New Conversations: Web-based Forums in "Spanish Civilization and Culture"
by Jeffrey C. Barnett, Washington and Lee University
Many argue that true learning takes place when the student actively incorporates and utilizes concepts in contrast to receiving information passively. This is perhaps true in all disciplines but especially so for those of us involved in foreign language courses which stress linguistic as well as conceptual development. In my interdisciplinary culture courses I stress to the students that they must be aware of the equal demands on communication and content. Although I attempt to follow this approach, unfortunately I often find myself having to choose between devoting sufficient time to the introduction of new concepts on the one hand and the application of the material on the other.
There are typically twenty students in my Spanish Civilization and Culture course. All have completed at least intermediate Spanish; most are majors; and many have studied abroad. Freshmen and Sophomores have direct network connections in their dormitory rooms while others have access to the Web through the various networked computer labs on campus. All are familiar with navigating the Web and some have composed their own Web pages.
Ideas Behind the Course:
At this level of linguistic and conceptual development I hold the philosophy that the more removed the professor is from discussion, the more active the student becomes in taking responsibility for learning. In short, my role is that of moderator. Obviously the communicative approach does not do away with the professor's responsibility to spark discussion with appropriate questions, lead the students to a deeper level, and clarify or correct errors. Nevertheless, I sought to avoid the traditional, passive approach of reception, retrieval, regurgitation, and recall (or as is often the case, the lack of recall). In order to make the student a more active participant, I asked myself a series of questions: what are the students saying?; how are they saying it?; how often?; and who's talking? These questions led to the following objectives: (1) increase the quality of discussion; (2) increase the quantity of discussion; and (3) refocus the direction of discussion. In short, I sought more and better horizontal communication. (By horizontal I mean less unilateral exchange between professor and one student in contrast to more interaction among the students.) In this way, my hope was that the students would think more critically, express those thoughts more frequently, and not merely receive information.
Course Activities:
To accomplish these goals, I incorporated a number of Web-based activities throughout the course including my own texts, other readings on the Web, useful links, and exercises, but the most successful of these--which I exclusively address here--was a Web-based discussion forum made available through the HTML template program Web Course in a Box (subsequently referred to here as WCB). Much of the success of the WCB Discussion Forum is attributable to its design. Unlike many of the older newsgroups or listservs, Web-based forums tend to be more friendly and familiar to students and furthermore offer the same advantages of the Web in general. For example, previously visited responses appear in a different color; I can use the "Find" command to check a given student's number of entries; multimedia attachments are easily entered; it is URL aware, and so forth. More specific to the design of the WCB forum, however, the students and I have found its visual organization to be its greatest strength. The message list serves as a chronological and thematic index by displaying the subject title and its threads. This allows the students to select with ease which topic they want to respond to, or more importantly at what level of the thread they wish to enter into the discussion. There are also a number of features which allow the professor to customize the forum (e.g., the inclusion of date stamps).
The students' assignment was very specific and achievable: each had to read all of the new entries before class and post at least two original responses a week. As for the definition of "responses," the students could start a new topic, follow-up on a previous one, pose a question, clarify or confirm, offer rebuttal, and so forth. In other words, they had complete liberty to organize the discussion as they saw meaningful. Almost all of the students found the forum so "fun" that they invariably went well beyond the minimum requirements and, in fact, doubled the number of entries I had expected over the course of the semester.
Measured Results:
Based on student evaluations and critiques from colleagues both on campus and off, my impressions were confirmed regarding the many benefits of the Web-based forum. The peer and student observations typically addressed the following six areas.
1. Horizontal Communication for Discussion. The way in which the WCB message list is designed helped me visualize that my goal of horizontal communication had been achieved. Ironically, I was looking for and achieved "controlled chaos" meaning that everyone felt free to interject his or her own ideas at will. Although the comments were not submitted simultaneously in real time, the message list gives the impression that the whole class is sharing ideas at the same time. This one aspect made my experiment successful in contrast to previous years when I felt that I alone was engaging a single student at a time, often overlooking someone who may have had a good idea, allowing others to monopolize conversation, and letting still others blend into anonymity.
2. Linear Communication as a Review Tool. Although my main goal was to remove the direct and limited professor-to-student type of query, I nevertheless found the WCB helpful as a review tool. In other words, this was the exact opposite type of thread. In these instances, I would post one question to which all were required to respond. These were generally unit review questions that took the place of a quiz. More importantly, when it came time to review for the Mid-Term and Final Exam the entire class had access to a fellow student's answer.
3. Prolongs Previous Discussion. The Web-forum undoubtedly extends our conversation beyond the classroom. Shortly into the semester I sought the students' reactions to the forum. Although not meant as a complaint, one responded "It's like having two classes now." I stressed to the students however that I preferred to see it as one continuous class instead of 24 Tuesday-Thursday sessions. Essentially, that is what the forum provided for me. It brought the material together as a course in contrast to separate or disjointed class sessions. Follow up questions and comments served to summarize the topic before moving on. In short, as an umbrella for the entire course, it gave the material continuity.
