Use of Technology to Improve Teaching and Learning in a Religion Class Marianne Ferguson Buffalo State College Abstract New computer programs have multiplied the options for accommodation to diverse learning styles in college classrooms. The program, Blackboard, stirred interest and creativity in a Religious Studies class, “Writings of John.” Since it was a Writing-Intensive class, students posted their papers on Blackboard and received the comments of their classmates for suggestions to improve their work. Blackboard helped the professor to fulfill her objectives to improve the writing ability of the students because they demonstrated the ability to think critically, analyze carefully, and produce creative applications to gospel stories. Introduction Computer programs have proved useful in appealing to the various learning styles of college students. Students reported that the use of Blackboard in a writing intensive class, “Writings of John,” helped them to improve their writing ability. The professor saw a growth in the student’s ability to reason, argue constructively, think critically and apply ideas creatively to life. “Writings of John” is an upper-class writing-intensive course which requires three six-page papers along with three exams. Students and the professor in their evaluation of the course claimed that the discussion board area of Blackboard helped students to improve their writing ability because it gave students another option to accommodate their diverse learning styles. Instructors have long recognized the need to accommodate to the learning styles of their students by using a variety of teaching techniques (Davidson, 1990; Kolb, 1984; Rasmussen & Davidson-Shivers, 1998; Wynd & Bozman, 1996). Grasha (1996) has defined learning styles as “personal qualities that influence a student’s ability to acquire information, to interact with peers and the teacher, and otherwise participate in the learning experience” (p.41). Learning styles vary with age, achievement level, culture, global versus analytic processing preferences, and gender (Shaughnessy,1998). My students had a varied background of ethnicity, gender, academic achievement and majors from humanities, the natural and social sciences. Most of them had experience with technology, a few of them with Blackboard, because all of them were juniors or seniors. New technologies, such as Blackboard, have been developed that capitalize on the diverse talents, abilities and interests of students that enhance their learning. Recent studies have examined effective ways of integrating technology into the curriculum to accommodate various forms of student learning (Schneiderman, Borkowski, Alavi, & Norman, 1998; Spotts & Bowman,1995). In order to discourage indiscriminate use of the new technological programs, studies were done to examine their effectiveness to improve student learning (Brouwer, 1996; Grasha, 1996; Jonassen,2000; Rintala,1998). It seemed worthwhile for me to try to incorporate some of these ideas that might help my students improve their learning skills. Students were using internet discussion rooms and blogs so they showed an aptitude for this activity which I thought would transfer well to the use of Blackboard.
Since most of the students in this upper level writing-intensive class were familiar with the Internet and discussion rooms, the use of Blackboard’s discussion board seemed appropriate. It was necessary to adhere to the advice of the studies like Rintala, (1998) and Brouwer, (1996) that warned educators to accommodate their choice of technologies to the interests and experience of the students. Some of the students had used Blackboard in previous classes and all of them were familiar with the computer. The course covers the Gospel of John, the Letters and the Book of Revelation. Because it is a writing-intensive course, three six-page papers were assigned. The first paper was to write a present day application of a gospel incident. The second paper was a creative incident based on the teachings of Jesus in the gospel and the third was a research paper on the Book of Revelation.
After studying the gospel, a video was shown based on the incident of the woman at the well. It was a contemporary application of the Samaritan woman story with a woman sitting on a porch step on a hot summer day next to a pitcher of ice water, which she had shared with her departing neighbors. A black male construction worker who was not from the neighborhood came by and asked for a glass of water. The rest of the video was similar to the story of the Samaritan woman in the gospel. After a discussion of the film, the students were asked for their first paper to write a contemporary application of any story in the Gospel of John. The directions included the following:
The students were asked to post a summary of their papers on Blackboard in the discussion board area. Each student in the class of twenty was asked to comment on the summary and give suggestions for improving the plot. The professor did likewise and soon the twenty students had twenty comments on their summaries. The students then wrote their papers and posted them on Blackboard for other students and the professor to read and make comments. The students then brought the hard copies to class incorporating the suggestions made by the professor and other students in Blackboard. We spent one class with the students correcting, editing and making comments on each other’s papers. I felt this was important because some students had never read an A paper and questioned why they received B or C on their written work. It seems that they had nothing to compare to their own work. My desired learning outcome for the exercise was to test the higher level skills of analysis, evaluation and application of theory to practice. I wanted the students to produce an appropriate creative response to the gospel story and to articulate it in a story of their own. It seemed to me that my learning objectives were met in that the narrative descriptions evoked scenes whose details were appealing to the senses. The incidents were tight with enough details to inform the audience, yet keep the plot coherent. The applications made to life were most realistic and contemporary. I hoped that the posting of their summaries and drafts on Blackboard would elucidate responses from their classmates that would not only help the writer, but also give ideas to the commentators for their own papers. Students were asked to write comments on the use of Blackboard as a method of improving their writing skills.
