The end...for now

The project's main goal was to simply provide more concrete ways for newer technologies (such as videos or blogs) to be implemented in the classroom. At first, this blog started out mainly hosting bits and pieces of my research, such as the pros and cons of a professor using a social networking site, and basic definition of some of the "hotter" media items today, but the blog quickly became the research itself...which was cool. The project began to shape itself more: me positing content that I tied in to various concepts/problems with English (context/allusion/intertextuality/figurative language), and in general, hinging very much on the feedback of others. I had two co-authors for this specific blog, both of whom I owe thanks for providing contributions and ideas to think about/use this new technology, but other than that, the direction of the site was mostly in the classes' hands -- what did they want to learn about, what new technologies were they interested in seeing that I could do the grunt work for, what new cool thing did they want to show to the class or connect with a post? With that in mind, a new kind of research question evolved: How best to gain this kind of learning-rich participation from the classroom.

The answer, the conclusion I have reached so far, is troubling. Most of the feedback is troubling, saying that the most effective way would be to make it a part of a syllabus, a percentage of a student's grade based holistically on criteria ranging from the number of posts they make to the "quality" of the post. It's interesting that there were only three main authors, simply because if everyone in a class was made an author, I'm not sure how many would have taken the initiative to post, knowing that it had no effect on their grade. The times I did get feedback/interaction was during class time, where students felt obligated to post, and while I did get some quality discussions going there about some of the issues I or others may have brought up, there was a definite lack of consistency to this. A lot of reasons were given as to the "why" this happened: lack of time, forgetting where the blog was, or feeling that there was nothing significant to add. While I can agree that a discussion forum like a blog shouldn't be used to just post will-he-nil-he, there is also a difference between reading the content, processing it, and providing a new, unique take on what's being presented. A remedy to forgetting the URL is simply to either bookmark it or feed to it with a feed reader (firefox has one built in, and their are things like protopage where you can host all your feed subscriptions online). That way, you can check your feed reader once or twice a day as you do normal surfing to "see" if anything new is created. I think the lack of time is probably the biggest area to suggest: again, with this not being "required," I don't think anyone felt extraordinarily compelled to comment -- they had their own projects to work on, which is totally understandable, but then again, in a classroom setting, usually students will always have something else to work on.

This brings us full circle -- how do you "beat" these odds concerning forums such as these (blogs, discussion boards, etc) and help foster in the student a feeling that they need to contribute without making them feel obligated or forced? I think, as of now, the best way may be a three-step model. The first step would be to begin by simply orienting them to the technology being used. I may have made too many assumptions about the ease in which people could access and use this site, so it may be best to begin by gauging the classrooms knowledge set -- what do they already know about x; how do they already use x in their everyday lives. With this in mind, I could move onto step two, which would result in showing students more "real world"/"academic" examples of the tool in use. That way, a student knows that the technology can be taken seriously, and is beneficial to learn instead of just being a waste of time, energy, and/or money. The last step would be to integrate some "fun" into the tool -- show them examples that are not only entertaining, but educational as well. This should show students the full gamut of a tool's functionality, and it may make them more likely to use the tool, knowing that it's nothing to be afraid of and the results of using the tool can benefit them in a variety of realms.

I don't think this project will ever end; rather, I am striving to keep the information as current as possible, adding more outlines of new technologies as they come down the line, and hopefully providing an interested user with the know-how to use them.