[CITASA] Suggestions for teaching introductory sociology

[Steinhart, Frank]

I would also use some of the public access databases

http://usa.ipums.org/usa/
http://sda.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/hsda?harcsda+gss06
http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/leadcaus.html




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           Frank A. Steinhart

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         Department of Sociology
         North Park University
         3225 W. Foster Ave.
         Chicago, IL  60625
         773.244.5591
         fsteinhart at northpark.edu<BLOCKED::mailto:fsteinhart at northpark.edu>

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 3:47 AM
To: 'Robert E. Phelan'; 'George W. Dowdall, Ph.D.'; citasa at list.citasa.org
Subject: Re: [CITASA] Suggestions for teaching introductory sociology

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
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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

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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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