I developed a take-home final for my Psychology 101 course this past semester that made extensive use of excellent web sites and articles available on the internet. Some examples include: Zimbardo's excellent web site on his prison experiments and their implications for police abuse and, sadly, American soldiers abuse of Iraqi "detainees;" an article in the Harvard Review on Enron and groupthink; another excellent article on groupthink with NASA and the last two tragic shuttle missions--Challenger and Columbia; positive parenting web site; and David Burn's "Feeling Good Handbook" web site. The more I worked at finding interesting articles and web sites available to students that would take them "beyond" the text, the more I began to consider the intriguing question of "Why am I using a textbook in the first place!?" I have been encouraging input from my students on how they felt about this type of final and most said that they strongly felt that: 1) they believed that they would remember the material signficantly more because it came from "real life;" as opposed to "boring textbooks;" 2) they became more aware and skilled at accessing superb articles and web sites for information are on the internet BECAUSE part of the final clarified what makes for a credible source of information.
I enjoy the superb tech support publishers are presently providing us as well needing to understand the copyright implications of using the internet so extensively so I'm not ready for making the move quite yet. With a course on the psychology of criminal behavior--wow, using credible sources online would be really fun and exciting for both you and your students--as well as articles you choose. Good Luck! Joan Warmbold Boggs Associate Professor of Psychology Oakton Community College [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Greetings, > This past semester, I taught Psychological Explanations of > Criminal Behaviour for the first time, and used the same textbook the > previous instructor had used, Bartol & Bartol's /Criminal behaviour: a > psychosocial approach, 7th ed. (2005). /I am now looking for a new > textbook in that field, as I was not pleased with the way the materials > were organized in the text. I'm also considering letting go of a > textbook altogether, and simply use current research articles in the > field. > > Any suggestions out there from anyone who has taught such a course before? > > Cheers! > > Jean-Marc > > > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
