I'm really not sure what to do with my final project, but I have the seedlings of a couple of ideas, at least.
First, I teach Sports Literature, and we do a create-a-team project in which students, with a partner, create a sports team and then do a lot of work around it, like advertisements, game summaries, logos, etc. Usually they just turn it all in to me as a big packet, but I'm wondering if they could set it up as a website of some kind and have everything on there. Then I could go and look at everything they've done, and so could their classmates. I'm not sure what type of website would be ideal for this, and would allow for responses to be put on there, but it's an interesting idea. I think it would be great for the students to be able to link to outside stuff when writing about why they chose a particular sport or team name or stadium name or whatever for their city (cities chosen at random). Maybe I could just make this one aspect of the project so as not to overwhelm the students, especially those with limited computer availability.
The other option I've thought of is to do a simple case study of what happens in my class this fall. I have changed the paper process in my room. First, all papers are uploaded to my Moodle website where I can download them and read them. The feedback I give uses track changes in Microsoft Word, and my comments are typed onto the rubric. All of this is then sent back to the student via e-mail or directly on the Moodle site if that works. I'm also considering giving audio files with my comments to the students when they get their papers back. Also on the Moodle site we do News forums where students, in groups, find news stories pertinent to the things we are talking about in class and post them for the rest of their group to read and respond. Since this is the first time I've tried either of these things, I could simply study how it worked, how the students responded, what advantages or disadvantages I've found, how it affected our "live" classroom discussions, etc.
I'm not going to lie, I'm not really sure where to go with these ideas as far as research, networking, or things like that, I'm kind of at a loss on those topics. But hopefully over the course of this semester I'll figure it out.
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Jerrod -
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of using the digital stuff with sports - seems like there's just a ton of possibilities. I wonder how many pro athletes tweet... I think I just heard an NPR story on a guy who tweets and some contention over whether or not the NFL was going to allow tweeting? I'm not sure how many more times I can write that word before I start feeling like a sesame street character muttering blogger blog to my conjoined twin. Am I mixing up memories?
I'm totally overwhelmed with the networking and researching. It seems like it simply takes too much time - I'm a person who likes to have a few very specific and trusted clearing houses for information rather than a huge number of dubious sources. I get overloaded by content like that and start turning off to it all. Google reader? Not exactly my idea of fun. It would just feel like one more email inbox or voice mail box that I had to check right after I did the laundry. Maybe it's just a learning style thing - but these endless webs of interconnected, largely non-vetted sources of information don't exactly engender in me much confidence. I love that people can create and contribute, but it's got its issues...
Jerrod: Have you tried making a free ning at ning.com, like our classroom ning? I think it would work for your classroom idea, and anyone who is "invited" to join can create a discussion and post, just like our class ning.
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