SWE - Fall 2007 - (Page 34) Personal technology use and innovations have combined with market trends to create new ways of learning, coursework, and classroom situations, while introducing a multitude of sociological questions. BY SANDRA GUY, SWE CONTRIBUTOR T Linda Krause, assistant professor of computer science at Elmhurst College, sees electronic communications changing the nature of team work. echnologies sure to be seen in college classes this fall — iPods, mobile video, instant messaging and Wi-Fi online access — offer revealing glimpses into the increasingly private, one-on-one nature of communication in our society. Experts debate whether today’s latest technologies truly are path breaking, and what the progress means for societal boundaries, connection and communication. Linda Krause, assistant professor of computer science at Elmhurst College in a suburb of Chicago, said students have started bringing their own laptops to class to send instant messages, take tests electronically, and more easily access their favorite wikis. A wiki is a Web site or similar online resource that lets users add and edit content collectively. “The syllabus, assignments, lectures, course documents and class work links are available to students any time, anywhere,” Krause said. Students turn in their assignments electronically, via a digital drop box in Blackboard, a course-management software. Students discuss group work electronically, rather than talking face-to-face, she explained. “When I give group work, the students work as a team, but may rarely be physically together,” she said. “The majority of conversation is done using the discussion board. They work on files collaboratively using source control software. They can check in and check out code over the Internet.” Compared to students of previous generations, this ease and frequency of electronic communications creates a sense of isolation, though today’s students may not perceive their experience as such. In the classroom setting Krause describes, the lack of direct contact is further reinforced because students may plug their course software into their laptops, eliminating the need to wait in line in the computer lab to work on programming code. “When I was in school, we had to be in the labs on campus because that’s where the software had been installed,” Krause said. “Now, students install the software in their laptops and take it home.” Young people also increasingly live in their own worlds by creating avatars, or their own online characters and alter egos, on sites such as “The Sims” and “Second Life,” where they step into a world similar to Star Trek’s holodeck, living in an alternate universe complete with homes, neighbors, stores and futuristic forms of transportation. Ellen Granberg, Ph.D., assistant professor of sociology at Clemson University in Clemson, S.C., said she finds it “completely ironic” that students sit alone in their dorm rooms and furiously type their ideas into an online discussion board that she uses in her coursework, yet they are initially reticent to speak in the classroom. “It is very clear they are so much more comfortable in the relatively isolated way of interacting online,” Dr. Granberg said. Changing Classrooms, Course 34 SWE FALL 2007 ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN BEUKEMANN
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