Frederick Roth (roth at husc7.harvard.edu) wrote:
: After all this discussion about the best way to deal with student
: questions, it seems that Cory Wisnia may serve as the best model.
: Questions from students can and should be moderated... by their teacher.
: If all postings were reviewed by the student's teachers, there would not
: be much 'getting us to do their homework'. Also, it shouldn't be hard
: to ask the teacher to include "STUDENT QUESTION" in the header, for those
: who wish not to read them.
I have communicated with Cory, and I agree that he is doing an excellent
job within the current context. He must, however, still deal with
respondents whose flip and insensitive responses can do alot of damage.
I wholly support Cory's pioneering efforts. We must keep in mind,
however, that his 8th grade science class is just one of the first of
hundreds of middle school and high school science classes which should,
and will, make full use of internet resources.
My view of 'tutorial' newsgroups focuses on the positive aspects. Such
groups should not be thought of as a way of marginalizing or ghettoizing
students. Rather, it is a way of empowering them with their own dedicated
resource. If the responses to this thread are any indication, most of us
want to help students. We want to share our knowledge and excitement with
them. This means that the "tutorial" groups will be monitored by experts
who wish to help students, and their teachers. Negative, or off-puting
responses will be less likely. These "experts" will recognize specialized
questions and recommend that the student post to the "professional" group.
If it is the norm that student posts to the "professional" group have been
informally refereed, then such posts are likely to receive the attention
of everyone, including those who now ignore student questions.
--
Terry Viancour, Biological Sciences | inet: viancour at umbc7.umbc.edu
Univ. Maryland, Baltimore County Campus | phone: (410) 455-2267, 455-3800
Baltimore, MD 21228-5398 | FAX: (410) 455-3875