I also asked for anonymous comments in writing on the reading, editing, and commenting on the drafts of their papers. Some of the comments included the following: Anonymous Evaluations by Students of the Activity
I also asked for anonymous comments in writing on the reading, editing, and commenting on the drafts of their papers. Some of the comments included the following:
Not all comments were positive as the following one illustrates from an older student: “Commenting on students’ papers is challenging to me. Stories can be very painful experiences. I would leave it to the instructor.” Professor’s Evaluation of the Activity I thought the quality of writing improved as it went from the summaries and drafts posted on Blackboard, to the drafts brought to class, to the finished copy handed in for the professor to mark. The mechanics improved so well in the final copy that there were very few minor corrections to make. Specific details were incorporated into their stories that made the reader more conscious of the environment. Students showed a progression in compassion for their characters from the drafts to the finished product. The conclusions became less judgmental in the final papers than in the earlier drafts. In stories that were applications of the “Woman Caught in Adultery,” both genders of students made the culprit a man. My own objective was to test students’ ability to analyze objectively the circumstances and possible solutions to situations similar to those in the gospel. Students displayed an understanding of the problems that arise due to ethnic and racial prejudice situated in America. They used incidents involving the mistreatment of Blacks and tied them to the story of the man born blind in the gospel. Similar applications were made to incidents in Palestine and Israel where individual families forgave each other for violent reactions. The students were able transfer to a particular story the universal principles of forgiveness and love in their adaptation of the woman caught in adultery stories. They applied well the message of compassion in their renditions of the help given victims of the Hurricane Katrina and homeless persons which they tied to the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. A Muslim student described the hospitality given to a homeless Israeli family by a Palestinian family. Students were able to evaluate the implementation of the universal messages by citing the examples of meaningful sacrifice and generosity on the part of their characters. Evidence of involvement of their imaginations showed in some stories that involved animals as the main characters. I think the most meaningful expressions that I heard from the students were that they were having a good time writing their stories. Working cooperatively with other students built a sense of community in the classroom that enabled many of them to share in the discussions more fruitfully. There was much chatter and sharing before and after class with students walking out of class together. Many studies on collaborative learning support the theory that students can learn from each other (Ferguson, 1992; Rogoff, Turkanis, and Bartlett, 2001). Aronson and Patnoe (1977) found that collaborative learning practices not only helped the individual but maximized the learning of the whole class. The students did not show resentment or hard feelings at the suggestions and corrections of their classmates because they realized this paper was a draft to be revised before handing in to the professor. Felder and Brent (1994) found that collaborative learning styles outweighed competitive learning styles because they reduced the levels of anxiety and produced higher levels of self-esteem. I desired outcomes for my students such as greater intrinsic motivation, and greater ability to view situations from the other person’s point of view. I noticed that students who were hesitant about sharing their work with others were more willing on the second assignment to do so. They eagerly shared their ideas with each other even before posting their summaries on Blackboard. Students started the assignment early because they wanted to see what the other students were going to write in the second assignment. There was general excitement in the classroom concerning the second assignment and use of Blackboard.
