[Air-l] laptops and Internet access in class

[Dr. Steve Eskow]

Dr. Johns,

Your message below brings into sharp relief, for me at least, the issues of 
the older academic technology--campus, classrooms, time clocks, 
attendance,all of the apparatus of instruction and compulsion that are part 
of the instructional system--and the new communication technologies.

The time clock, workers "punching in" and penalized for not being on 
time--is that still a common part of the industrial apparatus and routine? 
For what level of workers? Apparently students still have to punch in.

Is the effectiveness of a worker in the new work order based on a scoring 
system, a "point" system? I am puzzled at this way of motivating adult 
learners.

I think I am asking if your point system and attendance requirement are 
really the way the world of work now operates, and whether the structure of 
rules and the routines of the residential campus are now really able to 
prepare students for the modern workplace--which increasiongly is not a 
physical place at all.

Probably the "campus" is the organ at the heart of the present instructional 
technology. As Giddens and others point out, such structures are not merely 
containers for work to be done, but are "constitutive"--they shape the 
nature of the activity that goes on within them.

So: "instruction" at the "residential campus" is shaped, determined by the 
spatial and temporal structures of the "campus."

Or: what do we do with the "campus" and the "classrooms" if our student can 
"learn" without them? Abandon the campus?

Suppose, for example, our students could actually be scattered in space and 
time, engaged in work or service anywhere in the community, the nation, the 
world, and the "learning community" is online--lectures online, if they are 
needed, discussion online, collaboration online, libraries online?

What would we do with the buildings?

What we might need to do, then, to protect the current instructional 
technology, is argue for the richness of the face-to-face experience, and 
insist that speech and proximity generate values that online communication 
cannot approximate or equal.

But Derrida and others call that fixation on the face-to-face and speech 
"logocentrism" and "phonocentrism."

And meanwhile millions and billions for buildings that remove students from 
encounters with the learning spaces of the rest of the word: the college as 
a "heterotopia."

Bourdieu calls the university ideal "the scholastic enclosure," a way of 
insulating students and teachers from the world for which they are nomially 
preparing.

It used to be called "the ivory tower."

Steve Eskow
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark D. Johns" <mjohns at luther.edu>
To: <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2007 8:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Air-l] laptops and Internet access in class


> Dr. Steve Eskow wrote:
>> Dr. Johns,
>>
>> Would it be cynical to conclude that it depends a) on what you are doing 
>> in
>> the class to make things relevant, and b) insuring attendance at the
>> discussionsections by having assignments in the class that accoount for 
>> 25%
>> of the grade?
>>
>> And that there are two quite different kinds of logics at work here? And
>> that you're not sure there would be attendance if all you had to work for
>> you was relevance?
>>
>> Why not give the exam online, depend on the exam to demonstrate what the
>> student has learned, and ignore attendance?
>>
>> S. Eskow
>
> Yes, I'm certain there are different kinds of logic to be considered in
> this issue, and my logic is quite situational. I teach at a small,
> residential liberal arts college, and attendance has never been a big
> problem here. Most of my classes only have 15-25 students, and it
> wouldn't be difficult to know who is missing even if I didn't take
> attendance. Because of the small class size, the teaching style tends to
> be much more interactive than in a large lecture course.
>
> The category in which I award points for attendance I call
> "participation," and while it is primarily based on attendance, it also
> factors in my subjective impression of the student's level of engagement
> in class and his/her willingness to enter into discussions. It is also
> considerably less than 25% of the grade (more like 10%), and I'm not
> sure where that 25% figure comes from.
>
> The main reason I include such a category is because I came late in life
> to academia, and in the work world expectations about showing up on time
> and being engaged in the tasks at hand are not at the discretion of the
> employee. While I'm sympathetic to the idea that our students are adults
> who can make their own decisions about what is helpful or not to their
> education, most people in our society aren't afforded that degree of
> freedom. The employers these students have upon graduation will not
> allow them to show up when it suits them. Nor would I expect that the
> students' mommies and daddies, who are shelling out big bucks for the
> students to be here, would agree with that approach.
>
> My syllabus says, "Most classes involve group interaction and/or
> projects, and you cheat your colleagues out of part of the interactive
> experience when you are not there. Someone is investing large sums of
> money in you so that you may attend this college. Therefore, maximizing
> the benefit of this opportunity should be your primary occupation during
> your time here." So while attendance is not a problem, my goal is to
> instill a work ethic that privileges the academic over other aspects of
> college life.
>
> Further, the notion of conducting a class online rather than F2F rather
> works against the nature of a residential campus such as ours. Students
> who are seeking an information cafeteria are more likely to select a
> large university rather than a smaller school. Expectations for
> interaction here are high. Situations on other campuses may -- and
> likely do -- differ.
> -- 
> Mark D. Johns, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor and Head of the
>  Department of Communication Studies
> Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA
> http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/
> -----------------------------------------------
> "Get the facts first. You can distort them later."
>     ---Mark Twain
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