Friday Fragments, April 9
Class participation, student access to reliable technology & a podcast recommendation.
What I’m reading…
James Lang’s piece, Should We Stop Grading Class Participation? asks some very helpful questions about why we feel it necessary to grade participation, and offers a strategy of “inviting in” students as a better way to encourage - but not punish a lack of - student participation.
What drove me away from grading student participation was an uneasy feeling — and it grew each year — that grades were not something that should be fudged based on my hunches and instincts, or influenced in any way by my informal observations and memories…Such a “system” is subject to every kind of bias imaginable.
In news that will surprise none of us, Old, Slow Laptops Are Sabotaging College Student Success shared research about issues with access to technology. This is a particularly challenging concern to address from the perspective of instructors, as we often don’t have the technological know-how ourselves to be able to help students figure out why something isn’t working for them. Author Rebecca Koenig offers some suggestions, including:
Professors can also make a difference by adjusting their practices. Faculty should assume that some of their students are “under-connected” when it comes to technology…and design their courses by keeping in mind the student who shows up with the very least in terms of digital resources.
And, what I’m listening to…I enjoyed this episode of Digital Fluency, one of the podcasts created by William & Mary’s Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation.