We shook off last night’s jet lag and traipsed through the crisp, cold morning for our first class hosted in England. We greeted each other—some of us with coffee in hand, all with laptops in tow (Elizabeth C. and I tried the instant coffee machine in the building—not worth the money). We settled into the graciously air-conditioned room and tried to connect to the internet, most of us with much frustration.
We were given a safety demonstration by Brett, told us how easy it was to pull fire alarms and the best places to flee the building in case of an emergency. He also gave us emergency contact numbers (999 for police, 01483683333 for campus police from our cell phones) and reassured us how safe we are.
We had a thorough discussion of Chapter 15, which was about the conflict of Wikipedia as a scholarly source, and how to use it in the classroom. Our main questions we tussled with were: What does academic research look like? and What sources do we trust? Many of the students had insightful comments to make on this complex and controversial topic. Erin gave an argument about the necessity of peer review, and shared the dihydrous monoxide example. Jeff, Deb, and Elizabeth commented on the lack of critical thinking skills that happens with one heavily relies on one open-source website. Jeff made a good point about the necessity of teaching about Wikipedia in particular: “If we don’t allow students to explore Wikipedia in our classrooms, they’re missing out on a very real-life skill.” Deb pointed out the greatness of Wikipedia, that it’s nice to be able to see so much at once and how easy it is to learn about ANYTHING. Mike commented on Deb’s point that this includes digital literacy: can a student read an entire article without being sidetracked by hyperlinks, or are those important for research? Our conversation was productive and intellectual, spurred by the points asserted by the chapter we read. Certainly some ideas have changed on the validity of Wikipedia, and our discussion brought up some new and interesting points on how to conduct research in the classroom.
Some possible other uses of Wikipedia links in augmented research:
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://tldrwikipedia.tumblr.com/
After our discussion, Kevin showed us how to work on Assignment 11, which is using Padlet. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s contributions to the site, and what they’re seeing and exploring around England! Erin suggested a good use for Padlet in the classroom was having students post examples of a topic/issue and having the students analyze the examples. Cool idea.
Several students had presentations to share on the places the group is to visit. Jeff showed us an AWESOME YouTube video of what to expect at Guilford castle—the Alice in Wonderland statue looks particularly cool. Wilda gave us a presentation on the British Library. She said we can see a lot of the exhibits online, so we don’t have to stress over seeing every single thing there. The British Library put in 1 million images on flickr, for free! Hopefully we can see cool things like the Gutenberg Bible, the Magna Carta, Shakespeare’s first folio, and a copy of Beowulf, as well as the new graphic comic exhibit. Wilda was also kind enough to provide us Library door cards too. Elizabeth gave a great presentation on pub culture, citing “If you haven’t been to a pub, you haven’t seen Britain.” Caroline gave a great report on the Globe Theater, despite the “aggressive sound effects.” I’m just glad we won’t be seeing any bear baiting.
Finally, Kevin showed us how to customize our own maps on Google, which we were to work on once we’d gone off and taken pictures of Guildford Castle and the town during lunch. We watched one more video on the pub culture in England, rich with history and literary allusions. Then it was time for lunch and exploring!
We were given a safety demonstration by Brett, told us how easy it was to pull fire alarms and the best places to flee the building in case of an emergency. He also gave us emergency contact numbers (999 for police, 01483683333 for campus police from our cell phones) and reassured us how safe we are.
We had a thorough discussion of Chapter 15, which was about the conflict of Wikipedia as a scholarly source, and how to use it in the classroom. Our main questions we tussled with were: What does academic research look like? and What sources do we trust? Many of the students had insightful comments to make on this complex and controversial topic. Erin gave an argument about the necessity of peer review, and shared the dihydrous monoxide example. Jeff, Deb, and Elizabeth commented on the lack of critical thinking skills that happens with one heavily relies on one open-source website. Jeff made a good point about the necessity of teaching about Wikipedia in particular: “If we don’t allow students to explore Wikipedia in our classrooms, they’re missing out on a very real-life skill.” Deb pointed out the greatness of Wikipedia, that it’s nice to be able to see so much at once and how easy it is to learn about ANYTHING. Mike commented on Deb’s point that this includes digital literacy: can a student read an entire article without being sidetracked by hyperlinks, or are those important for research? Our conversation was productive and intellectual, spurred by the points asserted by the chapter we read. Certainly some ideas have changed on the validity of Wikipedia, and our discussion brought up some new and interesting points on how to conduct research in the classroom.
Some possible other uses of Wikipedia links in augmented research:
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://tldrwikipedia.tumblr.com/
After our discussion, Kevin showed us how to work on Assignment 11, which is using Padlet. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s contributions to the site, and what they’re seeing and exploring around England! Erin suggested a good use for Padlet in the classroom was having students post examples of a topic/issue and having the students analyze the examples. Cool idea.
Several students had presentations to share on the places the group is to visit. Jeff showed us an AWESOME YouTube video of what to expect at Guilford castle—the Alice in Wonderland statue looks particularly cool. Wilda gave us a presentation on the British Library. She said we can see a lot of the exhibits online, so we don’t have to stress over seeing every single thing there. The British Library put in 1 million images on flickr, for free! Hopefully we can see cool things like the Gutenberg Bible, the Magna Carta, Shakespeare’s first folio, and a copy of Beowulf, as well as the new graphic comic exhibit. Wilda was also kind enough to provide us Library door cards too. Elizabeth gave a great presentation on pub culture, citing “If you haven’t been to a pub, you haven’t seen Britain.” Caroline gave a great report on the Globe Theater, despite the “aggressive sound effects.” I’m just glad we won’t be seeing any bear baiting.
Finally, Kevin showed us how to customize our own maps on Google, which we were to work on once we’d gone off and taken pictures of Guildford Castle and the town during lunch. We watched one more video on the pub culture in England, rich with history and literary allusions. Then it was time for lunch and exploring!