English 2783
The Art of Fact: Contemporary Literary Journalism
Prompt # 15
28 October 2013
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Rationale
As I've said, much of my aim as a teacher, and in this course, is to
help people become more self-aware about their own learning. Part of
this is making what I can about my own methods transparent and
clear, so that people are aware of what in the situation is working
to help them learn, and what isn't. I'm also, of course, interested
in the perceptions of students about what's going on (and also in
the chance to explain things).
The reason for anonymity in this part of the process should be
clear: when someone is in the situation students are in, dialogue
with teachers is fraught with difficulties -- one side of the
dialogue really has all the power. This leads to hesitation to speak
truth to power; it also leads to the temptation to say nice things
to be comforting and to avoid possible recrimination. I like hearing
nice things as much as the next person, but what I really like is overhearing
them -- when something with nothing to gain says something nice, you
tend to believe it.
There are, of course, also dangers in anonymity (as any journalist
will tell you). So I tend to be pretty careful about when I use it.
In this case, here's how it will work.
There's now a link from the main course page to a seven-item survey
form. When you click "submit" at the bottom whatever text you enter
in the response boxes is sent to me as an email from "www." That's
all I know.
The link will be there till Friday. If you want to participate in
this, you'll need to do it before then. On Friday I'll take the link
down, compile the responses, reply where I think it might be useful,
and post the results.
Questions? As usual, there's email.
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