Readers letterbox

Contribution to the learning process

Simple and interesting method for integration of reality (in this case: the didactically unplanned feedback from unknown people of the public) into the learning process.

As to the integration in the FyR-context see "Online cooperation in your river project".

Targets

Obtaining and processing of feedback from the public concerning the own results.

IT-Tool

Log book:

• Book of the River > My Book (Login) > Our Exploration of the River > Log book.

In your Book of the River > Administration, you can administrate, which tools (which content) of your book shall be public and which not. For the method described here, "Our materials, files, links..." should be public, like it is standard setting at the Free your River platform. If you keep your log book open, the visitors /readers can not only read, but also write a feedback statement.

Expenditure of time for preparation and realization

low

Time needed

a few hours in a period of 2-4 weeks

Target group

students and the (local) public

Requirements and preparation

Precondition of this method is the publication of own results of the group of learners in the book of the river, especially under

• Our exploration of the river (e.g. Log book, Photo Gallery, Checklist for data input)
• Our results and reflections (e.g. the automatically generated results / scores from the checklists, or Interpretations, Recommendations and Actions).

This can include the output from other web methods, e.g. from an investigation about floods (see Digital photo excursion) or pictures from the first contact with the river (see Learning by designing).

Realization

Start

First, you and your students have to prepare the Log book. The Log book is the only tool in your Book of the River, where visitors from outside can read and write. That´s why (only) this tool is suitable for the readers letter box. Create a new entry ("New entry"), e.g. under the headline "Public discussion concerning our recommendations for the river protection". Give a short overview on what you want, make links to further documents and invite the visitors zu give feedback with the "Post reply"-Function of the Log Book.

Please ask some people (students, teachers, which are not involved in your project) to test the presentation. Is it informative and user-friendly?

Last but not least, your log book has to be made publicly known enough (e.g. by means of public actions, cf. the FyR action kit) to secure a sufficient participation of visitors. Think about, which target group you focus (e.g. students from your school, people who live nearby the river, local authority) and how you can transmit the information to them.

Main phase

Over a certain period of time the internet Log book has to be checked regularly (e.g. for 4 weeks once a week).

The learners evaluate the answers considering central questions as:

• What is the content of the note? Is it e.g. an information, an opinion or an argument? Can we scrutinize the information or argument? How will we handle opinions that contrast with our point of view? (that are at variance with our p.o.v.)
• What does the note tell us at the level of relations (about relations)? Are contributions kind/benevolent or negative/disappointing? Are they polite, honest, bothering or offending?
• What could we perhaps answer?
• How can we use/exploit the comments (including the critical ones!) for the further development of the project?

Finish

The group at the end has to draw a conclusion and to decide whether the entries shall remain in the log book or not. If you want to delete postings, do it with your teacher account.

Aftertreatment

The results may be used for publicity (press release) or for further development of the project.

Experiences / results

As already experienced, only a smaller part of visitors of the homepage will make public remarks and that not all contributions have a usable content. Therefore, the success of this method mainly depends on a good announcement of the log book.

Tips

The Free your River platform generates URLs (e.g. for a new entry in your log book) automatically. These URLs are too long and cannot be published in a newspaper. If you want to announce your log book, you e.g. can publish a short notice at the homepage of your school as follows:

www.XYZschool.net/activities

LATEST DISCOVERY ABOUT OUR RIVER

We, the students from the water project of the XYZ-School discovered...
Our recommendations are...

Read more! (Link to the page in your log book)

The URL www.XYZschool.net/activities can be announced with a press release.

Literature

APEL (2003), p. 107