'Round the clock discussion Students, professors, TAs continue on-line what begins in

By Melissa Mitchell

"The Net is a dangerous place to send naive students. You
may as well send them to the nearest Laundromat to learn
about quantum mechanics. They might get lucky, but they're
more likely to return as members of a new church."

-Vernon Schryver, Silicon Graphics employee and network
consultant


UI students hitching a ride on the Internet may find the
road a bit bumpy at times. They may become frustrated by
occasional detours and dead-ends. And sometimes they will
get lost. But the instructors who send them on their
electronic journeys are convinced that along the way,
students are picking up invaluable skills that prepare them
to compete in an information-technology-intensive world.

That's why more and more faculty members and teaching
assistants in a wide range of disciplines - not just in
engineering and technical areas, but in everything from
anthropology to veterinary medicine - are helping students
make the connection that computer networking skills can be
used to enhance learning in almost any field. And, the
instructors who do this best are the ones who make a point
of equipping their students with the equivalent of road
maps, operating manuals, flashlights, flares and tire jacks
before telling them to hit the road.

Andrew Wadsworth, a teaching assistant responsible for a
curriculum-and-instruction course on secondary education in
the United States, held a technology day in each of C&I
229/240's discussion sections to familiarize students with
electronic mail, bulletin boards or news groups, and other
network forums and tools. After receiving hand-outs, as well
as hands-on instruction, students learned how to use a news
group - set up specifically for the class - to share their
fieldwork experience in area schools with each other and
with the teaching assistants.

Wadsworth said that while many students enrolled in the
course already had e-mail accounts, they didn't necessarily
have a great deal of experience using the Internet. In fact,
he said, C&I 229/240 students included a fair number of
technophobes.

Wadsworth thinks it's important that teachers-to-be learn as
much as they can about the technology here and now, so they
will be better equipped to use it to their advantage when
they encounter it later in their own school classrooms.

"Our belief is if they're going to be professionals in the
field, they need to get over these fears and get prepared
for the 21st century," he said. "I tell them, 'Do you
realize what you have access to? And you have it here for
free ... get familiar with it.' "

At the same time, Wadsworth said, "it's not something I just
left them hanging with." In addition to holding a technology
day, he monitors student feedback in the class news group
and is available to assist anyone having problems using the
technology.

While reading or posting messages in the news group isn't a
requirement of the course, a number of students take
advantage of the forum on a regular basis. Wadsworth said
the news group serves students in this course particularly
well because the structure of the course limits the amount
of time available for in-class discussion.

"In that we have a lecture and guest speakers, we seldom
have a lot of time to discuss fully what our individual
viewpoints were," he said. "This is a forum that allows
students to come back and reflect and share after thinking
about the subject for a while."

Wadsworth said he "encourages students to go out on a limb"
in their news-group discussions. "I want them to say, 'Hey,
I could not believe this teacher said such and such.' One
incident often will spawn 15 to 20 responses," he added,
noting that since anyone with access to UI news groups can
read the forum, he instructs students to change names of
teachers and schools to keep things anonymous.

The following is an example of a typical exchange that took
place between two students in the news group this semester.
The first student writes:

"Last week when I was observing, my cooperating teacher left
me in charge of her class while she went to file a report ...
The students would not listen to me, and they would not
do their work. One student even threw another student's
watch out the window. The students don't see me the same way
they see their teacher. How do I get them to do their work
when their teacher is out of the room? My cooperating
teacher said I should pick up their books and say "let me
see what you are doing," but I tried stuff like that and it
didn't work. Any help will be appreciated."

In short order, another student responds:
"I'll throw in my $0.02. In my limited experience, you have
to have the students' respect _before_ you get into a
situation like that, or else there really isn't anything you
can do. If they don't see you as an authority figure,
anything you do will either be ineffective or
counterproductive. Being 'reasonable' doesn't work, and
'threatening' them with names written down for their regular
teacher or whatever will likely make them further rebel
against you. I faced this situation, with a slightly
different tinge, last semester when I was teaching. Once I
lost them, I never got them back."

While students seek and receive feedback from peers in class
news groups, teaching assistants and professors often
monitor the groups as well and offer suggestions or help on-
line. The obvious advantage for students is that they can
have their questions answered quickly, without waiting until
the next class period or making a trip to the instructor's
office.

Anthropology professor Frederic Lehman also finds other
benefits to news-group communication with members of his
Anthropology 370 class.

"I think it's a grand thing," Lehman said. "I find it useful
as a means of finding out what the lectures and readings
have left unclear or requiring elaboration, which is then
easy for me to insert."

Unfortunately, he added, his experience with news groups has
not been as successful as he would have hoped. "Too few of
the students in the class have seen fit to use it or feel
comfortable accessing the news-group system yet. Basically,
from what they tell me in class, too few of the students -
even now - feel comfortable using a computer for anything
more than an expensive typewriter."

Speech communication professor Barbara O'Keefe reports
having better luck using class news groups in two classes
she currently teaches, Speech Communication 199-2
(Introduction to Communication Technology) and Speech
Communication 437 (Analysis of Interpersonal Interaction).

"Electronic conferencing has never been unsuccessful for me,
although some classes have used it better than others. Some
students are anxious about posting to a news group - they
aren't used to such a public context for learning," said
O'Keefe, who has been using news groups for the past several
years, first in a course team-taught with Chip Bruce for the
Center for Writing Studies.

Once everyone gets past their initial anxiety, the system
serves instructor and students well, O'Keefe maintains.

"One thing electronic conferencing has done is to make
communication between faculty and students and among
students much easier," she said. "I don't have to rely on
face-to-face class meetings to provide information; I can
send out messages at any time. Similarly, the students can
get in touch with me much more easily. So, the overall
effect is to create a much closer and responsive
relationship between students and faculty.

"Using electronic conferencing also gives students more
control over their own learning and greater access to
resources, whether those resources are on-line course
materials, instructor input or discussion with other
students. This promotes a more active approach to learning
and greater involvement with the course material."