New Media Classroom

Yesterday was the first day of a new semester.  I had a two hour block to teach, so after going over the syllabus and doing introductions and such, we went to our computer classroom.

Five dos and don’ts fresh from the classroom:

1. DO introduce your students to new technology in the classroom setting.

If you want to incorporate new media in the classroom, don’t just expect that all of your students will be able to set up the proper accounts, get on the class blog, figure out where the “new post” button is, etc. on their own.  Any classroom–even the college classroom–will have a wide variety of students, some who have had less experience with new media technologies.  Don’t let the digital divide put students behind from day one by being there when your students are learning new technologies.

Now that my students have posted their first blog post while in class, they’re no longer intimidated by the blog post that’s due for homework tomorrow.  They know the technology, and can now focus on their writing.

2. DON’T try to have all your students get new online accounts from the same IP address on the same day.

Two programs we use in my classroom are Blogger and Google Documents.  Both require a Google account.  About half my students had Google accounts already, and I falsely assumed that the rest of my students would be able to get Google accounts while we were working in the computer classroom. After all, it worked last semester.  The problem we ran into was that the computer lab uses one ip address, and with so many people trying to get a Google account from the same ip address, google marked the ip address as spam.  As a result, two of my students still don’t have google accounts, though hopefully by Wednesday that problem will be resolved.

Next time I’m emailing my students a week before classes start and asking them to get a Google account before the first day of class.

3. DO design the first day’s new media activity so that those who were quickly able to set up their accounts don’t get bored.

While it took some of my students 20 minutes to set up their accounts, some students were done in 2.  Luckily, the activity was for them to create a blog post and then post comments on other people’s posts.  Those that were able to set up their accounts quickly were able to read and comment on a larger number of posts, and didn’t have to sit there twiddling their thumbs.

4. DON’T plan too much for days that you’re introducing students to new technologies.

My goal for the computer classroom was to have my students 1. create their accounts; 2. post their first blog post, a one paragraph description of their writing process; 3. comment on other’s blog posts; and 4. turn in a Google Document describing their course goals.

I quickly realized that some of my students would not even get to the third task.  I decided not even to introduce the fourth task, because it required a separate technology and I wanted my students to spend enough time writing to produce quality blog posts and comments.  Google Docs will just have to wait.

5. DO interact with your students and their new media writing on a regular basis.

This is something I’m trying to be better at this semester.  You show value to new media writing by interacting with it, participating in it, not just by giving students a grade.  So while I won’t be able to comment on every single blog post my students write (each of my students writes 3 a week) I should comment at least as many times as I’m requiring my students to comment.  If I expect my students to have an online conversation then I should be there for it.  Yesterday, whenever students didn’t need my help, I tried to comment on their blogs.  In my 5 to 10 minutes of downtime, I was able to comment on at least 3 people’s posts, adding my own thoughts.

My goal is to be a mentor to my students, a teaching collaborator, and interacting with my students and their new media writing is key to acheiving that goal.

What other dos and don’ts have you picked up from using new media in your classroom?  I’d love to hear your insights and ideas.