1. A paradigm shift

As students at UMBC and language learners, most of your student's experience has been based on an objectivist epistemology. This means that your instructor has been your knowledge expert. For such an epistemology, teaching is defined as the art of presenting knowledge in such a way that it can be reproduced and acquired (your job as a learner).

This industrial model is very economical ( think of Biology 101 lecture Hall!) and has worked well in the studies in sciences, where it can be argued by many, that, indeed, there is a core of specific knowledge that needs to be memorized and processed.

Yet, this model is being challenged in the Humanities and Social Sciences. This challenge is based on a different epistemology, one that believes that knowledge is not out there in the world, as an object to be acquired. As individuals being in the world, we negotiate the meaning of phenomena, and we do it within a community, communicating with others. Knowledge is not separated from the learner/s, but is constructed from our experiences.

We live in the age of communication. Information is everywhere, ever changing. As we all know, managing this information has become a new challenge. Retrospectively, as individuals living in specific communities, we try to make sense of what we have lived and we arrive - through consensus- at new interpretations.

2. So what?

Let us take our course, French 303, as an exemple of what is being discussed here. What do we mean by the study of French Youth? Is there such a category? If so, is it homogenous- all French young people thinking and acting alike? Not likely!

Could we study French youth using a marxist approach? the bourgois kid versus the working class kid? But, would not such a study be biased? And where would we get the info we need?

We know by experience that the world is changing fast and so are people's values and communities. How can we access the information we need? How can we access this information from many different points of view, our sole validity reference point, a certain consensus?

These few reflections are enough to show you what challenges are ahead of us. We are setting ourselves for an adventure: the creation of a web site on French Youth, being away from France!!!

The need for such a project is felt among French teachers who cannot find anything relevant on the Web on French Youth- a subject that obviously is of great interest for the American youth. A subject that is of interest to you since you signed up for this course.

3. What can we do?

Interestingly enough, technology and specifically, web-based learning events will help us in our project:

1. the web will be our main "library"

2. Computer-mediated-communication (Forum in WebCT) will give us the collaborative learning environment we need to understand the info we will gather.

3. E-mail will put us in communication with French people who will answer our questions.

4. Our "field" participants will be our on-site experts.

4. What will I do?

This semester, I will act as your facilitator. I'll provide many texts, videotexts, etc. and will offer my language expertise, to make sure that our site be as bug free as possible.

I will be your mediator if needs be and I will help you- with everybody else in the class- become the expert in the topic you will have chosen to present.

Remember that the authentic task you will create will make you the expert!

Dont' ever worry: I have had some practice at coaching!

Ready?