Innovative Uses for a Computer Classroom?

flard asks: "I will be teaching a Freshman English class at a medium sized public university, in a computer classroom for next semester. Every student has their own machine with an internet connection. I am thinking about using a weblog for them to post their work and critique each other. Do you guys have any other cool ideas on what to do and what NOT to do?" How can the computers best be applied to assist in teaching a non-technical class? Use of a weblog is a start, but are there other pieces of software that can be deployed in such a setting?

Comments

Let's see...

[tinrobot]

Instead of passing notes in class, the students can use instant messenger to call you names behind your back.

Of course, with a good packet sniffer, you can snatch the notes from their grasp and read them aloud. Just like with paper!

How about

[nicodaemos]

letting them compete for First Post on /.?

Re:How about

[mhesseltine]

Letting the students even see Slashdot would probably be the last thing an English teacher would want... ;)

However, it would be a good source of assignments.

Teacher: Class, today we're going to spell-check and grammar check the front page of Slashdot.

New uses for computers in the classroom

[Anonymous Coward]

They make dandy paperweights. Sutdents need to know how to do real math without calculators. Hell, I'd even advocate the return to the slide rule and abacus. When the power goes out, what are they going to do? Probably die. Pity.

Re:why not use slashcode ?

[SydShamino]

>> As they can get at the source, they can build new functions onto it. This could be an assignment.

I don't think your average C compiler is going to do well with Freshman English compositions.

Teach the Dangers of Spell Checkers

[mengel]

Many people fall into the "if the spell checker liked it it must be okay" trap. Many variations are possible, but my favorite is to run "Jabberwocky" through a spell checker and tell it to "Just fix it". A friend of mine used to have the results from an old Macintosh spellchecker on his wall...

Twangs brilliant and the silver tongs did...

Re:Teach the Dangers of Spell Checkers

[Dylan Zimmerman]

Teas Willis, and the sticky tours
Did gym and Gibbs in the wake.
All mimes were the borrowers,
And the moderate Belgrade.
"Beware the tablespoon my son,
The teeth that bite, the Claus that catch.
Beware the Subjects bird, and shred
The serious Bandwidth!"
He took his Verbal sword in hand:
Long time the monitors fog he sought,
So rested he by the Tumbled tree,
And stood a while in thought.
And as in selfish thought he stood,
The tablespoon, with eyes of Flame,
Came stifling through the trigger wood,
And troubled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and though,
The Verbal blade went thicker shade.
He left it dead, and with its head,
He went gambling back.
"And host Thai slash the tablespoon?
Come to my arms my bearish boy.
Oh various day! Cartoon! Cathay!"
He charted in his joy.
Teas Willis, and the sticky tours
Did gym and Gibbs in the wake.
All mimes were the borrowers,
And the moderate Belgrade.

That one is by far my favorite. It was obtained by writing Jabberwocky on a Newton OMP (Original Message Pad). Those had the worst HWR imaginable. The 130 actually had pretty good recognition accuracy and the 2X00 is simply phenomenal.

Re:Teach the Dangers of Spell Checkers

[Inda]

Jabberwocky is fine on OfficeXP - sorry.

I always liked this:

Eye have a spelling chequer,
It came with my Pea Sea,
It plainly marques for my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.

Eye strike a quay and type a whirred
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write,
It shows me strait a weigh.

As soon as the misses ache is maid
It nose before two long
And aye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it,
I am sure your pleased to no,
Its letter perfect awl the weigh,
My chequer tolled me sew.

Wonderful. :)

Dont let them touch it

[JVert]

Have all computers powered up and in fully working order. Turn off the screensavers and make sure the monitor doesn't turn off, and that the network icon is active so they can see that it is connected. You want a nice fat green start menu just begging to be pressed. Now for the entire course anyone who touches their computer gets an immediate F.

The discipline will be priceless.

Slashorcizes instead of busy work...

[Dareth]

Have them correct the spelling/grammar errors for any 100 slashdot posts for a particular article.

Shouldn't be to hard to find them errors eh?

Re:if you have good LCD display

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, I remember the weekend Terminator 3 came out. It was so great because -- wait, no I don't! Probably because it didn't come out yet.

How about English?

[fmaxwell]

I will be teaching a Freshman English class at a medium sized public university, in a computer classroom for next semester. Every student has their own machine with an internet connection.

I will be teaching a Freshman English class at a medium-size public university, in a computer classroom [delete "for"] next semester. Each student will have their own machine with an Internet connection.

If you had said that you would be teaching a computer science class, a biology class, or any type of class other than English, I wouldn't have been such a picky bastard. ;-)

Re:Computers in class are good, the internet howev

[Jellybob]

J00 CAN L3A7N 2 Sp311 dA r3a1 way.

It works

[Anonymous Coward]

That is a very valid point.

Hey, he is right. I am perfectly happy helping you with your grammar from an anonymous standpoint. I wouldn't have done this if you knew who I was.