On journalling and blogging I'm finally back in my office and, for the moment at least, reliably connected to the internet. If anyone wants to visit my office, now is the time to do it. As time goes on, I'll eventually begin creating small piles of papers all over the floor and the room will take on a lived feel, much like a hamster nest. Until then, it projects the sort of effeciency and professionalism that one might feel in a physician's office.

As I mentioned in class, the purpose of the journaling option is to provide a good way for students to not only demonstrate knowledge of the class texts and increased comprehension over the period of the course, but also to communicate with peers.

According to the National Research council's report on how students learn, teaching needs to be geared specifically to the sorts of mastery that a student is supposed to acquire. In a philosophy class, understanding is a more important goal than To acquire this sort of mastery one must actively engage in relevant activities. Memorizing facts to take an example can get in the way of the sort of learning that would constitute competence in philosophy.

This grading option will hopefully allow these different facets of successful learning to be achieved. In short, its my way of trying to be "guide by the side" instead of a "sage on the stage".

In future posts, I'll try to use less trendy, if not more comprehensible, jargon.  ¶ #

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