Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

9 m IM Continued from page 1 things,” Sidel said. “Students will send me something, do something else, and I will send them something and go off and talk to another student. Frankly I think it is a wonderful thing to service our student needs in a way that meets their culture.” The School of Journalism and Mass Communications is taking it one step further, offering Journalism 201 class online, taught by professor R. Thomas tJerner from his house in New Mexico. Hie class, scheduled for next semester, meets online three times a week. The professor assigns students to peer groups, who will meet online on Mondays and Tuesdays to discuss assigned questions. Fridays, students meet to discuss questions from the entire semester. Students have a window, usually about two days, to log into their discussion forum and post comments. Students earn one point each for their posted comments and can earn up to 82 points toward a class participation grade. The other 200 points come from midterm and final exams. The concept of a virtual professor was appealing to first-year print journalism student Caroline DeSanctis, who takes Sidel’s 201 class. She has chatted with Sidel once to ask him about an assignment from her room in LaBorde. “I’ve never been to his office,” • eSanctis said. “I would have to go there id try to find it. It’s more convenient to try to reach him online.” Another benefit for students — Sidel doesn’t know who they are “because as students are want to do, the names used on AOL accounts don’t always represent somebody their mother would recognize.” Sidel said this puts most students at ease, making them more willing to ask what he called “honest questions.” DeSanctis, who said she identified herself as “Caroline” while talking to Sidel online, said it was very informal. “There’s no intimidation factor at all,” she said. But Sidel has to be careful he doesn’t give away sensitive information, such as grades, when talking online. “Everything that I write to a student through instant messaging I’m prepared to see in tomorrow morning’s metro section,” he said. But the concept of a virtual classroom isn’t new to USC. Blackboard, a sort of online meeting place for students, has been around for at least four years. There, professors can post assignments and get feedback from students from discussion forums. But Sidel said he has been disappointed with Blackboard’s capabilities, finding students don’t use the message boards and that the software is “not as robust enough to handle what it claimed it could handle.” So Sidel is content to use Blackboard as an electronic billboard for his students, choosing to use an instant messaging service to talk to students from his Apple computer in an isolated office. Comments on this story ? E-mail gamecocknervs@gwm.se. edu ■ FRAT Continued from page 1 student organization, but they are waiting on the approval of the dean of their faculty adviser to make the jump to charter-eligibility. Chassen also said the colonization of the group was to ensure that by next year, attendance and funding would have swelled. “The fact that we were able to get 10 people to come so quickly is encouraging for the future,” Chassen said. “If we are •oing to get this core of guys, then we rill blossom into a fraternity by November.” Chassen said that a group has to be a colony for a year before being recognized as a fraternity by the national charter. Klein said if their charter as a student organization and fraternity is granted, he foresees Sigma Alpha Mu having a hall in McBryde where other Greek organizations currendy reside. “This doesn’t really matter to us,” Klein said. “We are still functioning as a group in this ‘what is in a name’ thing.” Regardless of gening their charter granted, Chassen said the group is meshing well, and the brotherhood they are forming will enable them to do the community service. “We are just talking about so many great things we are going to do,” Chassen said. “We are like kids in a candy store with their eyes wide open.” The next Interffaternity Council meeting to discuss the proposed organization will be held this afternoon at 4 p.m. in the ODK/Mortar Board Room in the Russell House. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknews@gwm.sc. edu Youth hunting endangered ■ HUNTING Continued from page 1 Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association found that other outdoor activities had substantial increases during the same 10-year period. Snowboarding increased 156 percent, and mountain biking saw an 88 percent climb. “Clearly we have not done a good job with sharing this noble tradition with the younger generation,” said Tammy Sapp, communications director for the National Wild Turkey Federation. The federation is a nonprofit, grassroots organization with 500,000 members supporting “scientific wildlife management,” according to the group’s Web site. But NWTF is more than just a group of hunters swapping game stories, it is a full- fledged lobbying organization dedicated to pursuing the best interests of its members. According to Sapp, some state laws are hindering the spread of hunting to young people. Twenty-three states have minimum age requirements for hunting big game. In 16 of those states, 12 is the minimum age requirement, while in New York, it’s 16. Sapp argues that by restricting the age of hunters, young people lose interest in the sport before they have a chance to discover it. “By the time young people are into their teen years they are often finding other activities,” Sapp said. “Dating is SAM COOK/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Brad Trevena, left, listens as Ryan Vanderscheuren explains which direction a buck ran. Youth hunting numbers have declined sharply during the past decade. probably a lot more fun at that age.” In order to counteract this, the NWTF is pannering with the National Shooting Sports Foundation and the U.S. Sportsman Alliance to take a closer look at these state regulations and lower the minimum age requirement for hunting. Sapp is armed with statistics, such as numbers from the Hunter Incident Clearinghouse Database, which show n 2002 hunters 11 years old or younger accounted for 29 of 849 reponed accidents that year, which is 3 percent. “The interaction between parent and child and time spent in the woods is time well spent,” Sapp said. “Young men and women introduced to outdoors by parents for hunting have a healthy respect for life and are safe and are caring and have the kind of attributes that help young people grow up to become healthy adults.” But while the NWTF and other organizations are trying to bring young people into the sport, young people have yet to accept the invitation. Drawdy is also president of USC’s Mountaineering and Whitewater Glub, a group that has been around since the 1970s. He said a lot of the people who join the club are liberal when it comes to gun control, and shooting is one of the reasons they are opposed to hunting. “I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a full blown environmentalist, but I definitely am against it personally,” Drawdy said. “I’d say a lot of people moving to the outdoor field tend to be ^ more environmentally minded like that, wouldn’t want to pick up a gun.” Drawdy said most young people are drawn to the competition of outdoor sports, rather than trophy hunting. He said he has hunted occasionally, but he always eats what he kills. “I just love being in the outdoors,” he said. “I wouldn’t be shooting it for the simple fact of competition or getting a big buck whatever.” Sapp and the NWTF are convinced that if people will try hunting or sport shooting, their ideas would change. I’ve been to many events where young people or women had first opportunity to use a firearm, I’ve never seen a case where somebody having just dusted a clay target was not just a face full of smiles,” Sapp said. “Once you learn how to use a firearm safely and respect the firearm, you shouldn’t be in danger any more than once you become a safe driver.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocknervs@givm.se. edit www.dailygamecock.com M 1 ■ J Toronto $177 London $244 J Miami $186 Paris $278 j Many more Destinations available! Fares are round-trip. N»’ Taxes additional. Restrictions apply; fares subject to change.^4 A Spring Break Packages Available Online: Cancun, Acapulco, Jamaica & more! "TRAVEL CUTS 1-800-592-CUTS (2887) _See the world your way Call or book onlinel My ; .•i’sfw ' ' ' : -1 - •*'