The Electronic Classroom Checklist

Munday, Stardate 1995.03.13 17:21

A work in progress

Trivial to implement

Marshall McLuhan's observerd that the first content of any new media is the old media. That's because it not only an obvious place to begin, it's because it's also the easiest. Technology is easier to tamper with than content. So get out your old course handouts and cut and paste them into web documents.

• syllabus
• assignments
• announcements
• problem sets
• problem solutions
• study questions
• midterm exam questions
• midterm exam answers
• midterm standing
• final exam questions
• final exam answers
• final standing

The next refinement of this level would be to add new content. E.g.

• digitize your slides
• locate video clips
• etc.

But there is no reason to do this alone. Some of these are things your students in the course could do for the course.

Easy to implement

Collaborative projects start out with the work that students are doing for the course already, and turn it towards electronic media. Some students may be doing parts of this on their own already, so you may be playing catch up. Turning class projects into "real world" projects on the web is a great way to raise the level of the course work a notch.

• student projects ... "thinking like a physicist."
• course resources -- topic oriented anchors are volitile and excellent for student projects :-)
  • Einet Galaxy -- http://www.einet.net/
  • Netscape Yahoo ! -- http://akebono.stanford.edu/yahoo/
• course newspaper -- "History Today!"
  • "x" in the news
  • 2 points per posting
• course magazine -- "Popular History!"
  • "X" in the journals
  • precis, synopsis, 100 word essays
  • up to 5 points per posting
• book reviews
  • 200 word reviews (2 points)
  • 800 word critical reviews (10 points)
• course journal
  • peer edited
  • peer reviewed
  • 1200 word articles and essays (25 points)
• weekly online quizes (100 - 200 word answers)
• e.g. Leroy Anderson's Educational Technology Course.

Moderate work

The electronic seminar. The next big bump is integrating these last two into a course as a whole. How do we get to the big picture.

• what is the BIG question? (Of course the field is open ended, otherwise no one would be in this field!)
• the weekly big question (is the textbook wrong again?)
• the daily question and answer (is the instructor wrong again?)
• does all of this make sense?

Real work

The electronic research laboratory -- where the course is not seen as a separate entity but is totally integrated into ongoing research.

• Bionet
• Planetary Data Center
• Social Science Data Center
• Virtual Library

Last updated, Munday, 1995.03.13