Teaching, Learning, Blogging

Oops. I've been a bad, bad blogger. I've been working on some assessment issues for the Writing Room over the past couple days and tried to escape from the laptop pilot for a bit. Nonetheless, I should go over some preliminary issues that have popped up over the past several weeks . . . and months.

I want to give an update regarding one of my primary concerns with the laptop pilot, specifically the administrative issues asssociated with such a project for entering first-year students.

First, I suspect that once the "college students to be" hear that one section of English 101 will come with a shiny new laptop computer (even if for just one semester), there will be a registration "run" on that section. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing, though. The first incoming students to register (although I think one person has already registered for the 8am Tuesday, Thursday section) will do so during July orientation . . . July 19th, I think. Then they will go back home to their family and friends and will not be back on campus until classes begin or a few days before. That leaves us little time to decide how we want to approach and schedule the mandatory workshop in which we will meet these students, give them their laptops and explain the expectations. Then again, it gives us plenty of time between the time they register and classes start to contact them. Hmmmmmm . . . Well, I've decided to go ahead and help create this registration "run" by informing the Pacesetters and Faculty Facilitators of the laptop section. I have been drafting a document that spells out the expectations of the class and the laptop pilot. My hope is that the section will fill during July orientation, and we will have less to worry about come August. We'll see how the plan works.

Second andd perhapss more importantly from an administrative perspective, how many students who actually register for the class will finish it? Each Fall semester, between one and three students (sometimwes more) begin a section of English 101 and either drop it, transfer to another section or simply disappear. If these students have a university-owned laptop computer in their possession when they do so, matters get a little complicated. Also, and I just thought of this, what about the student who adds the section of English 101 to his/her schedule after a couple days of classes? Ugh. Frankly, although I will worry about this to a certain extent, I'm going to avoid "getting all bent" about it. I know other folks on campus who are much more concerned with this difficulty, and I'll trust them to take care of it. I need to concentrate on teaching--and assessing the progress of--the students in my classes.

Well, there is more, but I'll wait until later to share it.