Rethinking the Course Web Site

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Rethinking the Course Web Site

• Karl Skutskiwww.skutski.org
• Adjunct LecturerDepartment of Modern Languages
  Literatures
• DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY

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Memory Lane
The Problem

• Actually go to library
• Read books journals selected or recommended by
  profs
• Copy citations on note cards
• Organize and analyze research findings
• Develop outline / write paper____________________
  ____
• DELIBERATE PROCESSSUSTAINED LEARNING

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Today
The Problem

• The Wild Wild Web
• Instant access to an unlimitedhodgepodge of
  unscreened information, most of which is of
  highly questionable value
• Ranked by browsing popularity
• McDonalds-ization of knowledge
• Good stuff lost in cyberspace
• Academic journal articles are long, tedious and
  boring by comparison

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Todays Postmodern Student
The Problem

• Weaned on the Web
• Primary source of news and knowledge !?
• Wants instant gratification
• The era of just-in-time knowledge
• Why copyor learnanything if you can
  cut-and-paste?
• Hyper-learning (not sustained)
• All alone in cyberspace

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Todays Postmodern Student
The Problem
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Typical Research
The Problem

• First-listed Yahoo! source
• Wikipedia
• Movie reviews
• Amazon customer/reader comments
• Newspaper and magazine articles
• Fan club sites

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The Course Web Site
A Partial Solution

• Syllabus
• Objectives
• Assignments
• PowerPoints lecture notes
• AN ORGANIZED PORTAL TO YOUR FIELD OF STUDY

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The Course Web Site
A Partial Solution
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The Course Web Site
A Partial Solution

• STUDENT FRIENDLY?
• Design like a commercial site
• A little coolness helps (i.e., graphics)
• Intuitive navigational structure
• Engaging and exciting
• Spoon-fed research guidelines
• LAUNCHING PAD FOR STUDENT RESEARCH

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The Course Web Site
Primary Objectives

• 1. Create a site that would serve as an organized
  portal to the serious study ofcontemporary
  international cinema and literature
• 2. Attempt to prevent lazy research by pointing
  students in the right direction
• 3. Enable students to create a custom textbook

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The Course Web Site
Secondary Objectives

• 4. Assess student research skills and
  monitor their use of secondary sources
• Do they know how to properly quote from and/or
  paraphrase outside sources?
• Are they properly interpreting texts?
• Plagiarism
• Intentional
• Unintentional

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The Course Web Site
In-class Uses

• 1. Instant classroom access to wide range of
  archived materials
• PowerPoints
• Music and art
• Video clips
• Podcasts
• 2. Point out preferred research sources in class

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The Course Web Site
Personal Benefits

• Ever-evolving multi-GB filing cabinet for
  organizing years of research
• Secure back-up external hard drive
• Sharing interests, resources, researchand
  writing with professional colleagues around the
  world (and their students!)

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Collective Fabric of Knowledge
Personal Benefits
University of Colorado at Denver , School of
Education Corollary Sites Contemporary
Philosophy, Critical Theory and Postmodern
Thought Knowledge is a fabric of relations in
which one individual is fundamentally entwined
with all others in a collective discourse. This
page illustrates that woven fabric Each of the
following sites links to the Postmodern site here
at U.C. Denver. The UCD page serves, not as a
hub, presuming some privileged position, but as a
conductive thread, one of many fibers which
transforms a collection of unique sites into a
common woven text. This Corollary page returns a
thread to each of the diverse sites,
strengthening possibilities for community within
this collective fabric known as postmodern
thought. Ryder (1999).
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Organizational Approach The Problem
Logic

• Information overload
• Books least appealingand perhapstoo
  intellectually dense and esotericfor
  undergraduates (non-major)
• Academic journals often deal with secondary and
  tertiary issues (student doesnt yet know basics)
• Most-browsed sites may not be best
• Unguided research (alone in cyberspace)

• www.feminism.org
• www.feminist.com
• www.now.org
• www.madre.org

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Organizational Approach
Logic

• Broad overview of field of study
• Introductory articles to key concepts
• Introductory articles to major artistsand
  theorists
• Handful of selected readings on specific topics
  students are likely toresearch
• Portrayal of Women in Middle EasternCinema
• A Feminist Reading of Fellinis 8 1/2
• 5. Students own research

• www.feminism.org
• www.feminist.com
• www.now.org
• www.madre.org

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The Course Web Site
The Mechanics

• Notepad (Microsoft Office)
• or Web-page design package
• Web host (50.00 year)
• _______________________________
• HTML code guidelines
• DHMTL menu builder
• Adobe Photoshop or PhotoDeluxe
• GIF builder

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Sample Sites

• www. skutski.org
• www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/engl/theory/index.html
  
• http//vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id2718
• http//www.uiowa.edu/commstud/resources/critical_
  authors.
• Tml
• www.cddc.vt.edu/feminism/enin.html
• http//www.english.upenn.edu/traister/literature.
  html
• http//www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/matsuoka/