"I think Frank Dobie was one of the greatest teachers the University of Texas ever had, but like very great teacher he could never have been typed. For example, he wasn't and he didn't claim to be technically a folklorist. What he certainly was, and never claimed to be, was one of the truly great natural historians in the tradition of the Greeks, the medievalists, Renaissance men, the eighteenth-century English naturalist Gilbert White, and W. H. Hudson. And this insight into nature, I think, needs to be continued as a Dobie tradition here if the University is really going to realize its own promise."

Harry Ransom, Chancellor, University of Texas

Some class meetings will be outside, devoted to observing  and writing  about  nature at Waller Creek, the Biology Ponds, the courtyard of the Humanities Research Center, the lawn of the Littlefield house, Frank Dobie’s house and related statues of horses and cattle along San Jacinto, the Japanese garden at Zilker Park, etc.;  some to discussing famous artistic responses to nature  and what we can learn from them;  some to reading  each other’s writing. The basic premise of the course is discovery learning, especially by comparing our point of view with those of other people and other creatures.

Grades.

30% of the final grade will be determined by the portfolio;  50% by the projects (15% for each first draft, 10% for each revision),  and 20% by class participation, which  is required, especially  on computer days because other people in your group will be depending  on you.

Portfolio.

A paper version of the portfolio consists of the journal, clean copies of your essays, and printouts of all your contributions to the sycamore and pine web pages, to the Dobie web page, both Waller Creek web pages, to both Biology Ponds web pages, your comments on projects 1 and 2 of other students, your OLR contributions, and the road map of your journey. The journal must include a detailed account of your own personal response to the Oriental Garden. If I were to grade on quantity alone, and one page = about 250 words, an A would usually be awarded for 2 X 32 reading assignments = 64 pages, a B for 1.5 X 32 =  48 pages, a C 1 X 32 pages = 32 pages. When grading on quality, special attention will be paid to the end of the journal, where you add pages about your response to nature or to nature writing or nature web sites directly, without having to respond to assigned readings (though credit will be given for working in quotes to show assimilation of the assigned reading). If you want your journal to be graded on quality alone, turn it early and often to get feedback. A multimedia version of the portfolio will be graded on the basis of the effort put into learning HTML as well as the result.

Projects.

We will  create multimedia  projects on paper or on the web about our responses to nature and those in world literature, visual art, digital art, music, and architecture. Students will keep portfolios of their emotional and intellectual responses to nature to compare their responses to those of the artists we will encounter. Students will bring a journal page or two to class the day we discuss a particular work to help initiate discussion.

Students should be prepared to think for themselves. There will be fewer instructions for subjects of projects than what students may be used to from other courses. Our goal is discovery learning (http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~bump/discovery.html). This can be frustrating for some, especially those who want a detailed formula which will guarantee them a good grade. Instead I try to give students maximum freedom to be creative, to be individual, and to write about what is important to them. Projects can be written for different audiences and from different points of view, from autobiography to scientific observation.

At times we will use networked computers to achieve more collaborative class discussion and provide more feedback about projects. Students will produce two polished projects communicating their response to nature in at least two media: traditional essays with “illustrations,” or HTML multimedia sites on the web. If a traditional essay format is chosen pictures must be scanned into the text and text wrapped around them. Students are encouraged to use multimedia to fulfill all the writing requirements and ultimately hand in everything on one CD which they will retain at the end of the course. As much as possible of the multimedia on that CD, of course, can and should be put on a web site as well. Students will read the first draft of each other's projects and revisions of the projects will be due a few  weeks  later.

Class participation

consists of showing up in class on time, having read the material assigned for that day, being prepared to talk about it, and handing in your journal pages about the readings  assigned in the syllabus for that day before class starts. A "U" for unprepared will be assigned if a journal is not turned in at beginning of class; an "A" will be recorded if one is absent, or very late to class; 2 "U"s = 1 "A." Final grading will be as follows: 2 A's = A; 3 = A-; 4 = B+; 5 = B; 6 = B-; 7 = C+; 8 = C; 9 = C-; 10 = D+; 11 = D; 12 = D-; 13 or more = F. Those who miss the first 2 class meetings are dropped from the course.

