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How different is a classroom supplemented by online resources both during and between classes?
new ways of learning: more visual, more
verbal, less oral
more accessible learning: available from
any browser, day or night
increased competency with the
communications software used by professionals at home and work
What happens in a traditional classroom? Transfer of information. Interaction between student and teacher, sometimes among students.
The Web's document-publishing potential to transfer information is clear. The ink-on-dead-tree textbook can be easily improved. The Web is the largest document repository the world has ever seen and it's just starting. On Ricci Street, you can:
publish your lectures, notes, handouts,
and links
exchange documents with students --
their homework, questions, projects, and tests as well as your feedback
Ricci Street provides a branded interface to make documents easier for you to publish and for your students to navigate.
But the Web is so impersonal. What's lost is the human touch. That's what a real live teacher does so well.
I agree. And I'll make a bet: the Web, even a 3-D Web, will never replace the human touch necessary for some learning.
I'll make a better bet: the traditional brick-and-mortar 3-hours/week classroom does not currently have the time or space to exhaust the human-touch needs of even a small class, let alone a lecture hall.
Extending the classroom is part of the appeal of the tree-shrouded resident campus for 18-year-olds. Ricci Street isn't the real thing, but it can supplement the real thing for commuting adults.
... an in-class discussion could continue or that your students would talk to each other outside of class?
... you could pin something onto a bulletin board and have everyone look at it, even discuss it?
... you could get something new to students before the next class?
... you could get more students to drop in during office hours?
Leading in-class discussions is a hard-earned skill usually learned on-the-job. Leading on-line discussions is something that few do well. Many of the face-to-face skills apply, but many new techniques have yet to be discovered.
As a host, you are the ringleader for your forum, somewhere between traffic cop and cruise director. To learn more about hosting discussions, Mauri Collins and Zane L. Berge of Berge Collins Associates has links to Resources for Moderators and Facilitators of Online Discussion. If you're going to read only one, try The Role of the Online Instructor/Facilitator, which emphasizes focusing on the right questions to ask, rather than the right answer to give.
As MBAs working in a networked organization, our students will participate in online discussions. Now is a good time for them to try it out. We should encourage them to be hosts, too.
on Ricci Street: Ground Zero Bistro
Throughout the business world, professionals in organizations of all sizes are collaborating on documents. Lotus Notes and Novel Groupware are two common proprietary products.
on Ricci Street: Show and Tell Theater
You don't need Ricci Street for this. Your email address book makes it easy to keep students informed between class sessions. For more industrial-strength newsletter managers, try Topica and eGroups.
While you're waiting in the office for students to drop in, open a chat room at a scheduled time. Invite the students to drop by from home. Over the weekend, a couple of quick questions and answers can make a lot of difference in class the following week.
I use AOL's Instant Messenger (AIM), which can be used by people who don't have AOL accounts, too. It is good for one-to-one chats as well as group chats.
When a student needs to share a manuscript or show me a project or ask a tricky software question, it's often easier to use NetMeeting so that I can see what's on the student's screen.
The ideas on this page are meant to be provocative. Let's talk about it at the Bistro.
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