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I formed the notion of a webpage which would serve as an adjunct for my seminar in the Great Controversy series with several goals in mind. Primarily, I wanted my students to craft themselves into judicious and suspicious consumers of information gleaned from the World Wide Web. For each class, two teams of two each found three websites pertinent to the day's discussion; three sites were pro, three were con. These sites became links on the webpage for interested students to follow up on. Furthermore, they were required to find web resources for their final paper and they were aware that the page was a goldmine of information. On these counts, the page was a success.
The other goal was to create an ongoing historical document of our class: a set of topics and quickly accessible related sources. My hope was that the students would visit often to find out what their classmates were culling from the web. This hope turned out to be less well-founded than the first. cr + crI assessed the success of the project via a pointed survey distributed the last day of class. Except for one person, the class indicated that they visited the page and planned to consult it for their final paper. All stated that they thought it should be done in the future. The most interesting idea to come from the survey was that the students wanted an active role in the creation and maintenance of the page.
For those interested, it is at: http://acunix.wheatonma.edu/bbloch
1.
Pedagogical Goals
I had several pedagogical goals in mind when I conceived the idea
for the webpage. I thought that the process of finding pertinent
websites for our readings would teach the students how to conduct
websearches by actively doing it. As a component of this, I wanted
them to become judicious and suspicious consumers of information
garnered from the web. I also hoped that by maintaining the webpage,
they would feel a growing sense of involvement with the material
and the course as a whole. Furthermore, I wanted the websites
to serve as additional resources for those who were merely interested
and those who planned on writing a paper on that particular topic.
Last, I wanted the students to witness the evolution of a historical
document of our class.
2.
Strategy
The main portion of my strategy consisted in requiring two teams
of students to each find 3 websites pertinent to our upcoming
discussion. One team was to find 3 sites which were generally
positive about the subject and the other, negative. This forced
them to search the web to seek "good" sources of information--I
tried hard to impress on them that mere existence on the web is
not a guarantee of truth, beauty or usefulness.
The second part of my strategy was to require the use of web sources
for their final paper. I noted that the class webpage might prove
a useful tool in this.
3.
Assessment
On the last day of class, I passed out a survey which included
the following questions:
Did you ever check our webpage?
What did you like about it?
How could it be improved?
Approximately how many times did you go to it?
Do you plan to check it for your writing your final paper?
Do you think I should create such a webpage again?
The answers were somewhat gratifying, somewhat disappointing.
Everyone but one person went to the page at least once. The mean
was approximately three visits. Everyone but one person--a different
one--indicated that they planned to check it as a research source
for their final paper. Several stated they would hit it more often
if it had "pizazz". Several--and this caught my attention--said
that they thought students should've helped with it and written
summaries of their topics.
Everyone thought it was a good idea and should be done again.
The thing that resonated most with me was the notion of the students
actually working on the page. I was reluctant to do that, as I
suspect few of them have experience with a page-making program
and I was unwilling to spend the necessary time to teach 18 people
how to use it. (Particularly since I myself am a neophyte!)
On a personal level, I found it to be a lot of work. I enjoyed
learning more about the creation of webpages, but I'd have to
think how to get the students to visit more often if I were to
do it again. I was also frustrated on several counts. One, some
sites went off line. Two, some sites were parts of databases and
they didn't have their own URL. Three, some students miscopied
the address and it was never to be found. Last, some students
sloughed the assignment. However, in the big picture, I think
the page was a success with students and I think it met many of
my aims.
4.
Dissemination
Only the most mild; the page is on the web--various keywords regarding
technology will cause it to turn up on the list of a search engine.
Last updated
on 11/26/00;
Send questions about this page to: Bill
Bloch
or contact Wheaton
College.