Class participation

includes sharing in class from what you have written about that day's assignment in your journal: one of the goals of the course is better spoken as well as written communication. Our primary concern is not organized discussion of a topic, as in a speech contest, but rather each individual learning to speak about feelings as well as our thoughts, to listen, and to concentrate when others are speaking.

OLR.

Part of the grades for class participation and the portfolio will be based on the Online Learning Record (OLR), a portfolio-based assessment tool that allows students to document their learning across five interdependent dimensions (confidence and independence, skills and strategies, knowledge and understanding, use of prior and emerging experience, and reflectiveness). Besides samples of work carefully selected to document learning, the OLR will include personal narrative, an interview with someone familiar with your intellectual development, a series of self-observations, and interpretive essays written at midterm and semester's end. If you're not familiar with the OLR or you'd like to refresh your memory, please consult the pages in our packet or Professor M.A. Syverson's excellent site, Beyond Portfolios: http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~syverson/olr/   You'll also find a printable/downloadable copy of the form you'll use for your Learning Record at the Beyond Portfolios site.

Grading principles.

Though the administration penalizes instructors for “grade inflation,” I do not grade on a curve. I am convinced that far more learning occurs when each student has the potential to get an A in the course. However, in order to prevent grade inflation to some extent, I insist that to get an A in the course a student must get an A in almost every category. Consider the following example from the previous semester: student X received the following grades: A Class Participation (20%); A- Portfolio (30%); B+ Project 1A (15%); A- Project 1B (10%); B+ Project 2A (15%); A- Project 2B (10%). Score 10 for an A, 9 for an A-, 8 for a B+, etc. Multiply each grade times the percentage, as in 20 X 10 = 200. Add up the total. In this case the total is 890. That would be a B+ for a final grade, because it takes 900 to get an A-. So do not be surprised if your final grade is a B even though most of your grades in the course were A’s.

Texts:

a collection  of  xeroxed materials  to be purchased from Jenn's,  2000 Guadelupe (basement of the church of  building scientology at 22^nd),  473-8669.

Requirements.

Students should be familiar with keyboarding, operating systems, word processing, electronic mail, and web-browsing. Students will also need an IF computer account and provide their own storage diskette or, if they are going to do a web project, a UNIX account or a ZIP or JAZ cartridge, and/or some blank Cds if they are going to store their site on a CD. New users may claim an IF account at the Student Microcomputer Facility in the Flawn UGL by completing an IF account request form and presenting it and a government-issued photo ID at the front desk.

HTML.

Two classes will be devoted to how to copy and modify HTML templates; afterwards, if students are going to do web projects, they must have or acquire basic HTML skills on their own in the first month. Multimedia project students should expect to spend a considerable amount of time outside of class, sitting in front of a computer, and may also find it useful to attend some of the free classes and workshops on various technical topics offered by ACITS, TeamWeb, or the General Libraries.

See class schedules:        

http://www.utexas.edu/computer/classes/

For self paced tutorials see

http://www.utexas.edu/cc/training/handouts/tutorials.html#internet

Releases.

By supplying their email address in Class Contacts students agree that it may be available to web surfers. Students will also have to sign a general release on the 12th class day because The Computer Writing and  Research Lab (CWRL) is both a teaching and a research lab. Students in CWRL classes and CWRL instructors have made valuable contributions to research in teaching writing. Some of this work has found its way into research journals and books intended to help improve writing instruction. To continue this research, the CWRL is required to get student signatures on a release form. On the 12th class day, all students taking classes in the CWRL are required to sign a release that states: "All work that you produce for this class and in online class discussions is public and is archived for future research. Faculty and graduate students who teach in computer classrooms are conducting on-going research to make writing instruction more effective. These and other researchers may read and quote from these archives. If you wish to take a course in the CWRL, you must sign an agreement that your work for the course, including Internet postings, is in the public domain and may be read and reproduced (edited as appropriate) in future publications by researchers. The CWRL will not assume responsibility for personal views or any offensive material that you may post to a public forum as a result of your work in this class. Neither will the CWRL assume responsibility for further distribution of any work that is posted to a public forum."