Tech celebration: A syllabus that students actually WANT to read...

Much of life's important information is boring.

Think of it : mortgage documentation, employment contracts, bylaws, user agreements, instructions... and the humble syllabus.

We bury the small rules that govern our lives in small print, or even worse - in print that is legible, but unreadable. And this is no small matter, either - recently, several people signed away their rights to their firstborn child into eternity - so they could use free wifi.

But does it have to be this way?

Taylor Johnson, (who teaches AP English), tried something which suggests that there might be a better way.

First, she asked her kids for feedback about her official syllabus, and decided she wanted to make something more engaging. And then she began to tinker.

She had a simple goal: to make her syllabus "clear, concise, and visually appealing."

She rummaged around on her computer, eventually opened up Comic Life, and created something that looked like this:

How did the students respond?

Her students walked into the classroom, saw it, and then she witnessed them "actually reaching for it and reading it with interest," Taylor says.  That never happened to one of my syllabi.

"Someone said it was the coolest thing they'd ever seen," she reports, with some astonishment.

Mission accomplished.

What I like so much about this is that it is an example of a teacher actually using the tech tools we ask our students to use -- for a real purpose.

Taylor's thoughtfulness drove her to model the kinds of strategic thinking we want our students to use as they craft communications that would work in real-world situations -- she chose the comic format, not because it was a 'relief' from the standard format, but because it offered features that would engage her particular audience (visuals, a clear layout, and an organization that lent itself to sections).

So, in your classes, and in our school, what important, "boring" information is not reaching its intended audience?  And might there be another way to frame it?

Hey, if a syllabus can fly off the shelves, then anything can.