Day 1:

Morning session: Introductions by the Workshop participants and a review of the week's themes, goals and agenda. We'll also discuss the week's readings (which will be handed out at the afternoon session).

• Background: "Can Computers Play a Role in My Course? Some Preliminary Considerations"

• Why This Workshop?

  From "Theory and Practice of Science" to "The Educational Software Seminar", via MendelWeb, The Scholarly Technology Group, NetTech, WebPrimitives, the Institute for Elementary and Secondary Education, and the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning at Brown.

• Introductions of the Workshop Participants.

• The Workshop Readings:

  1986: Scheffler, Israel. "Computers at School?"

  1989: Scully, John. "The Relationship Between Business and Higher Education: a Perspective on the 21st Century."

  1995: Schank, Roger and Cleary, Chipp. "Top Ten Mistakes in Education"

  1995: Borgmann, Albert. "The Moral Significance of Material Culture."

  1997: Sandholtz, Judith et al. "The Evolution of Instruction in Technology-Rich Classrooms."

  1999: Druin, Allison. "Cooperative Learning: Developing New Technologies for Children with Children."

  2001: Sunstein, Cass. "The Daily Me."

Afternoon session : Values, Teaching and Technology. To begin the week's topic-centered discussions and activities, we will raise questions about the character of exemplary educative experiences and the evaluation of the educational worth of electronically-mediated educational experiences and activities. We will look at a variety of examples of educational technology this week, drawn from educational software, project-based learning using networked computers and using the Web, as well as virtual environments for synchronous and asynchronous communication, and, beginning with this session we will try to develop a foundation for a critical framework for discussing and evaluating technologies used for educational purposes.

Exercise:

• Imagine yourself a teacher of an undergraduate Humanities course in which Boccaccio's Decameron is a required text and the class will spend 1-2 weeks reading the text. Would you use The Decameron Web in your own preparations for the sessions, and (how) would you have students use it?

• Imagine yourself teaching a course on the Second World War to middle school and high school social studies teachers. Evaluate the educational value, for you and for your students, of the sites, What Did You Do in the War, Grandma?, and The American Memory Project. What role, if any, would this resource play in your course? What role, if any, would you recommend this resource play in your students' teaching?

For Tomorrow: Read Scheffler and prepare a brief response to the question "Does the Internet Change Everything Including Scheffler 1986?". Also have a look at two examples of electronically- mediated discussion:

• The CS92 Listserv, 1998
• CS92 in the Mendelroom (4/24/01)
  Back to the Agenda

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  © 2001 Roger B. Blumberg