As I was working through the Online Experience Guideline of the Michigan Merit Curriculum, I was familiar with most of the technologies and have even used many of them in my courses. Electronic Portfolios is one of the technologies that I have seen used in courses of some colleagues at the College, and, I believe in them whole-heartily as a technology that can teach students valuable 21st century skills, as well as give them a practical product they can use for career opportunities outside of their college educational experience. As I was thinking about them and how they really don't fit into my courses because I have to teach my subject matter, which is world religions, a thought began to blossom.
Hmmmmmmm...my mind began contemplating...an idea is in there somewhere...and then, it bloomed. What if I had students create an electronic portfolio describing themselves as a follower of a particular religion, preferably not their current one? Hmmmmmmm. How would this be a pedagogical value? Well, it is known in the world of academia, that providing students to opportunity to defend a position other than the one held personally by them, or otherwise put themselves in the shoes of another, is a good teaching strategy. In order to understand a differing point of view, one needs to really internalize that point of view and come to know how a person holding the differing point of view thinks.
Therefore, I would like to create an assignment wherein a Muslim student, for instance, creates an electronic portfolio detailing her life as a Hindu, for instance. The portfolio could include a biography section, which may be fictional in nature, detailing that she was born in India and how she grew up in a wealthy caste, and what her life was like. She could have a philosophy section explaining a type of religious concept that she holds dear; list of religious practices, perhaps with photos; a "favorite sacred text" section, in which she'd link to a favorite sacred passage and explain its meaning and how it relates to her life today; and on and on. Many of the elements could be not true to her real life, but be included in the portfolio in the same way that authors write historic fiction novels. The information would have to be accurate, but it doesn't really apply to her life. An assignment of this type would involve good research techniques, develop writing skills of a technical as well as creative nature, provide practice using 21st century skills to conduct electronic research, find digital and copyright safe images, music, etc. And, a student would become familiar with an electronic portfolio to use in the future for professional reasons. Hmmmmmmmm.
I think the technology that would be most difficult to use from the Online Experience Guideline would be online simulations as this really doesn't blend well with my discipline of religious studies. I can't really justify putting a simulation of a frog dissection in my class. Also, I can't see that online gaming would be compatible either. World religions is usually the last category of academia to be included into educational applications, so I would highly doubt I'd find anything applicable to my content. Other than those two technologies, I think I could use pretty much every other category of technology in the table provided in the Online Experience Guideline. It is fun to contemplate the wonderful assignments just waiting to be produced with all those great tools out there!
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