[CITASA] Suggestions for teaching introductory sociology

[Robert E. Phelan]

Sorry, ". more important NOW than ever before."  

 

Point your students toward the "discussion" tab of the wiki sites.  the main
tab is simply "consensus" science, or the beliefs of whoever managed to
start the discussion first.  

 

One thing I did try but was not really successful with. partly because the
class was too large. trying to use a Blackboard Site as a collaboration
tool. in one deviance class the "Term Paper" part of the class was to
produce a research proposal to investigate "plagiarism". the students were
to formulate a proposal independently, publish it on the Blackboard site for
comment by their "colleagues", but then collaborate on the research method
and questions. The Blackboard site allowed them to post articles and
references that might be of interest to their research community and allowed
them to comment on it.  However, thirty-five students taking a sociology
course because they needed three credits of social science at a convenient
time may not be the best venue for this approach.

 

R.E. Phelan

  _____  

From: citasa-bounces at list.citasa.org [mailto:citasa-bounces at list.citasa.org]
On Behalf Of Robert E. Phelan
Sent: Sunday, August 30, 2009 4:11 AM
To: 'George W. Dowdall, Ph.D.'; citasa at list.citasa.org
Subject: Re: [CITASA] Suggestions for teaching introductory sociology

 

Professor Dowdall:

 

If you've got reliable, fast internet access, introduce them to sites with
data: the census bureau, CDC, FBI uniform crime report, Labor Department.
then ask them to resolve a question during class: e.g. "Reverend Wright made
the often reported claim that there are more young black men in jail than in
college. Is this true?"  Statistics at the Dept of Justice and Dept of
Education will begin to answer the question, but of course, there may be a
discrepancy between the ages of people in jail than people in college. and
we have to let them know that one year does not make a trend.  but our
courses should be teaching empiricism and a critical attitude toward data. I
used to regard Michel Foucault as a French Flake. the ability to track down
data, critique it and use it to critique the existing order is more
important know than ever before.

 

R.E. Phelan

Itinerant Scholar

 

  _____  

From: citasa-bounces at list.citasa.org [mailto:citasa-bounces at list.citasa.org]
On Behalf Of George W. Dowdall, Ph.D.
Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2009 10:03 AM
To: citasa at list.citasa.org
Subject: [CITASA] Suggestions for teaching introductory sociology

 

At the very last minute, I've been asked to teach a small introductory
sociology course in a well-stocked PC lab. Can anyone point me to
interesting ways of teaching this course using Internet and PC resources in
live time?

Thanks,

George
 

George W. Dowdall, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology, Saint Joseph's University,
Philadelphia PA 19131. 610-660-1674. 

 

College Drinking: Reframing a Social Problem (2009)
http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/C9981.aspx 

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