computer syllabus and lectures

[Brenda Gordon <Z3BCG -at- TTACS1 -dot- TTU -dot- EDU>]

In Mary Beth Raven's repsonse to Mary Massirer's request for
information about a syllabus for teaching technical writing
in a computer-based classroom, Mary Beth warns Mary about
students who may rather type at their computers than listen
to her lessons. Isn't that wonderful? I think the
computer-based classroom is working when students would
rather be writing a document than listening to a lecture on
how to write a document. One of the greatest benefits of
teaching in a computer-based classroom is that students do
not have to be subjected to long, and often boring,
lectures. Instead the teacher can use the networked system to
provide an environment that allows the students to learn how
to write technical documents by reading, evaluating, and
writing technical documents.

I find that the students learn more from evaluating samples
of documents written in industry or in the classroom--evaluations that
pinpoint the successful and unsuccessful rhetorical
strategies--than they do listening to me give a lecture on the rules
for writing an effective document.

Brenda Gordon
Texas Tech University
z3bcg -at- ttacs1 -dot- ttu -dot- edu