The Joys of Summer School
I have spent the last few weeks teaching a summer course in writing and college readiness to incoming freshmen. My 28 students are all women, and all biology majors. The program is structured so that they spend the entire day, eight to three, in a room bristling with technology. There are 25 PCs, four hook-ups for additional student laptops, a SMARTBoard and Epson Projector, four LCDs for display, and all of it controlled by the Utelogy Techpod within the studio. That is what the room is called, not a classroom, but a studio. The techpod is embedded in the teacher’s podium, giving me the feeling that I am either piloting a 747, or about to start World War III. Heady stuff for a dyed-in-the-wool chalkboarder like me. The students have three hours of math, an hour of writing or critical thinking, an hour of college readiness, and a concluding hour of scientific research with time for lunch and a few breaks sprinkled throughout to give them a chan...