One of the reasons for the popularity of the Gospel of John is its timelessness. Discerning readers can find material for discussion and application to life among its pages. The assignment was made with the learning outcomes of our Humanities Faculty at the college in mind. The material provided an appropriate application of our Humanities Core Learning Outcomes which faculty developed as follows:
The second writing assignment was a creative writing assignment where the students reflected on an incident or teaching of Jesus from the Gospel of John and then wrote their own original story incorporating some of the themes. I was looking for examples of personal and creative responses to our humanities outcome of “demonstrating creative thought in producing answers to individual and social questions.” I thought this would test the student’s ability to integrate the gospel with their own ideas on social issues that coincided with the themes appearing in the gospel. The first paper had as its object a practical application in contemporary times of the gospel message. The second paper tried to respond to our third Humanities outcome of considering some answers to our individual and social questions. The students used Blackboard again, but this time they only posted their summaries for their classmates and professor to make comments. I asked them if they thought giving a full period to correcting and editing each others papers was an effective use of class time. Every student strongly recommended that they would repeat that exercise. A comment like, “This was the best part of the exercise” made me repeat the activity. Kolb (1984) included in his good practices in undergraduate education the need to develop reciprocity and cooperation among students. I saw the eagerness in which they exchanged papers and the verbal comments of affirmation the students gave to each other. The comments on each others’ papers gave prompt feedback to the owners which they seemed eager to implement. Many of the students said that they were surprised at their own creative ability and the creativity of their classmates. They claimed that they were challenged to use their imaginations and emotions in their writings, which was a new experience for most of them because they had previously only done research papers. We then analyzed the ability of the author of John to appeal to our emotions, which made so much of it memorable. Students expanded on the theme in John to “love one another” by stressing humans’ abilities to care for one another even to the point of great sacrifice. The theme of forgiveness based on Jesus’ forgiveness of Peter was prevalent in their creative endeavors. Ethical questions involving greed of individuals and corporations were set against the motif of generosity as displayed in the gospel. Care for the environment grew out of the theme of universal love. A discussion of the gospel’s sensitivity to women and respect for their emotions led to some questions about the authorship. Consensus surrounds the vital activity of the Beloved Disciple, but that figure remains anonymous. Could the description of the disciple whom Jesus loved be possibly a woman? The gospel says that Jesus loved Martha and her sister Mary and their brother, Lazarus. Likewise, Mary Magdalene seems to appear in crucial places throughout the gospel. For each account of a male disciple, there is a corresponding account of a female follower. Usually the female appeared in more favorable light than the male. For example, the Samaritan woman shows more faith than Nicodemus, Mary of Bethany than Judas, Mary Magdalene over Peter and the “other disciple”. The author of our textbook, Robert Kyser, suggests that Martha might be the Beloved Disciple. Other research of Ramon Jusino and Esther A. De Boar centered on Mary Magdalene as the Beloved Disciple because there were only three women at the foot of the cross in John’s gospel. This assignment brought a discussion of Christology that centered on the humanity of Christ. Since the Gospel of John stresses the divinity of Christ, the humanity of Christ appeared to have less value. Looking at the emotions in their own writings and the papers of their classmates posted on Blackboard led the students to wonder about the human emotions of Christ. They noticed his weeping over the death of Lazarus, his impatience with the religious authorities, and his disappointment at the departure of the crowds after his Bread of Life speech. The humanity of Christ began to take on more significance for the students as they began to consider the emotive aspects in each other’s writing.
When evaluating their reaction to only posting the summaries, not the entire draft, on Blackboard they responded that they felt they had more time for comments on their companion’s ideas. They thought the entire draft was helpful for the first assignment, but not necessary for the second. I noticed that the suggestions from classmates improved from such comments as “good idea” or “good application” to concrete ideas about imperialism, corporate and individual responsibility and care for the environment. I thought the quality of their papers in this creative assignment had improved over the first paper because the ideas seemed to flow with more ease and consistency. The consideration of some of the issues of social justice seemed well organized and argued to logical conclusions. As a whole, the desired learning outcomes of our Humanities faculty were fulfilled by most of the students.
The third paper was a research paper on the Book of Revelation . Most of the students were not familiar with the genre of apocalyptic literature so we spent some time on the historical situations that brought forth such literature. However, many of the students thought it was a book of prophecy predicting events that would happen at the end of the world and were not ready to accept another interpretation. It was necessary to spend some time on the function of prophecy and the prophets in the Hebrew Bible so they could understand that prophets proclaim and do not necessarily try to foretell the future. The directions for the written assignment tried to adhere to our Humanities core value of student’s ability to “articulate and defend critically informed values.” My own learning outcome for the students was to expose them to the genre of apocalyptic literature so they might more carefully analyze such books as the Left Behindseries.