4. Anticipates Next Discussion: Whereas I found the forum useful to continue the previous class, it also helped me to anticipate the upcoming meeting in two special ways:
4A. Anticipates Reaction: First, it allowed me to preview and guide the direction of classroom discussion by proposing questions at an opportune moment. Previously when I would hand out discussion questions along with the assignment, I always felt that the students did not read the text critically and only prepared that part which corresponded to the questions. The opposite--withholding the questions until class time--does not offer the student sufficient time to prepare a thoughtful response. The forum alleviated this conflict by allowing me to post questions the morning of class, more specifically after the assignment had been completed yet before the students arrived to class. In this way, the students could foresee the direction of the in-class discussion and prepare their ideas, yet it still forced them to complete the reading thoroughly.
4B. Anticipates Direction of Discussion: The forum also helped me anticipate the student reaction to a given assignment. Since I had a clearer understanding of their views and opinions, I could make critical adjustments. For example, some readings that in my opinion were intriguing elicited few comments, whereas others that I judged to be somewhat straightforward evoked a wide scope of controversy, ranging from gender views to ideological differences. I would have probably missed this opportunity if not for the forum. Furthermore, when we hit a lull and no one volunteered to comment, I "knew" that they had something to say because I always brought a printed copy of the archive with me to class. I could then call on a specific student to restate and expound on his premise. This decreased my frustration with lulls of silence and also made better use of class time.
5. Interactive Potential: Perhaps the most obvious advantage to the Web-based forum is the capacity for interactivity. As we discuss a particular topic, I can incorporate meaningful multimedia attachments. In one case for example, I attached an image of a Spanish Civil War poster, asked the students to arrive at their own conclusions, and then we invited an expert from Spain to join in the discussion. Additionally, since the WCB forum is URL aware--meaning that it automatically makes a link active--the students often use the forum to share the addresses of interesting sites that they have found on the Web independently from our class assignments.
6. Archive of Discussion : Finally, the forum provides an archive of thoughts in a chronological and thematic fashion that will help me the following semester in several ways. I can use the forum to remind myself of pertinent comments made previously, or if I choose to make it available to the students they can compare their thoughts to those in previous semesters. Regardless, it provides continuity from one semester to the next.
Lessons Learned:
For subsequent success, I have altered or kept various concerns in mind.
1. Incorporation--Incorporate the Forum as an integral part of a Web-based class: In previous courses with fewer computerized assignments, students were not motivated to go to the Web often enough. It was seen too much as a tedious, supplemental activity. In this case, however, the students were obligated to visit our class page to get the assignments, obtain the readings, and check for important messages. As several students observed, since they "were already on the class page, it made it easy to go ahead and add a comment or surf the responses" while there.
2. Assignment--Be specific in demands and yet promote creativity: At first, some students were unsure about the "type" of comments they should make. Over the course of the semester, as they saw and emulated those of their classmates, this problem was alleviated. Initially, however, it is important that they understand exactly what is expected of them.
3. Accessibility: Freshmen (and some Sophomores) were online more frequently than upperclassmen since all dormitory rooms are networked. Although our campus has numerous computers available 24 hours a day, still some upperclassmen felt imposed upon when they had to return to campus or stay after class to enter their responses. Accessibility (as relative as that term may be) is a major concern and will have a direct impact on how successful the Forum will be.
4. Size and Speed of the Forum--Maximize speed by keeping individual forums small: If students find the Forum cumbersome, they tend to respond less often. This was true for the upperclassmen who were using a modem while less of a concern for the Freshmen with direct network connections in their rooms. This problem can be alleviated by creating multiple forums (by topic, unit, or other chronological divisions).
5. Type of Forum--Choose the "friendliest" forum that best suits the needs of your class: In previous attempts, I had been dissatisfied with listservers and newsgroups. Some were troublesome from a technological aspect. Others such as "chat rooms" and unmoderated discussion groups did not reinforce our topics and, in fact, proved to be a distraction from our goals.
Conclusions:
While the conclusions I draw here refer to my first experiment with the WCB forum in "Spanish Civilization and Culture," I have since had equal success in three other courses: "Hispanic Cinema," a Senior Seminar, and "Spanish-American Civilization and Culture." The privacy of writing in one's own space at one's own pace has proven to be an incremental step towards more formal writing and advanced conversational skills. More importantly, through greater quality and quantity of meaningful discussion, the students have taken an active role in creating a profound learning experience.
Contact Information: email barnettj@wlu.edu or consult http://madison.wlu.edu/~barnettj/