Grad 5114 / GEDI Spring 2018
Based on my simple blog layout, it may not look I get a lot of enjoyment out of this digital platform (but I will get to sprucing it up soon hopefully!). However, I believe this medium is powerful in getting across points that are difficult to communicate otherwise. Always tinkering with technology, I am eager to think about how I can use various programs to add efficiency and creativity to any project that I’m working on. From my personal experience, technology has a habit of enhancing my learning and I think it has big role in our education system, both now and in the future.
As with any teaching method, I believe technology can be a great asset in the classroom if used in an effective manner. For instance, you can’t just replace lecture with a video of a person talking; that will simply work poorly. Instead maybe use it to form a collaboration/discussion board where students discuss ideas. I really like the point made in the NPR article, “Laptops And Phones In The Classroom: Yea, Nay Or A Third Way?” That is, “if your students are distracted, improve your teaching”. We are educating a generation that will use even more advanced technologies. We definitely should incorporate it in classroom or even provide the opportunity to those without equal access to technologies at home.
Access to higher education continues to be an issue in Higher Education, but degree completion is a rising issue as well.
Why is motivation and interest a problem in the United States education system? In my opinion, it is because students are not being challenged. Yes, students have assignments, comprehensive exams, and deadlines which are supposed to prove that they have mastered course material which can be hard to balance However, all this proves is that students are able to regurgitate and memorize information. For some disciplines it is necessary and acceptable that students memorize course material such as the STEM fields. Although I do not believe that students are taught properly in how to engage in the K-12 system or within undergraduate curriculum.
One of the main issues is “teaching to the test” when educators are expected to cover specific material in a short amount of time in order to prepare students for standardized testing. Freire’s (2012) “banking” concept explores the idea that students do not have the ability to critically think in class because they are expected to memorize information, rather than question it (p. 72). The idea that faculty are doing students a favor by passing along their knowledge is done to maintain control and seen as a “false generosity” (Freire, 2012, p. 44). It is no wonder that students lack interest in their courses. Within my core curriculum for my undergraduate degree I had some opportunities to engage in class, but my elementary and secondary education was focused on standardized testing. For the first time I found that I was coming to my own conclusions and thinking for myself after I enrolled in graduate school.
Within my academic program I have been taught to challenge and question my instructors and peers. Course material is no longer seen as black and white and class discussions no longer incorporate the idea of right and wrong answers. More importance has been placed on providing evidence from course readings and experiences to support my answers. So my question is how can educators engage students at all levels of education when standardized testing is the motive for students to do well?
At the end of class last week, our discussion revolved around the idea that technology in a classroom was either a good or a bad thing. As we jostled with this issue, the last student to speak (sorry, I can’t remember your name) proposed the idea that technology wasn’t the problem it was how it was utilized in a classroom setting that created issues.
The NPR article from this week had an professor, Jesse Stomel, who expressed similar sentiment.
“There may also be times, he says, that the phone or computer can be an in-class tool. “We can also ask students to use their devices in ways that help them and the rest of the class, looking up a confusing term, polling their friends on Facebook about a topic we’re discussing or taking collaborative notes in an open document.”
On the other hand, says Stommel, there may be times and places to shut it down, too: “We can ask students to close their laptops at particular moments, recognizing that it is useful to learn different things, at different times, in different ways.””
It is easy to say there can be times when technology is acting as a learning aid and times where is is distracting. What I see as a learning curve, as a first time TA this semester and a potential future professor, is finding the balance .
I’m curious what your experience, as students and educators, is on achieving this balance. Outside of testing environments, are there other situations where you limit technology? Alternatively, what are the ways in which you saw it as an aid in learning?
