[CITASA] Suggestions for teaching introductory sociology
At the very last minute, I've been asked to teach a small introductory sociology course in a well-stocked PC lab. Can anyone point me to interesting ways of teaching this course using Internet and PC resources in live time?
Thanks,
George
George W. Dowdall, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology, Saint Joseph's University,
Philadelphia PA 19131. 610-660-1674.
College Drinking: Reframing a Social Problem (2009)
http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/C9981.aspx
George W. Dowdall, Ph.D. wrote:
At the very last minute, I've been asked to teach a small introductory
sociology course in a well-stocked PC lab. Can anyone point me to
interesting ways of teaching this course using Internet and PC resources
in live time?
In live time, hmmm?
Have everybody commenting during lecture/discussion/etc. on a live IRC
chat whose feed is visible on the classroom's main screen. If you are
running a presentation, this would however require two screens... but
could work better for discussions (display the question on the screen,
than switch to the IRC feed). Just to be clear: the IRC chat is an
addition to, not a replacement of, a normal discussion.
Another idea: teach with wikis and Wikipedia :)
http://prokonsul.blogspot.com/2009/08/teaching-with-wikis-and-wikipedia.html
I am just putting a finishing touches on my intro level class that will
begin on Monday:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:School_and_university_projects/User:Piotrus/Fall_2009
With a computer lab for the class, you could dedicate a small part of
every (or some) lectures to this group assignment, and be there to
answer their questions immediately. In my classes, there is an
unavoidable delay between students running into a problem and reporting
it to me.
I'd love to hear other ideas of teaching with live time net access for
all students (it is, after all, the future).
--
Piotr Konieczny
"The problem about Wikipedia is, that it just works in reality, not in
theory."
Professor Dowdall:
If you've got reliable, fast internet access, introduce them to sites with
data: the census bureau, CDC, FBI uniform crime report, Labor Department.
then ask them to resolve a question during class: e.g. "Reverend Wright made
the often reported claim that there are more young black men in jail than in
college. Is this true?" Statistics at the Dept of Justice and Dept of
Education will begin to answer the question, but of course, there may be a
discrepancy between the ages of people in jail than people in college. and
we have to let them know that one year does not make a trend. but our
courses should be teaching empiricism and a critical attitude toward data. I
used to regard Michel Foucault as a French Flake. the ability to track down
data, critique it and use it to critique the existing order is more
important know than ever before.
R.E. Phelan
Itinerant Scholar
From: citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org [mailto:citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org]
On Behalf Of George W. Dowdall, Ph.D.
Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2009 10:03 AM
To: citasa@list.citasa.org
Subject: [CITASA] Suggestions for teaching introductory sociology
At the very last minute, I've been asked to teach a small introductory
sociology course in a well-stocked PC lab. Can anyone point me to
interesting ways of teaching this course using Internet and PC resources in
live time?
Thanks,
George
George W. Dowdall, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology, Saint Joseph's University,
Philadelphia PA 19131. 610-660-1674.
College Drinking: Reframing a Social Problem (2009)
http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/C9981.aspx
Sorry, ". more important NOW than ever before."
Point your students toward the "discussion" tab of the wiki sites. the main
tab is simply "consensus" science, or the beliefs of whoever managed to
start the discussion first.
One thing I did try but was not really successful with. partly because the
class was too large. trying to use a Blackboard Site as a collaboration
tool. in one deviance class the "Term Paper" part of the class was to
produce a research proposal to investigate "plagiarism". the students were
to formulate a proposal independently, publish it on the Blackboard site for
comment by their "colleagues", but then collaborate on the research method
and questions. The Blackboard site allowed them to post articles and
references that might be of interest to their research community and allowed
them to comment on it. However, thirty-five students taking a sociology
course because they needed three credits of social science at a convenient
time may not be the best venue for this approach.
R.E. Phelan
From: citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org [mailto:citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org]
On Behalf Of Robert E. Phelan
Sent: Sunday, August 30, 2009 4:11 AM
To: 'George W. Dowdall, Ph.D.'; citasa@list.citasa.org
Subject: Re: [CITASA] Suggestions for teaching introductory sociology
Professor Dowdall:
If you've got reliable, fast internet access, introduce them to sites with
data: the census bureau, CDC, FBI uniform crime report, Labor Department.
then ask them to resolve a question during class: e.g. "Reverend Wright made
the often reported claim that there are more young black men in jail than in
college. Is this true?" Statistics at the Dept of Justice and Dept of
Education will begin to answer the question, but of course, there may be a
discrepancy between the ages of people in jail than people in college. and
we have to let them know that one year does not make a trend. but our
courses should be teaching empiricism and a critical attitude toward data. I
used to regard Michel Foucault as a French Flake. the ability to track down
data, critique it and use it to critique the existing order is more
important know than ever before.
R.E. Phelan
Itinerant Scholar
From: citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org [mailto:citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org]
On Behalf Of George W. Dowdall, Ph.D.
Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2009 10:03 AM
To: citasa@list.citasa.org
Subject: [CITASA] Suggestions for teaching introductory sociology
At the very last minute, I've been asked to teach a small introductory
sociology course in a well-stocked PC lab. Can anyone point me to
interesting ways of teaching this course using Internet and PC resources in
live time?
