Connected Learning
Teacherless Talk: Impressions from Electronic Literary Conversations
Excerpt
Students’ freedom to choose their topics for discussion led to rather fluent and creative interpretations of Wilson’s characters, symbols, and theme rather than the sometimes mechanical and stilted literary analysis students produce in formal papers. Whereas students in the traditional classroom feel the need to prove that they have read the selection and understand the terminology by regaling the teacher with plot summaries and technical definitions, email frees them to share their interpretations and naturally apply literary terms as they communicate.