NPR Article:
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/01/24/578437957/laptops-and-phones-in-the-classroom-yea-nay-or-a-third-way
Reflecting on some of this week’s readings, I have a couple of reactions. One that stood out to me was the article by Mark C. Carnes. This article begins with the statement from Obama and his idea of a “college-access and completion fund”. The author agrees that money would help but states that it is not enough. He reinforces this statement by quoting a report that states “one-third of students from even privileged socioeconomic backgrounds—top half of the income distribution, at least one parent with a college degree—fail to graduate. Such students quit not because they lack funds, but because they lack motivation and interest”. My first reaction to this statement was “of course bratty rich/privileged students *rolls eyes*”. I do believe that higher education is not for everyone but when I think of students that lack motivation and come from privileged backgrounds I tend to be a bit more judgemental that they just never had real struggles to overcome… Of course, I understand this is not the case for everyone. I have my own biases that it is their privilege that they have that leads to some of these students to lack motivation and interest. Since they have the opportunity, support and ability to achieve an education, they may take it for granted. On the contrary someone that may not have the financial opportunities or a parent has gone to college, may have a complete different appreciation, motivation and interest in their education. Also, their pressure to persist in school is much more different and may only be able to pay those student loans once they earned their degree. Therefore, some of these students that quit not because of the lack of funds, probably have some financial security from their parents to not necessarily feel that need to finish and they can potentially have other opportunities. Overall, I think this statement shows that the author may have some privileges in regards to financial resources that has led him to write this but as to many things there is the other side that I think was left out. In this case low income students and their motivation and interest on their education goes beyond just the academics but an opportunity to a better life.
Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown talk of a new culture of learning: one focused on process and engaging within our environments, and using digital media as a tool to enhance the experience. The various schools highlighted in the video Digital Media- New Learners of the 21st Century are living this new culture of learning. The stories shared in this documentary are compelling. Students are using various forms of digital media to showcase their knowledge of traditional K-12 topics in engaging ways. Seemingly, quite successfully at that.
I am sold. I have been sold for some time. My personal philosophy of teaching and learning follows this new culture of learning. I believe in this approach wholeheartedly and live it as congruently as I am able. I am invested.
Are educational institutions invested? I’m not very sold on that one. And here is where I digress a bit.
I want to believe that such all educational institutions, primary through higher, would be invested in adjusting their approach to something more meaningful…and dare I say, effective. I am continuously frustrated by what I see in classrooms closest to me. In higher education, greater value is placed on bringing in substantial funding for research. Faculty are hired, especially in Research-1 schools, to conduct research. I am certainly not downplaying this essential activity. Research must continue to happen. It should be valued. But at the expense of our students’ learning?
In my experiences, personally and professionally, I have found that value is not placed on quality teaching in higher education. Faculty who conduct phenomenal and incredibly important research are not always the best teachers. Even if they are devoted to providing a learning environment in line with this new culture of learning, their time is precious and inflexible. How can they put in the time and effort to cultivate this culture when they barely have time to eat lunch some days? How can they foster the process and learning within environments with 100+ students in a class? Hence, lectures become the easiest way to get through.
Despite my somewhat negative statements thus far, I fully believe that the vast majority of educators want their students to actually learn something in their courses. Unfortunately, we do not have the support and tools to fully implement the new culture of learning Thomas and Brown speak of. How do we convince the powers above to invest in this culture with us to provide us what we need? I am encouraged by a growing movement of Collegiate Professors- faculty primarily hired for their pedagogical practices. Virginia Tech has recently joined this trend. I only hope that other colleges and universities will follow suit, and begin to equally value teaching alongside research.
References
American Association of University Professors- Virginia Tech Chapter. (2016, April 15). Comments on collegiate professor series. Retrieved from https://vtaaup.org/chapter-actions/comments-on-collegiate-professor-series/
Public Broadcasting Service. (2011). Digital media: New learners of the 21st century [Video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/20018135
Thomas, D., & Brown, J. S. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. Retrieved from http://www.newcultureoflearning.com/newcultureoflearning.pdf
All electronics are banned from my class. Good luck asking students to look up something in class there professor.
