D2L or D2P?

The following is a response to an earlier post and provides a different perspective regarding the merits and pitfalls of D2L.  Thanks to Mary Willis, who teaches English at Pellissippi State, for these thoughts.
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I go back and forth about how I feel about putting assignments up on D2L. I must admit, it would be much easier if all students would just come to class, participate, and take notes! I spend a great deal of time developing my course, and sometimes it is frustrating to think that a worksheet with little explanation or something I write as an afterthought on D2L is all one student might take away. But some students are in it for nothing more than a grade. To me, that sounds more like only the Desire 2 Pass instead of the more hoped-for Desire 2 Learn!

Thankfully, there is a mixture of students in every class, some extrinsically motivated and others intrinsically motivated.  When D2L is used effectively, it can actually build stronger bonds between all types of learners and help the class evolve into a budding community of writers who are excited to share and learn together. 

In the past, my students have commented that they felt much more comfortable talking in class once everyone started opening up on the D2L discussion boards. To me that is good news! A student likely will be more interested in coming to a class where his or her peers are excited to talk to one another and participate in classroom discussions.  One can hope that even the most disinterested of students would somehow find this kind of energy contagious and become more active in the class! 

Also, I often tell my students to use each other, so I’m glad to see them on D2L discussion boards sharing what they missed, asking each other to look over their essays, planning to meet up in the ERC group study rooms, and asking each other what assignments are due and when. In these ways, I find D2L effective.

Hopefully the announcements about assignments and homework are reminders for the students and nothing more. As a teacher, I will try just about anything to get my students more excited about my course. At the end of the day, though, all I can do is cross my fingers and hope that as many students as possible catch the Desire 2 Learn.

Why Grit?

Recently, I was forwarded a letter sent to all Webb School parents by headmaster Scott Hutchinson.  The excerpts below have been used with his permission:

"It is an increasingly common observation among educators and employers that this upcoming generation lacks the 'grit' to be a powerful and positive force in the workplace of tomorrow. By most accounts, this is true in large part because our children in general have not experienced, and worked themselves through, failure in various scenarios throughout their lives. They have not heard enough nor successfully processed enough constructive criticism to fully develop or participate in the critique process inherent in the workplace where they will spend the bulk of their careers."

Hutchinson's ideas echo Madeline Levine, author of the 2012 publication, Teach Your Children Well: Parenting for Authentic Success.  In her book, Levine points out that college admissions counselors describe today's students as "'failure deprived'" (184).  She goes on to assert that giving children opportunities to develop resilience--a non-cognitive skill--contributes far more to their overall success than focusing only on intellectual development.  

But in order for a child to develop resilience, s/he has to fail first. Which, as Hutchinson points out, can be hard for parents to tolerate:

"[R]escuing a child from any type of crisis or failure is so easy for me to recognize because I am so guilty of this as a parent. I am only now understanding how often I shortcut an important process by bailing my child out when a storm is on the horizon. . . . [M]any of us, when we are not fully thinking through the long-term consequences of our actions but just trying to ease the short-term discomfort of our child, find ourselves stepping into an equation that would best be served without us."

The tendency for parents to shield our children from the unpleasantness that accompanies failure can be well-intentioned.  No one wants her child to be discouraged.  And allowing her to experience such feelings is often seen as poor parenting.

But I'd argue that it's not.

In fact, I wonder whether making a habit of rescuing a child from failure--a practice I'll call over-parenting--may be a primary contributor to many of the problems our children face today.  Problems like apathy, low confidence, entitlement.  

And a lack of resilience, which our children desperately need.

Hutchinson acknowledges that stepping back as a parent isn't just counterintuitive; it's downright hard, and he admits his own struggle to do so.

"I am guilty as charged, and knowing what I should do . . . and having the discipline to do it may still be a ways off."

Obviously, it takes grit to help children develop grit.

But our willingness to do just that--to step back, to stop overparenting, to sacrifice the time and energy it takes to allow children to strengthen their resilience muscles--this may be one of the most powerful ways we will equip them to become self-sufficient, competent, and confident individuals.

[by Anne Lowry Pharr, gritology moderator]

Work Cited  

Levine, Madeline.  Teach Your Children Well:  Parenting for Authentic Success.  New York:  HarperCollins Publishers, 2012.

D2L = E2S

The other day, a student lamented my less-than-copious use of our college's website.  "I wish you'd post everything on D2L," she said.  "That way, when I have to be absent, I can just look there to find out what I missed."

Which is precisely why I don't put everything on this site.

Don't get me wrong:  Like many of my colleagues, I rely on D2L as a place folks can access the course syllabus, handouts, and maybe even an internet link now and then.  And I'm more than happy to help students by providing them with materials they may have missed as the result of an absence.  But the very last thing I want is students equating a quick visit to a website as the equivalent of attending class.  

I don't want them using a computer to get that information.  

I want them to come to me. 

Why?  More later.

For now, I'll close with this:  D2L (which stands for Desire to Learn) touts a unique ability to connect, engage, and inspire.  This may very well happen when the site is used with careful intentionality.  I'd argue, though, that how the instructor utilizes D2L has the potential to undermine the very thing it says it can do.  

The very thing that I, as a teacher, want to do.  

I'd venture to say that an indiscriminate use of D2L can foster disconnection and disengagement from, and maybe even apathy towards, the rich experience of participating in the community that is the college class.  

I wonder whether my relying too heavily on something like D2L might enable--and even encourage--my students to slack.   

As a teacher who hopes to prepare my students well, slacking just isn't the approach I want to cultivate.

Now, what do you think?