HR: 1330h
AN: ED32C-1211    [PDF]
TI: The Internet as a Platform for Student Presentations
AU: * Ponomarenko, A L
EM: aponomarenko@utsa.edu
AF: Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Texas at San Antonio, 6900 North Loop 1604 West, San Antonio, TX 78249 United States
AB: As the number of students enrolled in colleges and universities across the country increases, both class size and faculty workloads also increase, and individual students slip through wider and wider cracks. Universities are moving toward web-based technology as a way to facilitate student learning in an academic environment that is growing and changing faster than ever. Faculty web pages, hosted by the faculty's own internet provider, by the university, or by national services such as Blackboard or WebCT, are often used to bridge the gap between faculty and students. Typically, faculty web pages are used to post syllabi and announcements, to distribute course notes, and to disseminate student grades, while email replaces office hours as the preferred method of communication. While this use of the internet has already begun to transform course instruction, it represents only the simplest use of a tool that has tremendous potential, both in and out of the classroom. The internet can be used to bring back the element of personalization that is quickly lost as class size continues to grow. Much of the material covered in large introductory science classes is completely new to students, and they have trouble visualizing new concepts and placing them in context. In smaller classes, a solution might be to assign papers or projects to help students become familiar with the new concepts and new ideas. This is neither feasible nor terribly effective in large lecture courses. With the innovative use of web-based technology, student presentations as a method of learning can be reinvented, with greater impact for each student. Additional use of internet-based discussions and chats enables each student to experience many of their classmate's presentations in addition to their own. This use of the web as a media for storage and presentation of student projects is well-liked by students. They are able to work together on projects in large classes otherwise closed to such activity, to learn technology that will help them in their future lives, and ultimately to lose their fear of science through hands-on experience. Though generally a success, it is not without problems, most notably direct plagiarism from other websites. The interactive poster session will include the original website, examples of the best and the worst student presentations, student comments on the whole experience, as well as insights on what to do and not to do in your own course.
DE: 6605 Education
DE: 9600 INFORMATION RELATED TO GEOLOGIC TIME
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting