CCCC 2005: ReviewReview: G.24 Multimedia Online Cases to Connect FYC and Courses in the Disciplines: Role-Playing in Multiple Perspectives across Multiple Courses Presenters: David Russsell, “Introducing Multimedia Online Decision Cases” Tom Bowers, “The Genetics Case in FYC: Role-Playing and Genre in Argument” Dave Fisher, “The Genetics Case in a Senior Biotechnology Course: Teaching Ethical Argument in Science” . Dr. Russell opened this remarkably cohesive panel by introducing what amounts to a very short history of the case study in composition, saying that other disciplines have embraced the case study with great success. He cites Troyka’s 1975 study of simulation games in basic writing and notes that limited follow-up scholarship has been done, excepting three FYC textbooks published based on cases. Cases get their importance from embracing active learning and problem-based learning in an environment where the learning is consequential. Online case studies, with all the affiliated technologies make cases today richer and more complete than ever and immerse learners in the sticky situations and that “characterize post-modern communication.” Russell then introduced “Robert’s World,” the first of two cases that were talked about at the panel. “Robert’s World” is a complex exploration of one man living with Huntington’s disease. The simulation allows the users into Robert home life, medical records, personal documents, community, and employment. As the audience was still oooohing and aaaahhing over the breadth of the case Russell explained how the panelists used activity theory to research how students use cases to learn. Next, Tom Bowers contended that online case studies provide a great environment for first-year students to garner a complex understanding of argument because the students are involved with constructing and development of the case. So often in FYC we teach argument but students still write bloodless essays that lack any real knowledge and don’t address any of the complexity that makes the issue worth writing about. The students often fail to really engage rhetorically in civic issues. These case studies allow for students to engage in civic issues in a public forum. This public forum, Tom suggested, might be best understood in terms of Goodnight’s spheres of communication: personal, technical, and public. The public sphere is the convergence of the personal and the technical where deliberation negotiates standards and lenses. The case allows for students to shape the public sphere from which the exigency for their argument initiates. Tom suggested a sequence of assignment that culminates in the student taking the position of the airline employer and deciding the future of Roberts’s employment. In this position students run into conflicts and congruencies between the spheres Russell then introduced the Omega Molecular case. In this case the student writes from the perspective of a consultant to the Omega Molecular biotechnology company whose task it is to recommend whether or not the company should keep developing genetically modified rice that may prevent blindness in children. Russell explains that the Omega Molecular case opens up opportunities for reflection in three ways 1. that the students are presented with the actual activity of the company and not just all about it. Since documents cycle throughout the case based curriculums students learn how the circulation of discourse is intimately tied in with knowledge and power and finally the students and teachers participate organically in the growth of the simulation. David Fisher began by noting the expansion of occupational and professional programs, what may be seen as the importing of the real into academia. He then asked the rhetorical question, “Do simulations like ours un-problematically reproduce dominant social practices in the classroom? And with perfect tempo replied emphatically, “the answer is no.” Fisher continued explaining that ultimately he wanted to illustrate how “classroom simulations afford opportunities for reflection and critique.” He proceeded to give an example of treating the classroom like a “real job” and proffered critiques of the “real” by Giroux and Herndl. Fisher reminded us that there are, however, more and less effective ways to represent “reality” in the classroom. More effective ways gets students involved in wider activity systems and social practices and recognizes that change over space and time can occur. These simulated cases allow a space for just such a collaborative construction of the “real” because of the expansiveness of hyptextual space, the dynamic nature of the cases, as well as the document cycling that constitutes the action of working in the case. Working with the “real” in the case opens up specific arenas for learning, instrumental, and critical reflection. Fisher suggested that looking back over time and change and asking what would you have done differently, the ability to plant critical seeds into the program as students become increasingly engaged, and the resulting discussion does afford places for action and reflection. |
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