"I tend to speak my mind," Kooi says. "And I have spoken up when things were said that I didn't agree with.'
UAPB's Morehead says she has counseled UAPB students to "be civil in [their] debate." She says the potential for controversy has been part of the process.
Gibson says the racially-tinged tiffs common in the Social Problems and African American Literature classes have not resulted in his course, largely, he thinks, due to absence of racial content in the course.
Tei agrees with teaching partner Gibson that psychology does not lend itself to debate in the way that literature and sociology courses do.
"Psychology is a discipline that's research based. Discussion of research methods does not stir up confrontation," Tei says.
Students have a number of opportunities to evaluate the interactive courses through essays, focus groups and written evaluations, according to Beere. The classes are also video-taped for evaluation purposes. She says officials at both schools want the project to evolve into a permanent program for UAPB and CMU.
The website address for the Building Community Through Technology project is <http://www.oit.cmich.edu/bctt/>.
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