[Air-L] Textbook Suggestion Needed

[Christian Nelson]

Given the problem with how rapidly things are changing, might this not  
be more reason than ever to adopt a question/research based approach  
to teaching rather than a didactic model? By "question/research" based  
I mean one in which students are guided to the most interesting  
questions to ask about a phenomenon, and then led to the answers  
through their own research efforts? I know this is tough to do on a  
large scale, and perhaps means less coverage. But perhaps its more  
valuable in the long run, if feasible.
--Christian

On May 18, 2009, at 12:04 PM, Nicole Ellison wrote:

> I've faced the same dilemma. For my undergrad new media class, I've  
> used the Thurlow et al CMC book, but only the first few chapters and  
> only in the first third of the semester. Then we read online  
> articles for the remainder. (I agree it's getting very dated, and in  
> fact recently I wrote the authors asking about a 2nd edition - not  
> in the works at this point.)
>
> My experience is that (at least with the students I've worked with),  
> undergrads like a textbook because it gives the field legitimacy in  
> their eyes.  Ted's description below really rings true with mine - a  
> textbook seems to give many undergrads a sense of finality and  
> control. I've found that one of the challenges of teaching content  
> that is so interesting and publicly visible (e.g. social network  
> sites) is trying to keep classroom discussions at a higher level  
> than pub or coffee-shop conversations, and a textbook and/or  
> academic readings are necessary to do this. Depending on how they  
> are written, some academic articles just don't work for some  
> undergrads. It's definitely a challenge!
>
> For fall, I'm planning on using the Thurlow et al textbook and a  
> collection of online articles, but this will probably be the last  
> year and I'm also interested in hearing about an accessible, updated  
> replacement.
> Thanks, N