes, this is odd for a group of freshmen during the second week of school.

After Reagan’s speech, we turned to an article on Hurricane Katrina and several of my students got into a mild debate about where the blame for the disaster relief debacle should fall. One student, a native of New Orleans, was placing the blame not on the President, but on New Orleans politicians. This is unheard of in my classes. As I broke up the debate (to keep it from getting too heated), one of my student’s asked if I had seen Obama’s speech the previous night and we chatted for a moment on the speech. Then, another student asked if I knew when McCain was speaking. We Googled it. I took a risky step (now with only a few minutes left in the class period) and asked if they had made a decision on their next president.

One replied

I haven’t made up my mind yet.

This was followed by another reply of:

I want to hear more about their stance on the issues

A third student replied:

I’m waiting for the debates.

I was dumbfounded. My experience with freshman voters involves voting for the person daddy or mommy tells them to vote for. I asked for a show of hands for those who watched Obama’s speech and half the class raised their hands. Many of the others had missed it because they were in class. There were only two who were not interested. So, I posted the link on our Blackboard site. I’ve also posted McCain’s speech.

Then I started thinking about four things:

1. Civic Engagement
2. Critical Thinking Skills
3. Improved Writing
4. Reinforcing the Modes of Discourse

Civic Engagement

Students who are interested in politics are a rare group. They have beliefs that they are ready to take into a voting booth. As teachers, we cannot just cast aside this decision. We cannot-and should not-make decisions for our students, but we can help them to make their own decisions by allowing them to talk about their beliefs in a classroom setting.

Critical Thinking Skills

I can capture the political enthusiasm my students have and push this into their class activities in a way that means I can help them improve their critical thinking skills. This is important in their future and plays a role in our country’s future as well.

Improved Writing

I can assign extra credit work related to the election that asks students to write on their views as civic minded individuals. Through these writings, students can address the issues that are important to them while simultaneously improving their writing skills.

Reinforcing Modes of Discourse

Too many students come into the college classroom prepared to write a narrative or an argument without realizing the depth that various modes can bring to their writing. I can ask my students to look at how McCain and Obama use the modes to create powerful speeches. This mimics what I asked them to look for in Reagan’s speech, but puts it in a context in which they have show an interest. A topic interesting to a student is always going to engage them in their learning more than a topic they care nothing about.

So I’ve thought about this and made a decision. I’m going to allow my students extra credit writing opportunities throughout the semester. These will be brief one or two page assignments based around information they need to learn this semester. But they will also be based around various aspects of the political campaign. I plan to start by asking them to use the modes of writing to look at the two acceptance speeches. But as the semester goes on, I’m going to expand these options. I want students to have the chance to not only interact with the campaign, but also with new technologies. So, along the way, I will provide them with the option to record rebuttal speeches and send to me. (If they permit me, I will upload these to the YouTube account). I will give them the chance to design a webpage for the candidate they choose or to design a webpage discussing the two candidates. (If the students will let me, I will upload these pages to my homepage and link there when I can).

So, for starters, I’m teaching them the literacy of YouTube. I’ve created a channel specific to our class and posted the link on the class Blackboard site. I’ve also posted their first extra credit opportunity as a bulletin on the channel. It’s a bit like a semester long virtual scavenger hunt.

We will see how the students take to it. Check back for updates.

After a brief explanation of the project and the site in the classroom, I turned my students loose to play with their pages. Now, the assignment was simple. They were asked to find a visual that demonstrated the opposition to the argument they were working with all semester. I asked them to place this in the center of their page and use the remainder of the space to refute that argument using any of the means available through PikiWiki. They did an excellent job.

But what I truly loved about PikiWiki was the fact that I did not have to hold any of my students’ hands through the experiment. Even those who are terrified of computers were able to do a great job with their page. And, it allowed those who knew more about technology to help out those who were struggling with the site.

But I think the biggest benefit to PikiWiki was to those who were not techno-savvy. They had the chance to work with technology and come to realize that if they experiment and try new ways of working with technology, it’s not as scary as they perceived. Even one of my less techno-savvy students has said that she will use the site in the future for visual presentations if her professors will let her.

