mtl3p

New category - which will be used frequently as I blog this project. I just bought the domain www.harknesstable.net. I will be using it to host a wiki that will be specifically for students to share and collaborate on classnotes and other resources for their courses. I am not sure if it will be picked up by others, and if so how they will use it, but I will be using it during my next term at Concordia. (The best part is that I can use the wifi in the classrooms to post 5 minutes after class, right after I check my notes against a classmates.)

The reason I chose the name is because the school I went to used a collaborative style of teaching where students learned through discussion with their peers. The better the teacher was, the less s/he would need to talk. Usual was between 10-15 minutes of a 50 minute class. The system was named after the 14-seat, oval tables that a benefactor, Edward Harkness, gave the school.

I’ve had some bruises from my previous encounters with higher-education. Here at Concordia there are great tools that teachers can use to post class notes, create forums, and even chat rooms. Mr. McAusland (the head of IITS) showed it to me himself the other day. Unfortunately for the students, only a small percentage of teachers take advantage of this. I’ve actually had someone in the administration tell me that “students are not here to teach each other, they are here to learn from the teachers”. Hopefully, this will show them that there is a need both to post class notes, and for a space where students can share their knowledge, experiences, and questions with each other.

The site should be up in a week or so.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 18th, 2003 at 9:17 pm and is filed under Harkness Table. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.