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Network Discussions for Teaching Western Civilization

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21 Network Discussions for Teaching Western Civilization Mary anne Felter Cayuga Community College Daniel F. Schultz Cayuga Community College Background If literacy is, as Charles Schuster (1990) has said, "the power to be able to make oneself heard and felt, to signify . . . the way in which we make ourselves meaningful not only to others but through others to ourselves" (227), then lit- eracy is not simply a matter of learning to read and write. It is, in fact, a com- plex process of communication that cuts across all disciplines in the academy and, as such, should be a primary focus of all courses, not just those which focus on rhetoric and composition. Collaboration between disciplines, espe- cially between members of English departments and members of departments where the teaching of composition has not traditionally been a focus, should be fostered and encouraged in an attempt to spark innovation, creativity, and flex- ibility as well as to improve productivity and assessable outcomes. Our Western Civilization project is an attempt at such cross-curricular broadening of scope. We have designed a course that uses computers to support the concepts of col- laborative learning and writing to learn, methods by which our students can, using technology already available on campus, develop literacy skills. We used three technological "tools" to help us implement our writing across the curricu- lum ideas: networked discussion sessions, e-mail, and Internet access. Before we focus on goals, we need to discuss at least two institutional barriers to set- ting up and implementing communication-across-the-curriculum projects such as ours: students' limited access to technology and the relatively inflexible struc- ture of community colleges. Studies indicate that the use of technology has far-reaching social implica- tions, the impact of which is apparent at public institutions, particularly com- munity colleges, whose students are typically technologically disenfranchised (Forman 1994, 133). The community college is the only place where many264 Marvunne Felter and Daniel E Schultz disadvantaged students can access the current technologies. The political, so- cioeconomic, and cultural implications of this are enormous: we are witnessing the development of a "war between the 'technotcrats' and the 'technotpeas- ants"' (Selfe 1990, 97). And as professionals committed to the mission of the community college, we must foster, across the curriculum, student access to the technologies they will need to compete in the marketplace of the 21 st century. Such a project requires college-wide commitment to writing across the cur- riculum with appropriate funding that provides both time and access to equip- ment. In community colleges, which claim to be teaching institutions, the structure of the college itself often works against creative pedagogy, including such systemic problems as the fifteen-hour credit load for teachers, and the fact that there is no release time and no reward for creative effort since most com- munity colleges do not have rank systems. Because community college teachers often find themselves arguing for stu- dent access and facing heavy teaching loads, we have come to the conclusion that the most important ingredient in collaborative teaching efforts is the com- mitment on the part of the faculty. The Plan: Goals and Methods We had a number of goals in mind when we first started our projects. Our first goal was to incorporate more writing into the syllabus, and we designed the networked discussion sessions to facilitate this. Since many students come to a community college with limited writing backgrounds, we wanted to give them more writing experience in a content area to help them understand, synthesize, and analyze issues, topics, and information in a collaborative learning mode. We assumed that the more writing was encouraged and mentored by faculty in non-composition disciplines, the more students would make the transition from their writing classes to their other courses. More experience with writing using computers would alleviate the two major obstacles for disadvantaged students: their lack of experience with the modes of academic discourse and their unfa- miliarity with technology. Our second goal was to give students the benefit of having the opportunity to try out their ideas in writing before they are asked to write formally on a topic. Collaborative, networked discussions on the computer would minimize the pu- nitive aspect of grading and provide constructive criticism prior to the submis- sion of a final paper and/or exams. Most important, we wanted students to use writing to learn about the concepts they were studying in class and clarify is- sues before they found themselves in academic trouble. To achieve this goal, we developed twelve discussion sessions for the students to use as a study group, one for each unit studied. These consisted of writing exercises loaded into theNetwork Discussions,for Teuching Western Civilization 265 network using software (Norton Textra Connect)' that allowed students to dis- cuss the topics asynchronously in groups. The class was randomly broken into discussion groups, each group working together for the entire semester, build- ing a sense of collaboration in their learning experience. Questions we designed for each topic help students to focus on key ideas, concepts, individuals, and events with a goal toward seeing these in a historical, cultural perspective. We used the discussion function of the software in two ways. Before the semester began, we loaded fairly formal essay questions for students to think about and write about with members of their groups. We might, for example, define a topic and then ask them to do something like this: Based on the readings in McKay, the handouts, and class discussion, choose two examples of scapegoating from two different centuries and discuss the following in a minimum of 350 words (to count your words, click on Utili- ties, then statistics): The perceived external threats to the society The perceived internal divisions of the society The social reaction to the real or perceived threats Why specific individuals and groups were chosen as scapegoats We reminded students to cite their sources using MLA form and to generate a Works Cited page to practice these skills for formal writing. Then each week we would send out, through the messaging system (much


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