A fascinating article on chronicle.com really chimed with some thoughts I have been having this week about the sorts of technology I want to use in my teaching next year. Now as a history teacher you might think I’d be a complete technophobe and to some extent you would be right. But I also want to try to learn new techniques for improving my teaching practice, for the benefit of my students and of course to improve my CV. And if that means thinking about technology then so be it!
The article by Jeffrey Young was exploring the phemonenon of lecturers videotaping their lectures and presenting them online. The main problem is student attendance; the theory goes that if students know they can access lectures on video at any time, why turn up to the real thing? But those who are keen to use this technology argue that measures can be taken to prevent an exodus from the classroom. Quoting Young’s article, these are:
# Make classes more interactive.
# Give regular in-class quizzes.
# Shut off the camera when talking about what will be on the test.
# Wait 10 days after each lecture to offer a replay.
# Stop offering recordings if class attendance drops.
Now I am not proposing myself to go down the video-lecturing route, I don’t see myself as a budding actor and besides then I’d have to worry if I had odd socks on or my jumper inside out! (only joking…I am not that much of a typical academic, yet!)
But I have been considering using my university’s webCT system to provide written versions of my lectures and the powerpoint presentations as well as web links and digitised primary and secondary sources. Some people have even gone down the route of having online seminars and online course tests. I am not sure of the value of those, but am happy to keep an open mind and learn from colleagues’ experience.As a teacher these sorts of issues are important to consider for pedagogical reasons, but as a future jobseeker I might want to prove that I have a broad teaching expertise and can utilise these sorts of systems for the benefit of my students. So, when planning your teaching practice for next year, spend a minute to consider technology!
I really like the idea of taping lectures for students and letting students access them online. I think it its a good idea for several reasons it gives the professor a chance to look at how they are teaching. They can improve theri teaching style by watching what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. I also think it is a good idea to tape lectures because if the lecture has not powerpoint slides or no notes given, some people have a hard time writing everything down that the professor says at once. Students will be able to go back and relisten to lectures that they did not get complete notes for in class. I also think that providing in class quizzes and taking attendance will cut down on the students who do not feel like they now need to come to class. Using this type of technology will only add to the classroom dynamic and ehance the learning capabilities of students.
I think it’s great to see teachers at all levels embracing technology in the classroom. While a person may immediately raise the concerns of attendance with video-taped lectures appearing online, the ideas listed above would most likely maintain attendance (ie. surprise quizzes, tracking attendance for part of grade).
Unfortunately for everyone, things occasionally happen and you’re not able to make it to a class. Or in some cases (like my case as an undergraduate), some students have rather poor attention spans, and would greatly benefit from being able to re-experience the lecture. Sometimes subtleties are missed the first time around. For me it wasn’t that the lectures were boring, I just had so many things to worry about like work, projects, life, money, ect… It would have been great to recoup what I missed.
The more I think about it and write about it, the more I like this idea of taping lectures and posting them on a site like web-CT. I hope if you decide to try it out, that it works out well for you. Best of luck, and be sure to update us if you decide to go that way!
Jake
http://www.NoteScribe.net
Hi Jake,
Thanks for your comments and I couldn’t agree more with you thoughts. On the subject of attention spans I think it’s daft to expect students to concentrate and digest huge amounts of info without a break for 50 minutes. At our institution we even have double lectures where, with a 5 minute break students effectively have a 110 minute session, which is way beyond the length of time for which the human brain can absorb information.
Perhaps video taping or podcasting lectures could help overcome these pedagogical concerns.
Catherine
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