Believing in the Power of Technology

On the Blackboard site and on our listserv, we are genuinely "sharing culture." We are sharing ourselves, our ideas, our pedagogy, and our knowledge with administrators, students, and each other. We also all share a relationship with technology and a belief that our students can benefit from developing such a relationship as well. From the beginning, we have been convinced that providing this experience to our underpowered students would be fruitful; we were sure that the Internet communication would enhance the curriculum for these "at risk" students. And, indeed, in examining the quality of work, in comparing their ability to think in future classes, it seems our hunches were right.

But that doesn't mean we actually thought that much about technology. In this project, we have learned to be in right, reciprocal relationship with technology. When the course was first designed, despite the fact that technology was making it possible, technology was peripheral in its importance. The discussion board and email exchanges appeared as afterthoughts, as ancillaries to the business of reading three specific articles and writing three particular essays. However, the team soon realized that the best work – the actual business of cultural sharing – was not occurring in mandated emails, but on a discussion board, and that the discussion board needed to be the center – rather than the edge – of the class.