Instead of posting their summaries which would not be long enough to explain the reasoning behind their conclusions, they only posted the drafts of their final paper on Blackboard. Some of the students who were leaning toward predictions of events that were to precede the end of the world changed their final hard copy to be given to the professor after reading the conclusions of the other students. I did not encourage comments on the drafts because each person could choose which side of the interpretation they would emphasize, and should not be persuaded to change their point of view. I was only concerned with how well they supported their arguments and how much critical thinking was involved in their conclusions. There were a couple of preachers’ sons in the class who had a hard time with the apocalyptic literature interpretations. They began to waver when they saw that the evidence given by their classmates to support the apocalyptic interpretation seemed more reliable than their conclusion of the foretelling end of the world events. Some students who have formed strong opinions may accept more divergent information from their peers than from the professor. Blackboard enabled students to view conflicting ideas without fear of contradiction or grading. I was pleased that the students did evaluate both points of view by using credible sources to support their arguments. They noticed a difference in the web sites posted by colleges and universities from individual authors. I saw better arguments in the papers using textbooks on the New Testament than from those using web sites as references. Almost all of the students came to the conclusion that supported apocalyptic literature except for two students who cited references from the Hebrew Bible that stressed prophecy as a prediction of future events. Many students saw the danger of the literal approach that led to formation of cults such as David Koresh and Jim Jones. Students not only could understand the historical situation that caused the Book of Revelation to be written, but also could also discern the consequences resulting from such literature. Since this paper was their final exam, I could secure no evaluation from the students.
Students were asked to write their anonymous evaluation of the use of Blackboard for homework on the last day of class. Most of the comments were made by more than one student. All of the comments were positive, with a majority of them writing the following remarks:
Many said that they were surprised at the variety and number of applications that the students envisioned, which made them see the timelessness of the gospel message. Students were impressed with the ways that people bring their understanding of God to their lived experience. They appreciated the ability of the Gospel of John to touch the imagination and emotions of anyone regardless of their level of faith. Students enjoyed dealing with the symbolic as they uncovered the layers of symbolism in John’s gospel. Becoming more aware of the dualism in John made the students more aware of the West’s propensity for dualistic over monistic thinking. The symbolism attached to the identity of the Beloved Disciple opened many concerns about the use of anonymity. The Letters of John helped them to see some of the contradictory relationships in the community of faith. Many young adults have trouble with what they perceive as the restricting rules put on them by their churches. The Letters showed the need for some authority to safeguard the teachings of the whole church. Many students claim that they believe in God, but see no need for a church. They seem to resent the authoritarian attitude that is exhibited in some of their churches. Examining the conflicts in the early church helped them to see the need for structure in any institution as it tries to maintain its fidelity to the original vision.
From the professor’s and students’ points of view, the use of Blackboard not only increased students’ writing skills, but also improved their ability to think creatively and critically, engage in argumentation, and make application of the reading material. Research on learning suggests that students process their information in different ways (Riding & Sadler Smith,1992). Students who process information visually were helped by Blackboard because they could actually see other student’s work. This helped to balance the auditory appeal for some students who profit by lectures. When giving suggestions to their classmates, they had to go beyond the concrete to the abstract thinking. By changing the use of Blackboard in each assignment, (i.e. posting the entire draft, posting summaries), it gave variety to its use and kept the interest of the students while at the same time maintaining some familiarity with the technology. In a study contrasting online and on-campus students, Diaz and Cartnal (1999) found that the online students were more independent and driven by intrinsic motives than the on-campus students. They claimed that traditional students often work for rewards by meeting the expectations of their teachers and peers. The Blackboard experience helped my traditional students to work independently to post their papers and take the risk of humiliation if their work did not measure up to their classmates. It encouraged collaborative learning that appeals to the learning styles of some students. Students who learn through discussion with others found the visual and auditory techniques helpful. Blackboard enabled the professor to implement some of the learning outcomes in a creative and effective manner. The professor found the enthusiasm of the students contagious and could enter into the class with more satisfaction when seeing that students actually enjoyed their learning.
Next year when I teach the course again, I may divide the class into smaller groups to read each other’s papers in order to conserve on time. I would encourage more thoughtful remarks to be posted on classmates summaries and drafts. Such comments as “Good ideas,” Good application,” “Looks interesting”, although supportive, were too general. In the second paper, I gave specific directions to look for such things as evidence of creative thought in producing answers to individual and social questions. The students became more specific in their suggestions to improve their stories. Next time I would be more specific in my directions and suggestions for comments to be posted on Blackboard. I would like to see more research done on the use of technology to intrinsically motivate students. I am not certain if the improved writing quality was due to intrinsic motivation or human respect. I wonder if students who are more familiar with technology have an advantage over students with a limited background when using Blackboard for course content and evaluation. Although the trust level was very high in this upper level class among students who did not know each other before, I wonder if lower level students would be able to handle the criticisms from their peers.
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