http://chnm2009.thatcamp.org/05/25/the-ill-formed-question/ The Humanities And Technology Camp Sat, 04 Jun 2011 13:00:14 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.12 http://chnm2009.thatcamp.org/05/25/the-ill-formed-question/#comment-30 Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:09:15 +0000 http://thatcamp.org/?p=46#comment-30 […] thatcamp.org/2009/dorn-proposal-for-2009-thatcamp/ – thatcamp.org/2009/the-ill-formed-question/ […]

]]> http://chnm2009.thatcamp.org/05/25/the-ill-formed-question/#comment-29 Thu, 28 May 2009 18:58:24 +0000 http://thatcamp.org/?p=46#comment-29 It sounds intriuging. I think students often enjoy problem solving. But your approach could easily become a form of canned research that prevents students from making creative contributions. Students invariably have the tendency to search for the correct answer. With help they can tackle complex questions, but they feel betrayed if they end the semester feeling that there was no one true answer and that the possible answers proposed by students are equally valuable. Perhaps the way to keep students interested and engaged is to help them learn how to ask and answer questions with primary sources. The trick is helping students to find answers without giving away what the most likely or persuasive answers would look like. This usually means introducing students to arguments and debates in the secondary literature, so that they will grasp what kinds of questions historians have asked. Orchestrating all of this, I will confess, is easier said than done.

]]> http://chnm2009.thatcamp.org/05/25/the-ill-formed-question/#comment-28 Thu, 28 May 2009 11:53:47 +0000 http://thatcamp.org/?p=46#comment-28 Sterling — great point! The think-on-your-feet dynamic may *not* be the epitome of higher education. So… what do you think about my proposition on the “ill-formed question” as a way to think more broadly?

]]> http://chnm2009.thatcamp.org/05/25/the-ill-formed-question/#comment-27 Thu, 28 May 2009 04:35:31 +0000 http://thatcamp.org/?p=46#comment-27 This raises some questions for me. Has our profession romanticized the seminar? Do we privilege the ability to think quickly on our feet? Are we sure that learning is maximized for all students when the conversation is intense? Does it benefit some more and others less? If it turns out that this model holds up, should we expect that problem solving will work most effectively on the fly? Or would students get more out of a semester-long collaborative research project? I have wondered what would happen, for instance, if I turned a class loose to crowdsource something like Valley of the Shadow with a zotero group library. This could be a really interesting asynchronous experiment for getting students to learn historical theory and practice. The catch might be figuring out how to help the students split the work fairly evenly.

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