Teaching with Information Technology

This site provides teachers with practical tools and resources for use in designing courses that incorporate information technology (IT). It also includes sample courses using IT components and critical essays on specific IT applications.

1. Resources
• Meta-Resources
• Institutional Resources
• Individual Resources
2. Applications
• Course Web Pages
• Web Syllabi
• Required/Supplemental Hypertexts
• Discussion Forums
• Assigned Web Projects
• Reference Web Pages
3. Critical Essays

Resources

Meta-Resources

• Dynamic Syllabi (Crossroads, Georgetown U). List of hypersyllabi for courses devoted to some aspect of American culture, divided by field.
• Information Resources Library (EDUCAUSE). Searchable library of resources, including campus documents, such as policies, RFPs, and strategic plans, conference papers, articles from EDUCAUSE publications, and useful Web resources.
• Interactive Teaching Resources (H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online). An index to online courses and syllabi from U.S. universities and colleges.
• Instructional Technology Connections (Martin Ryder, School of Education, U. Colorado, Denver). Index of resources divided by category.
• Mindtool Resource Page (Gary Lewallen). Index of resources that support teachers and students using computers in the classroom for a variety of functions, including databases, multimedia, microworlds, and telecommunications.
• Palinurus: The Academy and the Corporation — Teaching the Humanities in a Restructured World (Alan Liu, U. California, Santa Barbara)
  • Palinurus: Information Technology and the Academy: General Resources Index of general resources and bibliography of statements on information technology and the academy.
  • Palinurus: Information Technology Initiatives in Higher Education Comprehensive list divided into both practical and theoretical topics related to use of informational technologies in higher education.
• Teaching & Learning on the WWW (Maricopa Community Colleges, Arizona). Searchable collection includes courses delivered entirely via the web, courses that offer specific activities related to a class assignment, and courses that offer class support materials via the web.
• Teaching with Electronic Technology (Michael L. Hall, U. Maryland, College Park). Sites collected on this page range from rather general and theoretical resources to some instructive examples of specific applications of technology to teaching and learning.
• Technology & Web-Based Instruction Links (Center for Teaching Excellence, Iowa State U). Annotated list of resources.
• World Lecture Hall (ACITS, U. Texas, Austin). A well-organized series of links to classes using the web to deliver class materials.

Institutional Resources

• Computers in Composition and Literature (Ohio State U). Provides teaching resources for incorporating computers into English studies. Especially useful are sample class activities using word-processing, computer-mediated communication, and the web.
• Computer Writing & Research Lab (U. Texas, Austin). Provides links to online courses as well as student, instructor, and scholarly resources for incorporation of instructional technologies into composition and literary studies. Offers Critical Tools, downloadable courseware modules.
• CourseInfo Global Gateway (Cornell U) Index of courses with a uniform interface for accessing course materials through the web.
• Humanities Computing Unit (Oxford U, England). Publishes the online journal Computers and Texts, and offers a Guide to Digital Resources in the Humanities.
• ITForum (U. Georgia). An electronic listserv that discusses theories, research, new paradigms, and practices in the field of Instructional Technology. Posts respond to short papers written by leaders in the field. Previous discussions are archived.
• Instructional Computing (U. California, Santa Barbara). Provides brief descriptions of campus initiatives using information technologies for instruction.
• Office of Instructional Technology (U. Michigan). Provides a gallery of web-based projects as well as methods and tutorials for incorporating information technologies.
• Online Learning (Microsoft). Provides case studies, as well as (obviously) products for implementing online courses.
• Portfolio of Case Studies (Crossroads, Georgetown U). Reflective case studies about Faculty Investigators' experiences integrating technology in their classrooms, some considering an entire semester-long course and others focusing upon a single aspect of a course.
• WebCT (U. British Columbia). Provides licensed web tools for creating on-line courses with features such as a conferencing system, on-line chat, student progress tracking, grade maintenance and distribution, auto-marked quizzes, student homepages, and course content searches.
• The Wellspring: An Online Community of Distance Educators (Instructional Systems Inc. & Teachers College, Columbia U). Provides discussion forums, reading rooms, seminar sessions, and links devoted to distance learning, as well as offering web-based courses.

