Education for a Digital World Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe, 2008a

26 – Techno Expression
Students can and will go beyond the assignment parameters.
For example, look at the results of a wiki project
assigned by co-professors Michael Jones and Gail
Benick. In the winter of 2006, they taught a second-year
survey course in communication, culture and information
technology through a joint Sheridan/University
of Toronto–Mississauga degree program. Jones and
Benick (2006) reported that:
“the approximately 140 students of CCIT 205 created
598 pages through nearly 9,000 edits. In comparison,
as noted on the Wikispace main page, the
top public Wikispaces average about 1,000 edits a
month. The level of activity was simply mindboggling.
“More important than these numbers, however,
was the strong student evaluation of their Wikispace
experience. Students took it upon themselves to
create an assignment feedback page separate from
course requirements to share their experiences.
Even without being formally required to share
their experiences, 54 students did—and with a few
lukewarm exceptions, evaluations were positive,
sometimes extraordinarily so” (para. 11–12).
Interestingly enough, this was an experiment for
these instructors! They entered the world of wikis with
little idea of what to expect, and the students responded
by creating a community. One of the many student
comments pulled out the theme of this chapter:
“As we progress further and further into an ‘interconnected’
environment, from WebCT, initially, to
Wiki spaces, there becomes more room for communication,
expression and collaboration. I find it
interesting how technology that may appear superfluous,
superficially, can actually bring people
together to share, learn and grow. The possibilities
of these types of applications in educational institutions
are endless!—S” (2006, para. 10).
Weblogs, also called blogs, give students a space to
reflect about any number of topics. For example, an
instructional design professor at San Francisco State
University assigns her students to use weblogs to reflect
on the readings and to relate course material to their
jobs, if possible. Most blog tools allow students to sign in
and start writing.
Examples of techno expression assignments using
weblogs (blogs)
A weblog would be perfect for a set of activities like
those described in the Shorecrest Preparatory School’s
Upper Division Catalog:
“Humanities: This segment of the Ninth Grade
Wheel is an introductory course which uses a variety
of media and activities to promote critical
thinking and discussion about several forms of
creative expression across time and cultures including
visual art, architecture, theater, music, and
dance. During the nine week course, students will
begin to formulate and express their ideas about
the arts beyond “I like …,” or “I don’t like …,”
using the philosophies and the vocabularies relevant
to these disciplines as introduced in class”
(2005, para. 25).
Blog assignment example from an Introduction to Multimedia
course at American University:
“300 word summary of why the study of cybernetics
is important to society, specifically, the way in
which humans interact with machines, and how
that might affect the quality of life” (Packer, 2004,
para. 17).
Blog assignment example from a course called “e-rhetoric:
writing persuasively in a digital world” at Stanford University:
“As part of our experimentation with e-rhetoric,
students will create and post to a class weblog.
Each student will complete at least 5 individual
posts and contribute at least 2 comments to their
classmates’ blogs. Keeping the blog will enable the
student to track his/her development as a writer
and researcher, as well as to gain hands-on experience
with one distinct and very popular form of e-
rhetoric” (Alfano, 2005, para. 1).
Advice on using blogs to teach philosophy from Academic
Commons:
“Philosophical creativity involves raising the most
thought-provoking questions and defending one’s
own answers to such questions. Blogging encourages
creativity in philosophical debate, especially
when each student has his or her own blog, because
it allows for fairly spontaneous expression of
ideas and it invites students to journey out of their
Education for a Digital World 421