Kids These Days!

Okay, so “Classrooms Go High-Tech to Engage Students” isn’t the most creative headline, but it was nice to see some coverage of educational technologies of interest to me in US News & World Reports recently.  One theme of the article is that students are going to use technology during class, so instructors might as well put that technology to good use.  Another theme is captured by this quote:

Professors are not so much people who stand and spout facts with students taking notes, said [Glenn Platt, professor of interactive media studies at Miami University]. The Internet has all of the information. And students aren’t going to come to class for a lecture if it’s on a podcast.  So that means many instructors are trying to make the classroom more interactive.

Each theme seems a bit of a downer: “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” and “Kids these days!” (shakes fist like the neighbor in the Dennis the Menace comics).  I’m exaggerating, of course, but I think it’s worth pointing out that many instructors who use technology in the classroom aren’t catering to students.  Many are excited to find ways to create more interactive, dynamic, engaging classrooms.  Students learn best when they are actively engaged in the learning process.  Some students can be so engaged during a classic college lecture, but many don’t learn best that way.  (It’s worth noting that many of those who do learn well that way go on to careers like, say, college professors, so relying on our personal learning experiences to determine our teaching practices can be a bit misleading.)

Here’s another kind of “Kids these days!” quote:

“Technology is such an inherent part of their lives,” [Gary Rudman, GTR Consulting,] said. “They have come to expect it every step of the way. When they come to college, they are expecting this technology to be incorporated into their learning.”

I’ll have to take Mr. Rudman at his word, since he’s doing research on this topic.  I would argue that at least some students don’t expect technology to be used in interactive ways in the classroom.  Some students are expecting to come to class, listen and take notes, make sense of their notes after class, then write some version of their notes on the test.  Having students actively engage with each other during class (via clicker questions, Twitter backchannel, and so on) can throw some students off.  Most of them, however, come around to like a more interactive classroom.

I should also mention something I’ve many times from those who have had a while to think about Mark Prensky’s “digital native” idea: Students are quite used to using technology in their daily lives, but are often not used to using technology to learn.  They’re also not used to thinking critically about how they use technology.  (And, yes, I’m providing my own version of “Kids these days!” here…)

A few other highlights from the US News article include a brief description of the in-class backchannel used by Scott McLeod, an associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Iowa State; a mention of Livescribe Inc.’s Pulse smartpen, one device I’d like to get to know better; a brief update on the state of e-textbooks; and one student’s tough time with blogging for her classes:

Chelsea Nuffer, 21, a performance and communications major at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., said blogging for four classes was overwhelming and she ran out of things to write about. “It works for students who might not speak up in class,” she said. “For me, I’m pretty vocal.”

When the communications majors start complaining about having too much blogging, then you know that student blogging has gone mainstream!