Thanks,
George
George W. Dowdall, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology, Saint Joseph's University,
Philadelphia PA 19131. 610-660-1674.
College Drinking: Reframing a Social Problem (2009)
http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/C9981.aspx
I would also use some of the public access databases
http://usa.ipums.org/usa/
http://sda.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/hsda?harcsda+gss06
http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/leadcaus.html
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( @ @ )
----oOOo--(_)-oOOo--------------------------------------------
Frank A. Steinhart
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Department of Sociology
North Park University
3225 W. Foster Ave.
Chicago, IL 60625
773.244.5591
fsteinhart@northpark.edu<BLOCKED::mailto:fsteinhart@northpark.edu>
From: citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org [mailto:citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org] On Behalf Of Robert E. Phelan
Sent: Sunday, August 30, 2009 3:47 AM
To: 'Robert E. Phelan'; 'George W. Dowdall, Ph.D.'; citasa@list.citasa.org
Subject: Re: [CITASA] Suggestions for teaching introductory sociology
Sorry, "... more important NOW than ever before..."
Point your students toward the "discussion" tab of the wiki sites... the main tab is simply "consensus" science, or the beliefs of whoever managed to start the discussion first.
One thing I did try but was not really successful with... partly because the class was too large... trying to use a Blackboard Site as a collaboration tool... in one deviance class the "Term Paper" part of the class was to produce a research proposal to investigate "plagiarism"... the students were to formulate a proposal independently, publish it on the Blackboard site for comment by their "colleagues", but then collaborate on the research method and questions. The Blackboard site allowed them to post articles and references that might be of interest to their research community and allowed them to comment on it. However, thirty-five students taking a sociology course because they needed three credits of social science at a convenient time may not be the best venue for this approach.
R.E. Phelan
From: citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org [mailto:citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org] On Behalf Of Robert E. Phelan
Sent: Sunday, August 30, 2009 4:11 AM
To: 'George W. Dowdall, Ph.D.'; citasa@list.citasa.org
Subject: Re: [CITASA] Suggestions for teaching introductory sociology
Professor Dowdall:
If you've got reliable, fast internet access, introduce them to sites with data: the census bureau, CDC, FBI uniform crime report, Labor Department... then ask them to resolve a question during class: e.g. "Reverend Wright made the often reported claim that there are more young black men in jail than in college. Is this true?" Statistics at the Dept of Justice and Dept of Education will begin to answer the question, but of course, there may be a discrepancy between the ages of people in jail than people in college... and we have to let them know that one year does not make a trend... but our courses should be teaching empiricism and a critical attitude toward data. I used to regard Michel Foucault as a French Flake... the ability to track down data, critique it and use it to critique the existing order is more important know than ever before.
R.E. Phelan
Itinerant Scholar
From: citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org [mailto:citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org] On Behalf Of George W. Dowdall, Ph.D.
Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2009 10:03 AM
To: citasa@list.citasa.org
Subject: [CITASA] Suggestions for teaching introductory sociology
At the very last minute, I've been asked to teach a small introductory sociology course in a well-stocked PC lab. Can anyone point me to interesting ways of teaching this course using Internet and PC resources in live time?
Thanks,
George
George W. Dowdall, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology, Saint Joseph's University,
Philadelphia PA 19131. 610-660-1674.
College Drinking: Reframing a Social Problem (2009)
http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/C9981.aspx
Dear Dr. Dowdall,
There are many on line resources of data/information that may be
leverage to promote discourse. Given your audience, my recommendation
is to avoid the staid and likely unwelcome path of traditional
instruction though distance learning may be the means of delivery. I
submit for your consideration Peer Led Education be added to your
repertoire of processes. It may go my a number of titles: Peer Led
Education, Peer Led Instruction, Peer Led Team Learning. There are a
number of sites on the subject. Here is one of them:
http://www.pltl.org/
Your role on those occasions of such employment is to set the
conditions, serve as moderator and referee (students may become as
involved in the process of promoting their thoughts to the exclusion of
tolerance towards their fellow class members). If class dynamics
support this approach, returns can be well worth the effort. There is
an empowerment to this format. The ground rules as I mention are
essential for the students to abide by and your work at keeping them on
task will be a challenging one. Good Luck!
Dave
David Louden
Program Manager and Senior Project Developer
Mission Technologies & Training (Operations) Department
Intelligence Solutions Division
National Solutions Business Unit
L-3 Communications
301 575-3426
240 373-3828
"Teaming with the customer for success
and Owning the future."
From: citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org
[mailto:citasa-bounces@list.citasa.org] On Behalf Of George W. Dowdall,
Ph.D.
Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2009 10:03 AM
To: citasa@list.citasa.org
Subject: [CITASA] Suggestions for teaching introductory sociology
At the very last minute, I've been asked to teach a small introductory
sociology course in a well-stocked PC lab. Can anyone point me to
interesting ways of teaching this course using Internet and PC resources
in live time?
Thanks,
George
George W. Dowdall, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology, Saint Joseph's University,
Philadelphia PA 19131. 610-660-1674.
College Drinking: Reframing a Social Problem (2009)
http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/C9981.aspx
