Techno-Rhetoric Cafe

Summer classes have just begun. I’m teaching from a brand new textbook, taking two intense classes, studying for comps, preparing for a roommate and her six month old baby, and recovering slowly from a bad sinus infection. All in all, it’s been a rough few weeks. I meant to post way before now, but I really believe several weeks just tackled me at once.

So, without further ado, I vow to return to posting for the summer this week. Stay tuned; it looks as though I’ll have a few spare hours on Saturday mornings to put serious thought into posting. Look for the first post of summer session this weekend.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for other great examples of how blogs work in education, check out my Comprehensive Exams Blog. It’s getting off to a good start.

Well, for most of us, we have about a month left before the end of the semester. Some of us are reaching that weary point of exhaustion and stress that always come with a mound of papers that won’t grade themselves, more classes to teach, and not enough energy to do both (and finish coursework for those of us still on the education track). So, when I got an email from The Apple  yesterday, it got me thinking of what  really should get onto the blog ASAP. I was just short of taking a mini-break from blogging, but instead, I think I’ll give everybody with a few idea for de-stressing in these “final four” weeks of school.

Don’t try to tackle that mound of grading all at once

You have a month before final grades need to be in. Sure, the pile is calling your name, but I highly recommend you follow the method one of my colleagues recommends. Set a goal to grade 4 or 5 individual papers (or tests each day). By the end of the week, that pile will be significantly smaller.

Have a Grading Party

If you just can’t set aside the time to grade those papers a little at a time, throw a grading party for yourself and several of your colleagues. You have to be careful who you invite, though. If you know that one of your colleagues is going to talk through the entire thing and keep you from getting nothing done, it’s probably not a good idea to invite that one. You can discreetly plan the gathering via email or phone calls. Then, order a pizza, set a specific time line for grading and then reward yourself for getting some of the grading done. My colleagues and I plan to grade for about three hours and then, at the end of the session, we’ll go out for coffee or some other relaxing treat.

Get Away From it All

There is no written rule that says you simply must accomplish everything right now. If you’re feeling overcome by the stress, take a break. Go to the local bookstore and browse the best sellers. Buy a new book. Take a stroll in the park. Go to the zoo. Get a pedicure. Whatever you choose, vow to yourself that while you’re engaged in this activity you will not think about the pile of things to do at home. If you don’t think it’s possible, invite a friend that you don’t work with. You have a chance to get caught up on each other’s lives and it will keep you from thinking about the “to-do” list at home.

Make a List

I understand that this only works really well for those of us who are true “Type-A” personalities, but I think it can be rewarding for everyone. Make a list of everything that needs to be done and then cross each thing off when you get through with it. It’s always rewarding to see the list getting smaller.

Hold Class Outside

This is my last (and favorite suggestion). I love to plan a day of just talking to my students about their papers and then, instead of keeping them cooped up beneath the florescent lights in the classroom, I’ll take them outside. It’s a great way to get students a bit more relaxed, relieve some stress, and get them geared up for the rest of class. I did this with my students yesterday and the results were amazing. They talked about their papers and asked a lot of questions. We were outside for over an hour and yet they seemed to think only a few minutes had gone by. This is always a method for not only de-stressing the instructor, but the student as well. Besides, sunshine

I’d love to hear how you de-stress in the “final four” so if you have suggestions, please let me know!

If you’ll recall, a few weeks ago I wrote about the potential to use Pikiwiki with group projects and later I mentioned that one of my students had made her own PikiWiki page. Well, Since then, I’ve had a few more students play around with this site on their own. One student not only created his own pikiwiki, but also took some of his ideas and expanded on the open page that I created. I’ve also had at least one other student who has mentioned liking the site in class. So, I’ve mentioned to the students that their last assignment for the semester is going to be a visual argument and that we’re going to be doing brief presentations on their visual argument. Therefore, I get to experiment with pikiwiki! Isn’t that fabulous?

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!

Course management software bothers me. It finalizes my teaching in a Bakhtinian way. Essentially, it tells me that I have to be able to categorize my material into specific areas. If I can’t fit my material into these specific areas, then I have to use a link. End of statement. Even worse, though, is the fact that my students must remain passive users of the software. The most they can do is to complete assignments that I have asked of them. But that is NOT what I want out of my classes.

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.

The first day of class is always fun for me. I get to meet a new group of students with the potential to do awesome work. I get to start over again with my syllabus, my pedagogy, or any aspect of my teaching that I want to start over with. Students don’t always feel the same. Instructors force them to stand up and introduce themselves and provide some fact about themselves that they really don’t want their classmates to know. I always make sure that I introduce myself as honestly as possible. I let my students know that I’m a student too–it forms a bond between us and helps us to connect on a new level. I also tell them about the research that I’m working on and how I’ll implement this into their class. They get excited about the chance to be part of the research that I’m doing.

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.