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Judy Spector, IUPU-Columbus
When IU supplied Judy Spector, an IUPU-Columbus professor, with a computer for her office, she designed new approaches to several of her English courses. These approaches were based on connecting writing with her other academic specialty, psychology. In her current pilot project for W131‹which has as its theme "finding your voice" ‹ students connect to Spector's Web site and there take the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, based on the Meyers
Briggs test. From the on-line score sheet that maps their profiles, they connect to further reading about their profiles, including descriptions of writers, thinkers and fictional characters who "share" those profiles. Spector describes writing as a "process of self-discovery; making the clear psychological connection encourages students to analyze how they think and write."
The technology enhances Spector's instructional goals. Her class Web site's on-line help resources provide intellectual support, and the E-mail connection with her students builds involvement beyond the perimeters of class time. The social and physical activities of participating in the course become relevant in themselves.
Says Spector, "The technology tools, the psychological self-discoveries and the connections students make to their own writing processes combine to make a transformative means to an end‹a richer teaching and learning experience for me and my students."
Planning courses now requires Spector to make deliberate connections, linking every unit of information to other units and on-line resources. She now sees courses in terms of their Web structure. Following links encourages students to broaden their thinking, make connections between topics, and see the interrelatedness of ideas and the materials useful in exploring those ideas.
"Overall, this makes for more labor-intensive class preparation at the start, but nets rewarding outcomes in terms of classroom dynamic and increased student involvement," she said. The benefits are clear‹resources like the Web are "creating a generation of better-informed students and thinkers."
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