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The Case Study 

It is not often that  Social Studies methods classes change the course of history.  These students sought neither  fame nor fortune, but were merely trying to find meaning in their education as  studies to be educators.  This is their story...

The Breakdown Was 70/30

It was understood that fifth-year BA/MT students would complete a field project by choosing a particular educational issue, and examining it in depth.  Social Studies was no different at first.  Professor Cheryl Mason had divided the course into two parts: the field project (70%), and participation in videoconferencing and newsgroup discussion with a class at the University of South Florida. (30%).  For our thesis, we would be working largely in our schools after identifying a problem or issue that we felt strongly about, or about which we wanted to know more.  We were quite vague as to what we wanted to spend the entire semestereresearching and preparing for presentation, but worried little as it was the first week.  What we were worried about was the other thirty percent.
    Cheryl was a whiz with technology; she even had a cutting edge palm pilot.  We were all pretty scared of technology, so when Cheryl mentioned videoconferencing, and more time on the newsgroups, we shot each other frantic looks across the room.  We would converse every week with a preservice teacher education class in Florida, as well as continuing discussions asynchronously through  a newsgroup.  The discussions would focus on a case study about  "Julia"  would be  trying to incorporate Internet research into an eighth grade classroom.  Our class was no stranger to case studies, but Cheryl assured us that this one would be quite realistic.  We loved and respected Cheryl, so we were won over to the case study.  Videoconferencing, however,  was another story.  "We're going to talk about what, to who, and the camera is going to be where?"  For a class of chatterboxes, we certainly became more self-conscious about what our  ideas might convey to the students down in the Sunshine state.

Panic Ensues!

However the main focus and stress lay with the field project.  We perused articles that outlined the differences between qualitative and quantitative research and desperately trying to figure out what in the world on what we were going to do our own research.  Every class, we came closer;  but it was not close enough.  The first step was the abstract.  No problem, all social studies students are wonderfully effective in the abstract.  The next step, however, was the literature review.  It was actually quite hard to have a successful review of the literature if one did not have a clear idea of what they were researching.  Hours and days were sucked up by the Education Library, on Altavista, wading through microfiche of ERIC documents, going blind from the xerox light while copying journal articles.
    After the literature review was started, we needed to be thinking about our methodology.  Everyday, we shared growing stress about the impending field project.  We planned for our data collection in the schools, or the interviews, or the software screening that would take place before our quest was complete.  The case study was far from our minds.
    Meanwhile, during our classes, we would try to focus on the issues that "Julia" was facing as a first year teacher.  But our minds always hearkened back to the work that we should be doing on our thesis.  We were no strangers to time constraints and deadlines, but the project loomed large.  We began to feel the stress of doing a lot of things, but felt none of the satisfaction of doing any of them well.  Panic had set in, and we were feeling the pressure of trying to work diligently on our theses, while participating in the discussion of the case study.
    The tension was mounting;  everyone looked stressed in class and theses were not progressing as nicely perhaps as they should.  For the third semester in a row, Social Studies was the only discipline that was working on things other than their field projects.  We were struck by the enormity of  our task  for the semester.  That's when the rumblings started.  They started between two people in random conversation here and there in the halls of Curry, and then they grew louder to incorporate more people.  The concerns were all the same:  we were simply overwhelmed by all that had been asked of us.  The strongest hesitation in speaking up was our desire to preserve Cheryl's feelings, and also because we had no suggestions for how our situation could be remedied.  But most of us agreed that something must be done.  But what?

The Bathroom Revolt

The events that transpired next changed the course of Social Studies at the University of Virginia forever.  In the course of American history, there was the American Revolution, the Whiskey Rebellion, the Civil Rights movement, and the Bathroom Revolt.  Perhaps it seems perverse to compare the first three with the last, but please allow for the explanation:  Four members of the class consulted with each other in the second floor bathroom and chose to bring the overwhelming nature of the class to Cheryl's attention.  Something had to give, because they could not focus on both and devote the amount of time to both tasks without neglecting one of them.  And we knew both would ultimately suffer.  They had no expectations of a solution, but tenatively elected Lynn as spokeswoman.  She was chosen for her excellent linguistic skills, and her ability to effectively communicate.  The other three would offer support in this coup d'etat.
    Without much prompting, the feelings of stress and being pulled into two directions spilled out onto the table.  There was by no means a consensus on what to do with these facts.  Jen and Thomas  had put much thought into their thesis and were somewhat hesitant to abandon it.  Chris seemingly rode the fence. although he expressed frustration that we had been used as guinea pigs since our matricultaion to the Curry School.  The four revolutionaries, Lynn, Sarah, Julie and Cindy stood their proverbial ground.  The future of the class was tenuous, and the the tension was thick.  Then, Cheryl carefully summarized the discussion, and armed with only her pen, she began to brainstorm.  The class was shocked and amazed!  Not only was she listening, she was willing to work with us to create a solution to our problem!  At this point, if we ever doubted it before, we knew how lucky we were to have Cheryl.

The Idea of Life Without the Field Project

The ideas came fast and furiously, as we talked about the possibility of abandoning the field project so we could concentrate on the Videoconferencing and the case study.  The class was divided, as half wanted to keep their field project and half were ready to embark on the Videoconferencing adventure.  We decided that the most feasible "project" would be to write a qualitative study of our experiences with Videoconferencing and the case study, working collaboratively on separate aspects for a whole.  The four rebels were encouraged, but the others were most decidedly set at this point on their original theses.  They  had worked extremely hard on compiling information and writing the literature review and methodology to just throw it away and change the entire direction of the class.  We decided to think about this possible changes over the week, and to email Cheryl with our individual decisions to stay with our original field project, or focus our efforts collaboratively in writing about our experiences.  The tide was turning...
    The next week, in the great spirit of consensus, all of the members of the class decided to concentrate their efforts on the Videoconferencing and case study with the University of South Florida.  We brainstormed to divide the tasks into equal parts and produced the chart that can be found...  Cheryl suggested that this study would be interesting to professors in teacher education who want to implement distance education, as well as classroom teachers that are looking into the possibilities of Videoconferencing and newsgroups.  We wondered where this might lead!  It became more clear after Cheryl mentioned that journals were great ways to communicate ideas throughout the professional educational community. And why would it be so exciting?  Because we would be published!  Because we would be doing something so innovative that people would be excited to read about it!  Because we would be MAKING HISTORY!

Making History

The attitude of the class changed as we threw ourselves into the project.  Graduating with technological experience, as well as being published  fueled our motivation about our work.  Although there were glitches along the way with the technology, the discussion with South Florida commenced and we began to talk about real issues about implementing technology into Social Studies classrooms.  Every time we talked, Cheryl would mention that we were the first class to use the Videoconferencing with a teacher on both ends. The profundity of our title,  derived somewhat in jest, came back to remind us how cutting edge we were in the field of education.  The final culmination of our efforts in the journey was a visit from Dean Brenaman, the Dean of the Curry School of Education.  He observed our participation distance learning, and aksed what were getting out of the experience.  We felt honored and excited that he had spent his time, not only learning about what Curry students were doing, but also asking us to explain how we were indeed
 

MAKING HISTORY!