When I enter the classroom, students are on their phones as I begin to preparemy own presentation and check the time on my own phone. Before class even begins, technology is always already in every classroom for both students and instructors.
Anappropriate allowance forstudent use of technology within the classroomis a matter of how an instructor wants todirect studentsattention.Certainly, I donot expect students to pay attention to theirdevices when they should be paying attention to a lecture or their group members.If this happens, I either directly tell them to put away their technology or,in some cases, I ask them what they are looking at. This redirects the classs attention to them. Sometimes, students are looking at content relevant to the class discussion, but other times they are not. In the latter case, I mayremind them that everythings an argument and try to help them figure out how their distraction is related to rhetoric.
The point is that students who have their laptops or phones out oftentimes become the expert to find credible insights to questions and concerns that ariseduring class. For example, during a lesson on pathos, one student raised the question, Is hunger an emotion? My instinct was yes and the classs instinct was no, but I explained that the answer is dependent on the definition of hunger and emotion you want to use. I had the class try to come up with a definition of hunger and emotion on their own, and then incorporate a credible source for the context: the Oxford English Dictionarys definition of emotion and hunger.Technology helps remind students that everything is an argument. It also helps us, as a class, find good answers to good questions asstudents tohave a hands-on experience of theresearch process in real time, can even provide a productive role to deviantstudents.
Tour of Course Virtual Space
Please click on the images throughout this page to enlarge and read them.
ANGEL Course Homepage
Penn States course management system is ANGEL. When students log onto our course site, they will see the Lessons page. They will find anup-to-date version of thesyllabus, a folder for each unit or major assignment. Additionally, the ??? folder is a compilation of various links and rhetorical situations that both students and I add to and reference as the class develops.
E-mail Interactions via ANGEL and Gmail
My ANGEL email is forwarded to my gmail account so I can receive and answer students questions and concerns more efficiently. The image below shows my prompt response to a studentquestion. I make sure students have both of my email addresses.
Student Grade Reports Calculated and Presented through Microsoft Excel
I use Microsoft Excel to keep a running tab of the class and individual students grades. This both keeps me organized and allows me to easily tell students what their class average is at any point during the course.The image on the rightshows the cumulative grade for the class, each student, and each assignment. Cumulative grades below a C are highlighted in red. This directs my attention toreach out to students who seem to be struggling. The image on the left highlights a progress report that shows anindividual students course grade, broken down by each assignment.