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Volume 1, Issue 3 ISSN
1528-5804
Print Version
Article
and Commentaries
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Groot, G. (2001). A classroom teacher responds to
Carico and Logan: A commentary. Contemporary Issues in
Technology and Teacher Education [Online Serial] , 1
(3) . Available:
http://www.citejournal.org/vol1/iss3/currentissues/english/article2.htm
A Classroom Teacher Responds to Carico and
Logan: A Commentary
LAUREN
GROOT
Tallahassee Community College
As so many of my students want to be heard and
their opinion to be considered, the MOO virtual reality discussion
of literature can supply just such an outlet. Today's English
language arts classroom includes large class sizes, and soliciting
immediate responses from all students becomes a difficult task. The
more confident, gregarious students often dominate the discussion,
and shy, reserved students save their thoughts for their journals,
or simply keep them internalized. Even when prompted, many
teenagers will sit silently and feel separated from the response
"club" because they feel insecure about speaking aloud in class,
believing their responses to be inadequate. Extended response with
thoughts triggering more thoughts without interruptions (a common
factor in the secondary classroom!) is allowed in the MOO
discussion. This special outlet is a "room" where those students
less apt to talk will be able to express enthusiasm unabashedly
through the relatively anonymous chat that MOO supplies.
With this purposeful and structured literature
response opportunity, middle-school students begin "creating
meaning" with each other and are enthusiastically promoting
self-learning. The older students demonstrate the lifelong learning
model that can only be taught through example; and what better
model than "cool" college students?
Yet the college students were suddenly concerned
about how to interact with eighth graders. Preservice teachers need
multiple occasions to learn the many facets of teaching and
learning with adolescents. A concern among many college professors
is that their preservice teachers are unprepared for the reality
that their classrooms will be laden with all types of learners
representing numerous cultures and microcultures. Creating an
environment such as the MOO will provide practice for prospective
teachers to converse with and get to know all types of students:
Limited English Proficient, various socio-economic backgrounds,
learning disabled/gifted/general, and so forth.
After reading and reviewing this article, I am very
interested in doing the MOO in a community college literature class
with a friend's eighth grade English class, but I am concerned
about some safety issues that may arise.
Parents/guardians/administrators often feel uncomfortable with any
e-mail exchanges due to the risk of an inappropriate relationship
between a college student and a middle-school student. Discussing
the etiquette of the "wandering" period and emphasizing minimal
personal information exchange during the literature discussion
could be a proactive effort toward minimizing potential problems.
Also, all students should understand that the hosts would read a
printout of the text after each MOO session to deter irrelevant
discussion. As with many introductions to technology infusion in
schools, issues of ethics and education become crucial. We must
continue to explore opportunities that bring together preservice
teachers and students to learn how best to prepare the teachers of
tomorrow to use technology to enhance student learning.
Contact Information
Lauren Groot
118 E. 8 th Ave.
Havana, FL 32333 USA
Lngroot@earthlink.net
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