Individual Resources

• Bartelstein, Andrea and Anne Zald (U. Washington Libraries). Teaching Students to Think Critically about Internet Resources. This online workshop for faculty and TAs provides resources for evaluating web sites.
• Embleton, Karla M. (Center for Teaching Excellence/ Instructional Technology Center, Iowa State U). Online Course Material. Part 1 of a 2 part workshop introducing the use of online information and techniques as a teaching tool.
• O'Donnell, James (U. Pennsylvania). "New Tools for Teaching." Offers practical, step-by-step lists of ways to introduce information technologies (e-mail, newsgroups, gopher, www, moo's) into your teaching.

Applications

Course Web Pages

• Communication and Technology (Ben Attias, California State U, Northridge). Course takes full advantage of the medium: moo's, student web portfolios, an interactive study guide, and newsgroups. Also includes students' assessment of use of IT in the course.
• German Through the Media (Robert Godwin-Jones, Virginia Commonwealth U). Course includes student web pages, discussion forums, live chat sessions, and on line resources (in German).
• Inventing the Subject: Gender, Sex, and Texts, 400-1500 (Martin Irvine, Georgetown U). Course links students to readings and resources for research on the web.
• Material Aspects of American Life (Mary Corbin Sies, U. Maryland, College Park). Course on the study of material culture using electronic discussions and creating "virtual" exhibitions.
• Writing About Cyberpunk (Tonya Browning & Mafalda Stasi, U. Texas, Austin). Course uses Daedalus software in computer-assisted classroom and class web site for posting student writing, responses, and web projects. One assignment asks students to evaluate a web site and then redesign one page in html from that site.

Web Syllabi

• Antebellum Richmond (Scott Nelson, College of William & Mary). Text-only syllabus includes description of web-authoring assignment and grading criteria.
• Chinese Culture (Paul Halsall, Brooklyn College). Hypersyllabus includes links to readings and all class materials on the WWW, as well as student web pages.
• From Epic to Hypertext (Jack Lynch, U. Pennsylvania). Hypersyllabus with links to some class readings on gopher.
• Technoculture from Frankenstein to Cyberpunk (Martin Irvine, Georgetown U). Hypersyllabus includes web-based discussion forums, entirely digital written assignments (no paper "papers"), group web projects, and links to web readings and resources.

Required/Supplemental Hypertexts

• The Country of the Pointed Firs (U. North Carolina). An electronic edition which includes accompanying interpretive and instructional materials and a "modifiable" text that allows readers to annotate passages and create discussion forums.
• The Fiction of Postmodern America: Multi/Intercultural Perspectives-Online Resources (T.V. Reed, Washington State U). Links to on-line course resources.
• Information Resources: Selection, Acquisition, and Evaluation-Course Information (William C. Robinson, U. Tennessee, Knoxville). Provides links to lecture notes for all his courses.

Discussion Forums

• American Literature Survey: Message Forums (Natasha Sinuto, U.Texas, Austin). Description and guidelines for using message forums for individual classes and in collaboration with other classes.
• Culture in the Jazz Age: Message Forums and InterChanges (Nick Evans, U. Texas, Austin). Gateway to threaded discussion forums and realtime InterChanges on specific stories or topics.
• Discussions-The Rhetoric of Cyborgs (Joanna Wolfe, U. Texas, Austin). Framed discussion forum with messages released into the public domain and editable forums.

Assigned Web Projects

• Early English Scribal Culture (Catharine Regan & Harlan Wallach, Northwestern U). This on-line study resource is designed to instruct students in the scribal culture of the Old English period using Old English manuscripts and material on the WWW.
• Monsters and Mysteries Interactive Archives (Gina Siesing & Kathleen Vejvoda, U. Texas, Austin). Students submit entries to an interactive archive on various topics related to course.
• Pragmatism, Modernism, and the Computer-Assisted Classroom-Addlinks Page. (Brian Bremen, U. Texas, Austin). Students use this page to evaluate web sites and provide links that are informationally useful or pedagogically innovative.

Reference Web Pages

• The Labyrinth (Georgetown U). Provides organized access to electronic resources in medieval studies.
• Perseus Project (Tufts U). Acontinually growing digital library of resources for studying the ancient world.
• Victorian Web (George Landow, Brown U). Contextual resources for courses in Victorian literature.
• VRoma (Miami U, Oxford & Rhodes College). Virtual community for instruction and interaction (modeled on ancient Rome) and collection of internet resources for teaching Latin and ancient Roman culture.