The use of electronics in a classroom can be a mixed bag of results. If the student is engaged with the topic, they will look up more information that adds to a droning lecture. In the realm of political science or international studies, why wouldn’t you want a lap top on every desk? Get the students to engage in real world, real time events that contribute to the subject of the class for that day. If the President is tweeting comments about another head of state, tie that into the class on Foreign Policy and Diplomacy. The use of electronics can be distracting but if you allow yourself the freedom to engage technology and allow the students the freedom to explore the virtual world while in class, you just might find they learn a little more. And, you might not have to work so hard in preparing a long lecture.
Being asked to teach a class on Intelligence and National Security can be a daunting task. How do you get students to be interested in a topic that has so much to cover and so little time to do it? How do you get them to understand the real world implications and applications the class has to offer? Well, you tell them to open their laptops, find an online news source, hopefully not the Onion, and find a news story that has importance towards US National Security concerns. The world is there, the concerns are real, your subject is not totally theoretical, but you have to let go and trust the students. They want to learn, they want to know why it matters.
WOW, they are excited!!!
WOW, their written assignment of stating why their news story is relevant while using the theories taught in class is incredibly thorough!!!
WOW, they are learning!!!
You can lecture for an hour, you can give a test to see if they remember it for a few weeks, but it would be better to know they can use that knowledge after they graduate. That is what technology can offer. That is what the screens can help with in education. Don’t just teach, facilitate learning. I have experienced it as a student and professor. It works if you use it. Don’t be afraid of technology, utilize it for learning. You just might learn something too.
Teach in a galaxy far, far away. You might really enjoy the journey yourself.
Question:
Connect 9 dots with four lines, without lifting your pencil from the paper.
These are the answers for this 9-dot puzzle. To solve the puzzle, we should step outside the normal or expected pattern of responses. In my view, there can be more answers by adjusting line style, plus line weight.
“Yea, Nay or A Third Way?”
I believe that it truly is one of most controversial questions I ever had. My answer is that everything can be the answer for the question: “Yea, Nay or A Third Way?”, the point of my answer is having “openness to change” and “an atmosphere of freedom” in any class(room).
"We can also ask students to use their devices in ways that help them and the rest of the class, looking up a confusing term, polling their friends on Facebook about a topic we're discussing or taking collaborative notes in an open document." "We can ask students to close their laptops at particular moments, recognizing that it is useful to learn different things, at different times, in different ways."
I understand both approaches, the core is finding a way to balance the use of those new tools in order to maximize educational efficiency. There is no right answer, there could be various answers based on the type of subjects, the field of study, and the level of study. The point is either not allows them to use their laptops in class or not, rather we should focus on the question that Douglas Thomas posed: In the twenty-first century, “how do we cultivate the imagination?”
As a student, I am conscious and excited the first half an hour (maximum :D) of the lecture classes. After that, my mind is preoccupied with thoughts of the past or future plans. Although I am staring at the professor, my mind is somewhere else. At the same time when I look around, I see at least three to four of students are sleeping. Does this happen to you?
I know digital technologies cannot be incorporated into all type of classes and we need to have some sort of lectures in my major, Civil engineering. But the most important point that we should keep in our mind as future professors or instructors is to know “Lectures are good for information transfer. In fact, lectures, while effective at covering material, are terrible for information transfer from the student’s point of view. 1” Covering materials are required, but there I no guarantee that students have learned anything. The instructor must be aware of the relationship between the length of the average lecture and the average human being’s attention span1. Otherwise, the students –like me- start thinking about irrelevant topics or fall asleep. How can we keep students more actively involved in the class?
How about using the learner-centered process such as active learning? Do you think students will fall asleep during the active-learning activities?
