Scholarly Life of a Committed Technofile

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/06/AR2007040601544.html

That’s it…I’m tired of these types of posts/articles/etc. about how faculty members are banning laptops from their classrooms because they are too distracting to the students. And all this particular faculty member is reported to do in class is lecture and ask questions. Haven’t these people heard of the research that says people fade out after 15 minutes? Haven’t they heard of the various short collaborative assignments/activities or classroom assessment technique activities they can work into the class period to break up the lecture and engage the students? If this faculty member had consistent, formative assessment and feedback with the students, they would know whether or not they needed to lay off the web surfing. But, if this is a traditional lecture, lecture, lecture…and only mid-term and final tests…yeah, students aren’t going to know they are not “getting it” until it’s too late. In other words, I’m wondering if bad teachers are blaming technology for bad results in their classes. Technology used, and/or allowed, in educational settings can be both positive and negative. And we’re talking all “technologies” here, books, pens and paper, etc. I used to read pulp fiction in my High School English classes because I was so bored. If that instructor had asked me a question, I would have needed it repeated.

Folks, and I’m probably preaching to the choir with my blog, there are lots of ways to pedagogically “spice” up your classroom…and technology is only one of them. I’m forever grateful to various mentors introducing me to collaborative/cooperative learning, CATs, JiTT, active learning, case studies, etc. Generally, I find, I’m using technology to supplement one of these other methodologies, as well as the good ‘ol lecture.  And why not make the students with computers responsible for adding technological elements to the lecture, discussion, and other activities? Why not have them do synchronous collaborative notetaking or Google Jocking? Just as we sometimes need to teach students study skills, we might need to teach them how to “study” and “learn” with the technologies they only know how to “play” with.