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Learning technologies should be designed to increase, and not to reduce, the amount of personal contact between students and faculty on intellectual issues.
(Study Group on the Conditions of Excellence in American Higher Education, 1984)


An Overview of the JiTT Resources

After reading this page please visit A JiTT Sampler

The JiTT strategy is based on the notion of a feedback loop between the out-of-class assignments and the subsequent classroom activities. Based on the student responses, the instructor selects an appropriate set of items that will make up the lesson. The classroom experience then informs the choice of the next set of web assignments. Over the past seven years faculty across the country have developed a rich set of JiTT resources. To look at some examples please visit A JiTT Sampler.
Student responses to a particular question top the list. In many JiTT classrooms these responses are the basis for interactive mini-lectures, interspersed with demonstrations, video clips, simulations, paper or computer based worksheets, etc. Student responses will contain anything from blatant misconceptions and misunderstandings to statements that need only a little editing to be correct. Starting with these responses, an instructor can lead the class in the construction of knowledge. Sometimes several approaches are necessary, using different teaching tools to accommodate different learning style preferences.
JiTT web pages can be very simple and yet very effective. The usefulness of the web as a communication tool is in that it is ubiquitous and ever present. It effectively removes the time and space barriers between the classroom and the outside world. However, the web is also a vehicle for delivery of digital image and sound information. Animation can greatly enrich any web page, and animated pages can deliver information that cannot be delivered any other way.
JiTT is not just electronic homework. JiTT opens a 24 hour faculty-student and student-student communication channel, incorporates access to vast amounts of timely support material, facilitates constant analysis and evaluation of student understanding, and, most importantly, makes the learning whole greater than the sum of its parts.

The JiTT Instructional Objectives

The JiTT assignments are designed to help students come to class prepared, engaged and motivated. The assignments accomplish this by

  • helping students manage study-time
  • encouraging students to study in frequent, short sessions
  • encouraging students to engage in peer instruction
  • helping students to connect textbook material to the real world

The JiTT Web Pages

Below is small sampling. For a wide variety of examples please visit A JiTT Sampler.
 
WarmUps

Puzzles
  • provide closure
  • often integrate concepts
  • extensions and variations form a basis for productive classroom dialogue
  • An example from Mathematics

Enrichment Essays known as "Good For's"

Weekly Class News; The Drum Beat
  • pace the course
  • adjust the syllabus on the fly
  • keep up the interest
  • An example