Critical Essays

Essays on Specific Applications

• Bothun, Gregory D. (U. Oregon). "Distance Education: Effective Learning or Content-Free Credits?" CAUSE/EFFECT 21.2 (1998). Gauges the success of Distance Education classes and includes feedback from students.
• Currents in Electronic Literacy 1 (Spring 1999). Special Topic: Electronic Pedagogy in Literature Classes.
• English, Joel A. "Metacognition in the Computer-Mediated Classroom: A New Advantage." Computers and Texts 13 (December 1996).
• Ericsson, Patricia and Eric Johnson (Dakota State U). "The Computer-Mediated English Department." Technology and Teaching ( 1997). Describes a university's use of computers in composition and English courses.
• Hood, Adrienne and Jacqueline Spafford (U. Toronto). "Student-Constructed Web Sites for Research Projects: Is It Worth It?" The Journal for MultiMedia History 1.1 (Fall 1998). Surveys the pitfalls and rewards of assigning student-constructed web sites as a course requirement.
• Johnson, Eric (Dakota State U). "How Jane Austen's Characters Talk." TEXT Technology 4.4 (Winter 1994). An example of computer analysis of language applied to literary criticism
• Jones, Paul (U. Virginia). "Whither Humanities and Advanced Technologies?" Educom Review 32.1 (January/February 1997). Surveys some reasons for humanistic neglect of technology, then discusses tools and programs with potential for humanities IT programs.
• LaGrandeur, Kevin. "Using Electronic Discussion to Teach Literary Analysis." Computers and Texts 12 (July 1996).
• Robertson, Hugh. "An Information Network for Students of Literature." Computers and Texts 12 (July 1996).

Index of Resources

1. Overview
2. Guides to Readings in Literature and Information Culture
   1. Bookshelf (Brief descriptions and mini-reviews of works in a variety of media that developers of the Transcriptions project or speakers in its colloquium series have been reading. These are the works that are helping to shape the intellectual direction of the Transcriptions project. The Bookshelf is a searchable database.)
   2. Hypertext Literature (annotated catalogue of representative works of hypertext fiction, poetry, and theory in a variety of media, both offline and online works; includes a guide to the Transcription studio's library of publications by the Eastgate company)
3. Guides to Online Research
   1. Online Research Resources (library catalogues, digital text archives, periodical indices, etc.; includes both general-access and UCSB-only resources)
   2. Online Reference Resources (dictionaries, thesauri, atlases, encyclopedias, etc.)
   3. Online Resources for Writing and Speaking (grammer and style guides, writing tips, advice on oral presentations, etc.)
   4. Evaluating & Citing Online Resources (checklists, exercises, examples, and annotated links; also includes a printable form to use in tracking and evaluating online sites)
4. Guides to Technology in Transcriptions Courses
   1. Web-Authoring Basics (basic outline of the process required to download, revise, and upload web pages associated with Transcriptions courses)
   2. Web-Authoring Resources (design and how-to advice for both beginning and advanced Web authors; includes links to HTML and design style guides, help with images, and examples of good and bad design)
   3. Transcriptions Studio Software (catalogue of the major production tools used by Transcriptions with links to resources and tutorials; covers Macromedia's Dreamweaver and Fireworks, Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator, and Allaire's Homesite programs)
   4. How to Post Messages in the Exchange Messaging Environment (step-by-step guide)
   5. How to Use the Web to Add/Edit Content in the Project's Timeline or Linkbase Databases (step-by-step guide)
5. For Instructors and Developers:
   1. Teaching with Information Technology (annotated links to resources and tools for designing courses utilizing IT; also includes example sites)
   2. Developer Resources for Transcriptions Project (Templates for course and topics pages, Photoshop templates for images, Descriptions of web technology used in HTML design, Cascading Style Sheets [CSS], Server Side Includes [SSI], and relevant information)

This page created by Chris Schedler (research, annotation and coding),
Vince Willoughby (research and annotation) and Laurie Ellinghausen (research and annotation)
for the Transcriptions Team, 2/8/99 (revised 8/18/00)