Hi group,
I was doing an article search and I came across the following article: Morganett, L. (1995) Ten tips for improving student-teacher relationships. Social Education. Jan. v59, p.27-29.
The reason why I bring this article up is that fact that it is so simple. I am trying to use technology to increase interaction but I must remember the basics before I move on to the advanced.
One of the tips is the idea that teachers should encourage students to ask questions and for teachers to instruct with a positive frame of mind. The first may be easy to accomplish online, I wonder about the second. I guess we must think about our word selection and the context of our sentences. We must be clear on our meanings so students online will not misinterpret them. The author also wrote about taking an interest in the students outside of the classroom. This is hard enough at the community college level where I see some students for five hours, one night a week but how can we do this online?? The author feels that this increasedd interaction will allow the instructor to obtain a better understanding of the socio-economical background of the student. In an online class, the student could post whatever they want so this may not benefit the instructor.
Finally, the author stated that the rate and types of questions would increase once the students feel that the instructor is impartial and is truly concerned about their learning. I do agree with this statement, no matter where the learning is occurring (in a classroom or online). A positive attitude and a sense of concern should generate an openness no matter where the students are located.
Thanks,
Ken
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2 comments:
I think technology can put a very heavy burden on teachers, but of course can also lighten it. A blogging assignment like the one we're undertaking might be practical for a class of 20, or even more if TAs are available, but I think it would be quite difficult for a single teacher to accurately assess 120 students across 5 periods of a highschool class, for example. Webassign on the other hand is essentially a homework engine that asks questions from a bank of questions, puts a deadline on it, allows only a single or multiple submissions, changes numbers (in red) to make unique problems for each individual (to discourage cheating), grades, and automatically sends a report to the teacher.
http://www.webassign.net/
Below is a link to another simple article that you might be interested in on improving student and teacher relationships. It discusses about finding the right balance between disciplinarian and friend (which is sometime hard to do). If you are too relaxed, the students will take control of the classroom. However, being too strict will cause them to rebel. The article gives some steps you can take to find the correct balance and improve student and teacher relationships.
http://www.howtodothings.com/education/a1959-how-to-improve-student-and-teacher-relationships.html
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