Hi - As a business prof, I can think of no more active learning environment than a well-run case classroom. This surely means I need to get out more...but the point remains - discussion about something that adult learners understand and care about will always work far more effectively than "sage on the stage"-dispensed knowledge.
But what happens after the course is over? I'm interested in using social media and other 2.0 technologies to extend the discussion about social science topics such as business strategy beyond the end of a course - let the self-selected long-term learners keep learning. This means thinking more deliberately about the source of learning - me, others, info on the web, and the role of social proof (among other things).
That said, it's a discussion worth perpetuating. I'd welcome any comments or observations about the experience of others with course wikis, listservs, or other enduring resources that serve to extend contact with students who are interested in being self-directed learners after a course is over.
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Doug - While I have no experience in extending contact after the class is over, I have tried using discussion groups within a course that I teach. These students tend to loathe it, however I've been impressed by what they produce. A discussion that starts with a question as simple as: "Describe a situation where you, someone you care about or know has experienced a musculoskeletal injury or disease" has produced a goldmine of topics and rich discussion peer-to-peer and provided me with openings to bring in "experts" to comment on specific discussions. This is a foreign concept (using online, asynchronous communication in a formal, educational sense) to "my" students, it seems and guidance is clearly needed.
ReplyDeleteDo you do this sort of thing? Seems to me that I might start here and move out of the bounds of the classroom before trying to extend the temporal bounds of the course. I've certainly been impressed by the resource created at the end of the course.
I heard an interview on CBC a while back, a prof who used Wikipedia as a group activity. Students had to research and edit pages on Wikipedia related to the course (which was something like Asian Religious studies). I think that this would be a fascinating activity and you could "use" your experts to comment and critique and provide feedback. Just an idea...
Lindsay Davidson