The Internet might not seem an obvious tool to use in helping students learn about 19th-century British literature, but it made sense to Mark Phillipson, visiting assistant professor of English.
Phillipson spent several years both teaching English and working on Web content in Silicon Valley. While there, he noticed how interested and engaged his students were when using new media, so he saw the Internet as a way to get Bowdoin students involved in a course.
"I'm trying to get into the trenches with them," he said, "and give them a chance to do something with new media that isn't just passive consumption."
He also saw the potential to help students understand the Romantic writers through their use of the technology: in dealing with the excitement and anxiety created by new technology — the Internet — students could better understand the feelings Romantic writers had toward new printing and distribution techniques enabled by the industrial revolution.
"I wanted the students to experience a position they were studying," Phillipson said. "I wanted them to ponder a connection between the two times."
He approached the information technology staff and asked for a custom built Web site so the students could write essays, analyze poetry and comment generally on the authors and their work — all online. He asked for a site for eight students that was easy to post to, that made it easy to link between different pages, and that would reward students for their interactivity.
Their response: "What you want is a wiki."
"I'm trying to get into the trenches with them and give them a chance to do something with new media that isn't just passive consumption."
Wiki is a type of open source software that Bowdoin's information technology staff were able to customize for Phillipson's needs. Wiki Web sites are collaborative, which means that they depend on their users to build them and to help them evolve.
"They involve a good deal of trust," Phillipson said.
The reason is that on most Wikis, anyone can edit the text, add new text, post a link, or otherwise alter the site. The IT staff made a few changes to Phillipson's site, so that the text couldn't be changed by just anyone. They created a password system so that only Phillipson and the students in the course could make changes, but trust was still key, since any student could add to or alter any other student's entry.
One of the challenges for students was becoming comfortable with the technology. They had pressure to post several assignments a week, which required a great deal of attention and work. They knew that the work they were doing could be seen by anyone in the world with an Internet connection.
"They had a sense of the responsibility of that, the enormity of that," Phillipson said.
In the end, the technology worked well with the class, helping them learn about Romantic literature and relate to the time in which it was written, but also giving them the chance to use skills usually untapped in an English class and helping them build strong relationships with each other and with Phillipson.
"I learned a lot about romanticism; I learned a lot about my students, and I learned a lot about myself as a teacher," he said.
Just as the Internet created new paths for information, advances in printing and marketing in the early nineteenth century opened up authors' work to audiences they had never even considered before. Along with this came anxiety about what Phillipson called "uncertain control" over one's own words because of increased literacy and the availability of books to groups that hadn't previously had that access.
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Phillipson spent several years both teaching English and working on Web content in Silicon Valley. While there, he noticed how interested and engaged his students were when using new media, so he saw the Internet as a way to get Bowdoin students involved in a course.
"I'm trying to get into the trenches with them," he said, "and give them a chance to do something with new media that isn't just passive consumption."
He also saw the potential to help students understand the Romantic writers through their use of the technology: in dealing with the excitement and anxiety created by new technology — the Internet — students could better understand the feelings Romantic writers had toward new printing and distribution techniques enabled by the industrial revolution.
"I wanted the students to experience a position they were studying," Phillipson said. "I wanted them to ponder a connection between the two times."
He approached the information technology staff and asked for a custom built Web site so the students could write essays, analyze poetry and comment generally on the authors and their work — all online. He asked for a site for eight students that was easy to post to, that made it easy to link between different pages, and that would reward students for their interactivity.
Their response: "What you want is a wiki."
"I'm trying to get into the trenches with them and give them a chance to do something with new media that isn't just passive consumption."
Wiki is a type of open source software that Bowdoin's information technology staff were able to customize for Phillipson's needs. Wiki Web sites are collaborative, which means that they depend on their users to build them and to help them evolve.
"They involve a good deal of trust," Phillipson said.
The reason is that on most Wikis, anyone can edit the text, add new text, post a link, or otherwise alter the site. The IT staff made a few changes to Phillipson's site, so that the text couldn't be changed by just anyone. They created a password system so that only Phillipson and the students in the course could make changes, but trust was still key, since any student could add to or alter any other student's entry.
One of the challenges for students was becoming comfortable with the technology. They had pressure to post several assignments a week, which required a great deal of attention and work. They knew that the work they were doing could be seen by anyone in the world with an Internet connection.
"They had a sense of the responsibility of that, the enormity of that," Phillipson said.
In the end, the technology worked well with the class, helping them learn about Romantic literature and relate to the time in which it was written, but also giving them the chance to use skills usually untapped in an English class and helping them build strong relationships with each other and with Phillipson.
"I learned a lot about romanticism; I learned a lot about my students, and I learned a lot about myself as a teacher," he said.
Just as the Internet created new paths for information, advances in printing and marketing in the early nineteenth century opened up authors' work to audiences they had never even considered before. Along with this came anxiety about what Phillipson called "uncertain control" over one's own words because of increased literacy and the availability of books to groups that hadn't previously had that access.
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