Abstract
Pairing the Socratic Method with Undergraduate Research (UR) in higher education enmeshes students in the learning process and gives them ownership over the knowledge gained. While professors remain the ‘expert,’ student critical thinking skills remain undeveloped, if they can’t foster their own understanding of the topics covered. The question is how to achieve these results by harnessing the potential of online learning platforms (in this case, Blackboard) within the context of varied classroom settings. In response, this paper aims to create a ‘best practice’ toolbox for those interested in ‘digitalizing’ Socratic debate and shifting it online. After reviewing existing literature for online education – and testing it against the experience of shifting seminar classes online during COVID-19 then back again to in-person shortly thereafter – this paper will: 1 - Identify ways to utilize the full potential of online learning platforms to enhance the educational process; and 2 - Explore how this knowledge can be deepened using UR deliverables that challenge how students see the world without making them feel vulnerable and/or under attack. The importance of gaining insight into the potential of online Socratic debate is emphatically stressed, given the perceptible shift in how students approach higher education and their use of increasingly varied forms of technology. The purpose is to create exercises/tasks within the online learning platform capable of encouraging students to use the Internet/Artificial Intelligence as tools to underpin what they learn, rather than accepting search results as the definitive (unreflective) answer to their scholarly enquiries.
Presenters
Carol StrongProfessor, Political Science, University of Arkansas - Monticello, Arkansas, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Education and Learning Worlds of Differences
KEYWORDS
Pedagogy, AI, Undergraduate, Research
