Not much thought seems to have been put into how women will interact with instructors. It appears that the architects and planners were victims of broadcast education and so could not imagine a classroom in which students were active. The facility is supposed to be hard wired for network connectivity, but presently we are using wireless computer networks, which are quickly overloaded.
One possibility for dealing with this problem is to ensure that all students, but especially the women, have laptop computers through which to interact with the instructor. This would be online education in the same room with your teacher and male classmates. I'm a language teacher and cannot teach in broadcast mode using only powerpoint presentations and video clips.
We are using Moodle to develop our online content - presently delivered as blended courses. This, and other tools like it, make it possible to create a high degree of integration in a class that is physically separated into two rooms and raises another problem: should we put male and female students into direct digital contact on forums, chat groups, and workgroups, or continue this strict segregation online? What are the arguments for and against doing this?
Image from King Saud University, Riaydh. Men wear white, women black.
3 comments:
Would it be safe for the women to communicate online with the men? Is honor killing a significant threat? I am probably showing ignorance and operating out of stereotype, but we hear stories.
Mark, its wonderful to 'watch' your interests rise to the surface. I certainly will look forward to reading this influence in your midterm writing. ~ Datta Kaur
Hi Ann,
I discussed the issue of men and women communicating online in my mid term paper, although I could have done so in more detail. Honor killings generally involve sex. These are not common in Saudi Arabia since there is a mandatory death penalty for murder and murder includes all manner of extrajudicial killing.
Online contact might be a problem for men and women alike, if it were involuntary or not sufficiently public. Men and women do put themselves into contact with one another but college administrators or teachers should not put themselves into the middle of that.
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