Thanks for a great post, Jasmine! I too am having difficulty discerning where I fall on the pendulum of technology in the classroom. I am a young teacher, not much older than my upperclassmen students, and sometimes that makes me want to be stricter to reduce technology use. I have at times, wished I could collect cellphones at the front of the classroom, when the two students who were texting all class email asking a question that I know I covered in class. I like your suggestion to make the class more engaging that their screens, I definitely try to engage my students throughout the class period, whether that means showing a funny, pertinent video, or making a few (not very funny) jokes myself. I’m in the English department, and your personal experience with lack-luster games to replace meaningful teaching is so upsetting! I agree that is not the way to engage learners!

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What an interesting post! I particularly liked your connection to your previous research experience with analyzing available sources online for girls’ health — with such disparate levels of competence and accuracy! This connection is a perfect example of the need for data “vetting” as we, and our students, do more and more research online.

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Nice post! I appreciate your metaphor of the “binge and purge” system surrounding tests in your discipline and undergraduate learners. Although I teach writing, so I don’t often give traditional tests, that system very much reminds me of my own undergraduate courses in environmental science, when even though I found the material fascinating, I often did not retain very much after each major exam. The open access approach to your R course is also interesting to me. Often when students have very specific grammar questions, I show them how to solve those questions using online resources, especially if I personally am unsure of the specific rules! I think powerful education is often about helping students find the answers, rather than just giving them, in a lecture format, the exact information we deem “worthy” of their brain-space.

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Hey Oumoule,
I appreciate the question you posed, wondering whether pedagogy was innate or learned, I agree with some other comments here that it is perhaps a bit of both. While I do think that some traits, like an attraction to public speaking and / or solid organizational skills may make become an educator a bit easier, I do not think any of us are born with rock-star status “teacher skills.” I think the fact that you are writing so thoughtfully about pedagogy and asking such considerate questions means you are certainly on the right path towards become an even better educator!

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