tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17577430.post156623566194192439..comments2024-03-17T02:17:34.680-05:00Comments on Philosophy Factory: A cool use for PowerPointInside the Philosophy Factoryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12255753259090709877noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17577430.post-42652701730153766812008-02-22T00:32:00.000-06:002008-02-22T00:32:00.000-06:00Yeah! I do *exactly* this, more often as a Word d...Yeah! I do *exactly* this, more often as a Word doc than PPt, in class discussions when we're generating "what do we think?" stuff. <BR/><BR/>In fact, I have a separate section in each class's CMS especially for the "class notes" section we generate as a group. (For instance, on the first day of this semester's lit course, we brainstormed a "what we already know about American lit" as a way to shape the course readings/structure/focus.)<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the compliments, pal.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13553943600934249918noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17577430.post-46884947420595664172008-02-21T16:35:00.000-06:002008-02-21T16:35:00.000-06:00Oh, what a GREAT idea!Oh, what a GREAT idea!Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17577430.post-87485010104629021582008-02-21T16:32:00.000-06:002008-02-21T16:32:00.000-06:00Hi,I've been teaching a course on the philosophy o...Hi,<BR/><BR/>I've been teaching a course on the philosophy of language where I do something similar to this that you might be interested in. I've separated the class into three groups of four (quite a small one I know!) and then I get them to discuss the reading in the week between the sessions in their groups (pace <A HREF="http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~kjh5/StudyGroups.htm" REL="nofollow"> Katherine Hawley</A>. I then set them some questions which involve forming an argument for certain conclusions (in the introductory session I used "The matrix is real", "It is better to be in the matrix than the truman show").<BR/><BR/>I have also set them up password protected wiki sites at <A HREF="http://jottit.com" REL="nofollow">jottit</A>, one for each group. I ask them to put their arguments on the wiki site and then at the beginning of the class I bring up the site on the projection screen and we discuss their arguments: considering both soundness and the believability of the premises.<BR/><BR/>There have been some problems with less motivated students but generally the students have found this method both useful and mopre enjoyable than a more traditional discussion session. The material is already on the web so it is easy to connect to any course websites. Anyone with the password can edit the site.<BR/><BR/>This brings up some options for the way that you are working. If you moved from entering the arguments into powerpoint to adding them to a jottit page you could set up pages alongside the ones with the arguments on that the students could use to comment on/discuss the arguments outside of the sessions. <BR/><BR/>Of course you may have the resources to do this withing software that your university already has, in the UK (where I am teaching) there is a high number of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) that incorporate areas to store documents in their simplest forms but have wiki pages, discussion forums and other useful tools on top of this at the university I teach at. We use <A HREF="http://www.blackboard.com/products/Academic_Suite/index" REL="nofollow"> Blackboard</A>.<BR/><BR/>Hope that this is interesting!<BR/><BR/>Kalbirkalbirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18443492543046199855noreply@blogger.com