Interactive TeachingCRLF
David G. Brown,
Syllabus,
Jan 15, 2002
Let me call this the "email-me syndrome." It is clearly expressed in this column on creating increased interaction in a class. If you look at the list of ways this instructor interacts with his students, you'll see that most of the items contain the words "email me." This means that the vast bulk of interaction in the classroom is conducted privately in one-on-one conversations between the student and the instructor. Not only does this place an excessive workload on the instructor, it means that the contents of the interactions are not shared with the whole class. My advice: let go of the controls a little. People can post things like introductions, questions, comments on web pages and articles, and the like to a public discussion list. Students should be encouraged to solve problems, critique comments and make connections among themselves. There's no need for the instuctor to manage all the communications in a class and some good reasons why that shouldn't happen.
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