Nowadays, Active learning is changed to one of those academic buzzwords “whose meaning has been dulled from overuse. 2” The main concept of active learning defines as a learner-centered process, such as using digital technologies, in which students become more actively involved in pedagogies that feature teamwork and problem-solving. However, many researchers assert that using digital technologies as a tool for active learning will be more distractive than a gateway to learning. I somewhat agree with this assertion. I am TA for a class of ~100 students, and there is no voice when I enter the class every Tuesdays and Thursdays because everyone is silently busy with their laptops and cellphones. This is a tragic scene! They do not use the unique opportunity to “exchange ideas and thoughts and develop the ability to communicate with a variety of people. 3” the professor, who advocates the destructive effect of digital technologies on student learning, come to class every session and ask the students to silent and stow away their cellphones, tablets, and laptops during class meetings. Then an hour lecture starts, and after 15 minutes, most of the students fall asleep.
Thus, It seems both digital technologies and teacher-oriented system featuring lectures are negatively impacting the learning experience for students and educators to some degree.
John Warner3 well said: that instructors must see themselves as “more of a catalyst for learning, rather than a conduit of information. 3” So, they must aim for balance by combining lecture and active learning together to produce as rich a learning environment.
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References:
1- (http://www.chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/2012/02/13/four-things-lecture-is-good-for/)
2- (https://www.chronicle.com/article/Setting-Students-Minds-on/126592)
How do we, as educators, compete with the increasing number of distractions around our students? How can we get students to learn when their attentions are split among several things or are elsewhere all together? The answers to these questions are simple: we can’t compete, and we can’t get students to learn when their heads are somewhere else. But, what we can do is learn to teach in a way that engages students, so that their minds don’t have time drift away. So, how do we do this?
In my opinion, to do this, we must move away from the dominant lecture-style teaching format. Cellphones, laptops, iPads, Apple watches, etc all provide students with constant access not only to their friends and family but to the entire world via the internet. There is no way that they can listen to our voices droning on and on while they read the latest tweets and status updates. Don’t get me wrong, lecturing has its place in the classroom and can be an important teaching tool. For example, Robert Talbert discusses how lectures can be used in a beneficial manner in “Four Things Lecture is Good For” (2012) by stating that lectures are bad for transferring information from teacher to student but are good for covering a lot of material. He also states that people who are good at lecturing incorporate big-picture views about the topic being lectured. That is – lectures should not just spew fact after fact about one topic – they need to explain why the facts are important and relate the topic being lectured to other topics.
However, standing in front of a group of people talking AT them for an hour plus doesn’t accomplish what we want it to. Instead of talking AT our students we need to talk WITH them. We should not be the only voices being heard in the classroom. Our students should express their thoughts, their ideas, their opinions, and their experiences in class (when appropriate and asked for, of course). Everybody has a different set of knowledge and skills that make his/her/their voices have something unique to say. And just because we are educators, does not mean we should not be educated every day as well. Even if our students don’t know more about the topic being discussed than we do, they may ask a question that sparks an engaging conversation. Or they may have a comment that insights feelings in other students that prompt them to speak up. Even the statements of “I don’t understand” or “can someone explain this in a different way” are extremely valuable to us as teachers. This lets us know that we need to LEARN to express something in a different manner. As Marc Carnes states in “Setting Students’ Minds on Fire” (2011), students are dropping out of college not because they cannot afford it (though that does play some role) but because they are not interested! Why spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on “not learning” something you’re not interested in?
We cannot (or should not) forbid technology in the classroom without major pushback (see “Laptops and Phones in the Classroom: Yea, Nay Or a Third Way?” by Anna Kamenetz,2018). So, we need to get students to engage in their classes so that they are not bored and want to read that “Bob just got his hair cut and is feeling fresh” more than listen to us talk. Just as we are taught as children to earn the respect of others, as teachers we need to earn the attention (which can translate into respect) from our students. Making them feel talked at and unheard won’t accomplish this. I realize I am not providing any answers here on how to engage students, particularly while incorporating technology – that is up to us to discuss WITH our teachers and peers!
