Teaching linguistic anthropology courses online

[Ronald Kephart]

I find it difficult to imagine teaching a completely online introduction to
linguistic anthropology, the whole point being as it would seem
human-to-human contact and interaction.

In my own course, over the last few semesters, I have taken to introducing
the basics of language analysis through an extended simulated fieldwork
exercise. In one semester, we were lucky to have a speaker of Garifuna from
Belize as our consultant; she gave students the opportunity to practice
asking appropriate questions, transcription of an unknown language, and so
on. The last couple of times I've had to use myself, as a semi-speaker of
French Creole (Carriacou): not ideal, but better than not doing it at all.
But I don't think this would work online. I do use Blackboard as my medium
for delivering the syllabus, assignments, readings, and sometimes even
tests, and of course the discussion boards.

I guess too that I have a sort of gut-level distrust of anything that takes
away the person-to-person contact of the classroom. There are some tricks
this old dog doesn't want to learn...

Ron