Cathy Davidson Holds Online Office Hours on Digital Learning Sept. 3
Davidson will discuss learning in a digital age during the interactive webcast.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Reblogged from Duke Today at http://www.news.duke.edu/2010/08/davidson_oh.html
The latest Beloit College Mindset List says that students in the college class of 2014 dont know how to write in cursive and think email is too slow. Duke professor Cathy Davidson will discuss how students are learning in a digital age during a live Office Hours webcast conversation Friday, Sept. 3, beginning at noon on the Duke University Ustream channel.
Online viewers are invited to ask Davidson a question, in advance or during the session. To do that, send an email to live@duke.edu, tweet with the tag #dukeliveor post a comment on the Duke University Live Ustream page on Facebook.
Davidson, the Ruth F. DeVarney Professor of English and John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, raised eyebrows when she created a grading scheme for her course This Is Your Brain on the Internet, in which students evaluated one another. What this teaches my students is responsibility, credibility, judgment, honesty and how to offer good criticism to one's peers -- and, in turn, how to receive it, she explained. Were good at learning from authority, but how do we learn to question authority? Davidson asks. Thats a huge skill in a collaborative, Internet age. Among other books, Davidson has authored The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age and Revolution and the Word: The Rise of the Novel in America. She is a co-founder of the Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory, on whose website she blogs.
And, yes, she is on Twitter and Facebook, but hasnt take to the Kindle.
Office hours at a university are times when professors leave their doors open for individuals to stop by and discuss issues such as current events and developments in their fields. Dukes Office Hours series aims to bring the expansiveness and sparkle of these conversations to anyone with an Internet connection and an interest in the ideas bubbling up at Duke. To date, topics have ranged from patenting genes to political cartoons, the economics of the Islamic world and caring for people with cancer. You are invited to join the conversation.
UPDATE:
Watch the video of Cathy's conversation with Michael Schoenfeld and see the Twitter transcript below.
- NancyHolliman's blog
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Re:Learning in a Digital Age
I gleaned a lot of useful information from this broadcast, but I was particularly inspired by Cathy's description of the methods she uses to give her students control in the classroom. She described how she allows students to choose and lead the topic of discussion and associated readings, structures assessment in the format of contracts and peer review, and asks her students at the beginning of class whether the session will be technology-free or technology-driven. While these suggestions are not entirely new to me, it was helpful to hear her actually describe how she executes them successfully in her classroom.
When asked how our academic structures need to change to meet the needs of the 21st century, Cathy explained that we need to remove the divide between science and humanities. Further, we need to develop tools to help us deal with the onset of the digital age the same way inventions of the 19th century helped us deal with the onset of the industrial age.
Interesting perspectives on a variety of topics so relevant to what I'm interested in. I've only recently re-entered academia and am anxious to hear more of Cathy's broadcasts, read her blog, and ultimately be able to contribute some (hopefully) valuable opinions and ideas of my own.
Thanks Cathy!