Science Fiction and Fantasy: Interaction and Collaboration

Karen SwensonAssociate Professor of English

Virginia TechJune 2010

English 1654: Introduction to Science Fiction and Fantasy

Online80 Students15 Weeks

English 1654: Introduction to Science Fiction and Fantasy

In this reading-intensive, online course, students will:• think about important issues presented to us through works

of speculative fiction - • definitions of good and evil, • self and alien, • science and nature, • human and machine, • human and monster, • exploitation and collaboration -

• consider definitions of human experience and potential, • demonstrate knowledge through weekly quizzes.• share ideas in a discussion forum & a speculative fiction wiki.

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Collaborative Development• Summer 2009

• Karen Swenson takes Faculty Development workshop on Sakai tools

• Fall 2009• Swenson uses wiki and other Sakai tools in her courses• Susan Hagedorn and Cheryl Ruggiero collaboratively teach an online speculative fiction course

• November 2009• Hagedorn, Ruggiero, and Swenson form collaboration to share skills and resources in order to

develop this course• Spring 2010

• This course is offered through Scholar, enhanced by the wiki and other Sakai tools• Continuing

• This work continues as educators and students work together, collaborating with IDDL (Institute of Distance and Distributed Learning) and OCS (Online Course Systems) and others from different parts of campus. Interest grows. Randy Patton is adapting this for a six-week summer session. Aaron Bond, Amber D. Evans, and Marc Zaldivar are exploring possibilities.

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Learning Objectives and Course Goals• Aristotelian (Specific): Students will

• learn to identify major periods in the history of speculative fiction• read significant authors from a variety of types of speculative fiction• learn to define significant sub-genres of speculative fiction• become familiar with a wide range of texts and movies defining this genre• develop their critical reading skills• become more adept at critical thinking• become more experienced at collaborative writing.• become more accustomed to considering a text within a cultural context

• Platonic (General): Through collaborative work, we will• reconsider traditional concepts of "author" and of "self" • suggest collaborative means of living with others• learn to work together to create a better world• encourage a sense of community • encourage an awareness of the contributions of others• become more accustomed to considering ourselves within a context

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Multiple Tools

• I use multiple tools for interaction and collaboration. Different tools support different course goals. Tools allow specific types of thinking and interacting.

• At the heart of this course is the writing of students in the forums, chat room, and wiki. They interact with one another, with me, and with the tools that shape their online environment.

• Student writing has meaning, power, and significance in this course. Students are shaping both their own words and the words of others in order to create a web of interconnected writings.

Home Page as Interaction:Changing Central Panel & Regular Announcements

Maintain Focus on Time and Topic

Syllabus & Calendar

• Readily available in menu• Attached to first announcement• Organized in two-week units• Explained & located in welcome

video• Includes reading list, assignments,

contact information, and other essential elements

Introductions

- Welcome Video - Principles of Community- Meet-the-Class Forum - Polls- Wiki Writers

Quizzes

• Open-book• Timed – 50 minutes• 25 questions

• Quizzes encourage students to do the assigned reading and directly address the more Aristotelian goals.

• Randomly drawing questions from multiple pools to create each quiz decreases the chances that any two students will get the same set of questions.

Some pools:

Weekly LecturesAvailable through main menuUse both images and words to present key concepts

Forums• Meet-the-Class Forum• Unit Discussion Forums• Poster Forum

Invitation to Wiki: Excerpts

We are doing this because a Wiki will allow us to• interact with each other in a useful and

interesting way,• share our knowledge and expertise with others,• experience a new form of writing and a new

definition of “authorship” made possible by technology,

• participate in a collaborative enterprise.• learn from each other, and• have fun together!

Wiki – The Beginning

• New list items• Index • Wiki Writers• Rich Content

Wiki – 3 Months Later

Chat Room - Students Share Summaries of their Wiki Work with Everyone

Wiki Pages – Creating Infrastructure

Wiki Pages – Hypertext Essays

Wiki Pages – Image and Words

Wiki Pages – Web Resources & Bibliography

Wiki Pages – History of Collaboration

“Wiki Aliveness”7 Principles for Cultivating Communities of Practice

1. Design for evolution.2. Open a dialogue between inside and outside

perspectives.3. Invite different levels of participation.4. Develop both public and private community spaces.5. Focus on value.6. Combine familiarity and excitement.7. Create a rhythm for the community.

Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William M. Snyder http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/2855.html

Wiki Development

The success of this course wiki led to the creation of a community wiki – the Virginia Tech Speculative Fiction wiki, around which is growing a community of practice.

The community wiki allows student work and its value to continue beyond the boundaries of the semester or the course.

“Play Well and Prosper”

• An immersion that leads me to define my research as online community, • Developing a network of partners and associates with overlapping interests• Exploring outreach to both on-campus and off-campus groups, the larger

community, including students from K-12• Development and growth of our fledgling community site• Development and growth of our individual course sites • Development and growth of our instructors’ shared resources• Beginning the grant-writing process

• Ask questions about structuring online collaborative teaching, • Consider how software options influence not only how but also what we

learn, and• Practice as a community member.• The focus of my academic work has changed.

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Teaching this Class while

Applying for the Sakai Award

Collaborative work allows us to:• reconsider traditional concepts of "author" and of "self” • suggest collaborative means of living with others • learn to work together to create a better world• encourage a sense of community • encourage an awareness of the contributions of others• become more accustomed to considering ourselves

within a context

Thank You

Karen Swenson <karens@vt.edu> Associate Professor of EnglishVirginia TechBlacksburg, VA 24060