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Rethinking the Course Web Site

Rethinking the Course Web Site. Karl Skutski Adjunct Lecturer Department of Modern Languages & Literatures DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY. The Problem. Memory Lane. Actually go to library Read books & journals selected or recommended by profs Copy citations on note cards

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Rethinking the Course Web Site

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  1. Rethinking the Course Web Site Karl Skutski Adjunct LecturerDepartment of Modern Languages & Literatures DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY

  2. The Problem Memory Lane • Actually go to library • Read books & journals selected or recommended by profs • Copy citations on note cards • Organize and analyze research findings • Develop outline / write paper________________________ DELIBERATE PROCESSSUSTAINED LEARNING

  3. The Problem Today • The Wild Wild Web • Instant access to an unlimitedhodgepodge of unscreened information, much of which is of highly questionable value • Ranked by browsing popularity • McDonalds-ization of knowledge • Good stuff lost in cyberspace • Academic journal articles are “long, tedious and boring” by comparison

  4. The Problem Today’s Postmodern Student • Weaned on the Web • Primary source of news and knowledge !? • Wants instant gratification • The era of “just-in-time” knowledge • Why copy—or learn—anything if you can cut-and-paste? • Hyper-learning (not sustained) • All alone in cyberspace

  5. The Problem Today’s Postmodern Student

  6. The Problem Typical Research • First-listed Yahoo! source • Wikipedia • Movie reviews • Amazon customer/reader comments • Newspaper and magazine articles • Fan club sites

  7. A Partial Solution The Course Web Site • Syllabus • Objectives • Assignments • PowerPoints & lecture notes AN ORGANIZED PORTAL TO YOUR FIELD OF STUDY +

  8. A Partial Solution The Course Web Site

  9. A Partial Solution The Course Web Site STUDENT FRIENDLY? • Design like a commercial site • A little “coolness” helps (i.e., graphics) • Intuitive navigational structure • Engaging and exciting • Spoon-fed research guidelines LAUNCHING PAD FOR STUDENT RESEARCH

  10. Primary Objectives The Course Web Site 1. Create a site that would serve as an organized portal to the serious study ofcontemporary international cinema and literature 2. Attempt to prevent “lazy” research by pointing students in the right direction 3. Enable students to create a custom “textbook”

  11. Secondary Objectives The Course Web Site 4. Assess student research skills and monitor their use of secondary sources • Do they know how to properly quote from and/or paraphrase outside sources? • Are they properly interpreting texts? • Plagiarism • Intentional • Unintentional

  12. In-class Uses The Course Web Site 1. Instant classroom access to wide range of archived materials: • PowerPoints • Music and art • Video clips • Podcasts 2. Point out preferred research sources in class

  13. Personal Benefits The Course Web Site • Ever-evolving multi-GB filing cabinet for organizing years of research • Secure back-up external “hard drive” • Sharing interests, resources, researchand writing with professional colleagues around the world (and their students!)

  14. Personal Benefits “Collective Fabric” of Knowledge University of Colorado at Denver , School of Education Corollary Sites: Contemporary Philosophy, Critical Theory and Postmodern Thought Knowledge is a fabric of relations in which one individual is fundamentally entwined with all others in a collective discourse. This page illustrates that woven fabric Each of the following sites links to the Postmodern site here at U.C. Denver. The UCD page serves, not as a hub, presuming some privileged position, but as a conductive thread, one of many fibers which transforms a collection of unique sites into a common woven text. This Corollary page returns a thread to each of the diverse sites, strengthening possibilities for community within this collective fabric known as postmodern thought. Ryder (1999).

  15. Logic Organizational Approach: The Problem • Information overload • Books least appealing—and perhapstoo intellectually dense and esotericfor undergraduates (non-major) • Academic journals often deal with secondary and tertiary issues (student doesn’t yet know basics) • Most-browsed sites may not be best • Unguided research (alone in cyberspace) www.feminism.org www.feminist.com www.now.org www.madre.org

  16. Logic Organizational Approach • Broad overview of field of study • Introductory articles to key concepts • Introductory articles to major artistsand theorists • Handful of selected readings on specific topics students are likely toresearch: • “Portrayal of Women in Middle EasternCinema” • “A Feminist Reading of Fellini’s 8 1/2” 5. Student’s own research www.feminism.org www.feminist.com www.now.org www.madre.org

  17. The Mechanics The Course Web Site • Notepad (Microsoft Office) or Web-page design package • Web host ($50.00 year) _______________________________ • HTML code guidelines • DHMTL menu builder • Adobe Photoshop or PhotoDeluxe • GIF builder

  18. Sample Sites www. skutski.org www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/engl/theory/index.html http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2718 http://www.uiowa.edu/~commstud/resources/critical_authors. Tml www.cddc.vt.edu/feminism/enin.html http://www.english.upenn.edu/~traister/literature.html http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/

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