1. Connections Conference 2005 FirstClass (FRED): Two Perspectives Rachel Howison, Language Studies

2. Plan 1.Academic Needs 2.The Net Generation’s Needs 3.Structuring the Course 4.The course is FirstClass (Communications) – look at the space 5.Extra Benefits for Students 6.Renovations and Additions

3. I didn't merely affix FirstClass onto my course as a decorative, entertaining feature; FirstClass influenced the way I structured my course.

4. Academic Needs: Fostering Academic Argument “To feel comfortable with debate changes your relationship with education and just about everything else. It transforms you from a passive and bored receptacle of another’s wisdom into a participant; into someone who is neither scared by, nor indifferent to, the society around them but actively involved in its interpretation and transformation.” “It is – or at least it should be – restless, unsettled, always moving forward.” (Alastair Bonnett, How to Argue: A Student’s Guide)

5. Academic Needs 1.Writing is an integral part of this Literature course 2.Students must become proficient at: -critically examining texts and at skilfully -creating their own informed and analytical writing 3.Students must practice writing as much as possible (repetition) 4.Immediate, interactive writing produced within tight time-frames 5.FirstClass is the ideal medium for this kind of work because it facilitates production and exchange 6.FirstClass fosters quality communication, enables students to improve their analytical writing skills in a mere 14 weeks 7.FirstClass invented a brilliant oxymoron: the noisy silent classroom

6. The Net Generation Familiar with the current electronic world “More than half of Canadian kids (56 per cent) use the Internet for instant messaging (IM), and 27 per cent use it every day, or almost every day” (Young Canadians in a Wired World: The Students' View 2001). 70% use on-line chat 90% use Internet DCODE

7. IT and the Net Generation “IT is essential” IT and Net Gen “symbiotic relationship” “increasing value as a communications tool” “hands-on, let’s build it approach” “Discussions, notes, and other in-classroom events can be captured and disseminated for further study.” “Learning can happen informally.” Educating the Net Generation “Learning Spaces.” Malcolm Brown, Dartmouth College, 2005

8. Structuring the Course Applied Degree Literature Lecture 1 ½ hours Discussion Board 1 hour Tutorial 1 ½ hours FRED holds the course together, organizing material, facilitating discussion and extending the learning environment.

9. View the Applied Degree Literature Conference On FirstClass

10. Extra Benefits Access to information Organized Support System: automatically saves

11. Renovations and Additions Malleable! Easy to renovate. Assign Summative Activity: Personal academic web pages Publish to the web Use the IM feature (assign weekly questions) Integrate testing Integrate an Editing Assignment (writing as process, FRED great tool for offering revisions) Integrate sound (spoken word) Establish a ‘Secondary Research’ conference