Yes, Chris, great ideas here. I encourage you in your focus on problem solving over multiple choice questions or yes/no questions. I like your idea about essays and I would suggest debates in class or presentations that require students to persuade others of their ideas and defend their thoughts. This develops strong verbal skills as well.
As communication technology increases in complexity and availability, the ability of the user to effectively express their ideas increases, as well as societal expectations of the new standard or normal level of communication. The basic method of communication changed very little over hundreds or thousands of years prior to the electronic age. Audio or visual communication was something that had to be experienced directly in real time. Written communication was ink, paint, lead, or some other marking on parchment, paper, or some other medium. Making copies of written work was a very slow and labor intensive process. Eventually written words were supplemented by mechanical printing machines. The electronic age, starting in the early 1900’s, gradually started to change all methods of communication. The most rapid advancements have taken place since the 1980’s with the development of advanced computer chips and the Internet. The writing of reports evolved from hand written to type written, then from computer printed to web based multimedia presentations. The source of the information in a report has changed from words in a limited number of books on a book shelf to the vast almost limitless size of the world’s largest library, the Internet. The biggest challenge now is not access to information, but how to manage it effectively.
Bill Lembke
Thank you, Bill, for this helpful historic summary. Indeed, now the challenge faces us as to what to do with all the information available and how it can be used well in an educational setting. Again skills of organization, prioritization, analysis, summary, and application are all required in order to be successful. What is interesting is that these are skills traditionally focused on in higher education but are now front and center because of the overwhelming information available. Do you think teachers maximize this potential or sometimes still try to do some of the work for students by controlling and presetting access within a course setting?
We are at an auto related campus. Many times students who dont understand our lecture can use how stuff works or youtube to actually see these proccesses at work. Many times we see them understand it better when they research thes sites
Does the information change? Not at all, only the way it's presented. If we stay in the old school thinking, we would still be looking up information on reference cards in the libraries. The internet and mobile technologies have changed the way students receive their information in our modern times. It is now our job to reconfigure our teaching styles to include these methods.
Good points, Thomas. How has the way in which information is presented changed your own teaching methods?
Why do you think that is the case, Marvin? How does learner autonomy fit into the scenario you describe here?
The only problem is the younger student is always looking for the "easy" button. I find that if it is not easy they don't even want to try. I tell them it is real easy to find an answer on the web. Looking it up in an encyclopidea will teach you lots more about it.
One of the things I see is broadening the scope of input from just the instructors point of view to other points of view that may be different or even contrary to the instructor. It opens up discussions and causes some to think past the GI-GO world we've come to know, and sometimes actually process the thoughts and decide what is correct and what is wrong. We can more easily access reference materials that can prove or disprove thought presented, and not loose why we were on the thought to start with by the passage of time before we can get to the information.
Yes, Phillip, it opens up the learning beyond conventional parameters. How do you think this challenges the instructor specifically?
So, Jasen, how can instructors move students beyond the easy use of technology and to a more rigorous application of the tools?
I see students sitting in class bored everyday, no matter how entertaining I am. I do know that being an enternainer is part of my job as an instructor and the impact it has on their attention span durring lectures. I do utilize as many different forms of information as possible, but it never seems to be enough. I may be a technical/mechanical guru, but the students easily outclass me when it come to electronic and mobile technologies. I have just recently ben selected to be part of our course transformation team and am looking forward to seing what our new tolls of presentaion are going to be. I hope it fulfills the needs of our students and keeps them more interested and helps them to be more sucessful at the same time.
Hi Jeffrey,
Sometimes it does feel like we need to "entertain" students, however, good teaching is more about addressing and facilitating students in the learning process focused on specific learning outcomes. How do you help your students reach the learning utcomes of your course(s)?
When I was in school I could learn more if I seen it on tv or someone was reading it to me. I found that I was able to think about what I was hearing and understand it more. In this day more students see it on screens and are like I was and they retain it better if they see it in a way they normaly see it.
Yes, new technology means that the same information can be presented and supported and mediated in various formats. What challenge does this bring to you as an instructor, given your own style and method of learning?
New technology is intended to make it easier to access content input. If the new technology makes the info a little more flashy then so much the better.
Accessing content is one of the major benefits, David, however, the technolgy also has the potential to increase collaboration, interaction, and self-directed learning. Can "flashier" content also be more effective in supporting all of these?
How does new technology change content input for students generally?
Students are not limited to what they hear from an instructor's lecture. They have life experience application, input from their fellow classmates, input from the web and other sources.
Student have more of a wealth to draw from in more than one medium, which can become a problem. It does put more ownership in the hands of student.
The instructors job could be more organizing / managing consistency and quality of sources and showing how to maximize the use of the sources to gain the required information.
Yes and technology can provide inclusive and integrated contexts within which this kind of holistic learning can take place. Tearee, why do you think many instructors struggle with this concept?