In the end, I give PikiWiki two thumbs up. Below are pages created with PikiWiki by both a techno-savvy student and a techno-illiterate student. Take a look. I’ve rated them by the student’s technology capabilities over the course of the semester. You’ll notice that they’re both well done pages and without the identification of the student’s skills, you would never know which page was done by the techno-savvy student.

Benefits of Standardized Testing (a techno-illiterate by her own definition)

Legalizing Marijuana (a techno-savvy student)

I followed a link from somewhere to pikiwiki the other day and I think I’ve found a new technology that would be great for student presentations. Let me explain.

I usually have students do a group presentation each semester and require them to incorporate some form of visual with their presentation. I’ve always asked them to consider creating a wiki or a website, yet I always end up with nothing more than a simple PowerPoint. I know that part of this is because some of them are not sure about how to create a website or a wiki. Unfortunately, this is a complex thing to teach in a class (believe it or not). I try to get my students to create visual aids that supplement their presentations instead of creating presentations they read. However, no matter how much I try, it seems that my students are always putting ALL of their information into the PowerPoint and then simply reading it to the class. So, I think this is one area where a website would benefit them. So, I’ve been pondering ways to teach them to create a visual aid where they can use the features of the aid as talking points without reading directly from it. I think pikiwiki can do this. Why? Read on.

Pikiwiki works like a wiki–but with NO programming (CSS or HTML) required. Students can type in text boxes and then drag these boxes around where they want. They can resize their text, color, it and change the font, all with the same forms of technology they use in their email, blogs, and MySpace pages. They can drag and drop pictures and move them around as they wish. They can record audio or link a YouTube video. They can add images and change the color of the background. It’s fabulous in my opinion. Why?

First, students are limited to create one page at a time, so they have to focus on putting the most important information on that one page. This means they have to think carefully about the specifically about the videos and images they upload. They also have to think about what specific text is on the page and how they arrange everything. I think that, in the classroom, this will allow me to spend more time focusing on creating a better visual aid (and thinking outside the box) than I spend trying to teach each individual group how to write a wiki in only a few ways. Instead, I can use a longer assignment later in the semester and have each one create a page for a wiki. This way, we can walk through this technology step by step.

Second, pikiwiki makes students collaborate on a higher level than other formats do. Powerpoint, wikis and even websites all allow each group member to create their own slides or pages. However, I think that asking each group to create only one pikiwiki page will require them to collaborate on a more complex level. This means that students returning to their personal computer to do “their part” and then come together to only discuss the background and order of the pages is a thing of the past. With pikiwiki, each group member is required to talk about all aspects of the page to make sure that the page has the best impact for the presentation. They will have to decide which of the flicker images or YouTube videos they want to use instead of using each of them.

Finally, I think that using pikiwiki can help students learn to collaborate on the level they will need in the real world. By asking students to collaborate on every aspect of the page, they will gain experiences that can be used far beyond the classroom. So, I think that it would be a good idea to ask students to keep a journal of their experiences as they go. This way, they can reflect back on the big decisions that came with the collaboration. In this journal they can discuss the choices for video and image layouts. They can discuss the way the group collaborated on the text that was included with the page and how decisions were made on the final product. It might even be a good idea to have students write a reflective essay (if you teach an English class, this is another good way to get students an essay credit while further talking about their use of technology) in which they discuss their journals and their collaborative projects in a more detailed, organized manner.

For more on pikiwiki (and a brief discussion) see the short video below. It’s brief, but a simple preview. Just remember, the rest of the post is below the video

Now, since I fully believe that we should all try out the technology before considering it in the class, I decided to make my own page. The great thing is, not only does the page allow me to share it with you, but it allows you to edit it as you wish (a setting that can be turned off, but please don’t). So here’s what I’m proposing. For all of you reading this who are considering using pikiwiki in your classes, check out the page and edit it. Then, post a picture of the updated page on your blog and talk about it. Make sure to send me a link.

Here’s the link to the page I created.

Here’s a visual of the page. So, what are you waiting for? Try it and post it. Let me know what you think.

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!