Once upon a time, a teacher walked into the classroom that first day and felt relief when he or she saw a nice chalkboard--and maybe an overhead projector. Textbooks came with overhead transparencies or at least a booklet with black and white masters that you ran off on the copier. Teachers lectured; students took notes, furiously scribbing down anything that the teacher wrote on the chalkboard, or marking up the textbook when the teacher pointed out a specific chart or page. Smart teachers carried extra chalk, along with a stapler, a folder to collect homework, and maybe some index cards for a small group activity. However, even then, it was good to have a Plan B, just in case.
For example, I recall one night class in July when the air conditioning had failed at my Community College and the room was so hot that the overhead projector made a strange sizzling sound when I laid down the next overhead. I decided it was time for a field trip and we ended up sitting out on a hill to finish our lecture. That was 1986 or so...
Today, I only teach in classrooms that are equipped with teaching stations--with a computer, monitor, LCD projector, printer, VCR/DVD player combo, and maybe a CD burner, scanner, and other goodies, such as a smartboard or sympodium. (The pictures at the top of this page show me standing by the teaching station in my high tech classroom in Black Hawk hall). Textbooks now come with companion websites, power points, and web-based instructor's manuals. Some come as e-books embedded in a course management system like Blackboard. It is more difficult to "lecture" now, because not only do I have a computer--so do my students.
I suspect that some are checking email, facebook, or other diversions but they pretend to be paying attention most of the time, so we get along most of the time. (Note: Since posting this, I have been assured by most of my students that they do not have time to check facebook in my class. However, I have also had several people drop since spring break).
I have also been informed that I still give a lot of handouts; I have tried to cut back on giving so many handouts, since I post them all online anyway. Students have access to computers in many classrooms as well as at the library and the Academic Support Area. Kiosks are all over campus to encourage them to check their email, and the student record system. (Here is the fabulous Kiosk just outside our classroom, in the new wing of Black Hawk Hall).
Our campus webpage boosts of several student blogs; our calendar, list of courses, staff directory, and student handbook are all online. The last time I recall, over 1,000 were taking courses online. Students are immersed in technology; however, are they learning more? Do they have the basic technology skills to be successful? It seems important to ask these questions.
As a writing teacher, I wouldn't go back to that classroom with the chalkboard. I love it that my students can get on the computer to do research, using the campus library and then open up Word and begin to compose an essay--then send it off to Smarthinking, an online tutoring service available 24/7. I incorporate a simple course website for all of my face to face courses and use a discussion board (with virtual campus, which is a version of Microsoft's Sharepoint) as part of the participation points. I try to help my students develop stronger file management skills, since they need to be able to create and then retrieve their documents to revise them.
Technology has changed the way that I present information to my students; in the early days of teaching in computer classrooms, I would stand up front and talk my way through the power point. Soon, I realized that my students were one or two slides ahead of me. Now I post those presentations online, along with worksheets that guide them through the material. I may highlight them in class, but focus more on student centered activities whenever possible. One example is the Letter from Birmingham Jail small group activity; it is a web-based project that gets students reading a challenging piece of text and then analyzing it. More recently, I am learning Camtasia, which allows you to narrate power point presentations and creates short videos; here is one of them. (You must have flash to view the video).
Technology helps me keep in touch with students outside of class; it is more common for someone to email me to explain why he or she cannot be in class today than for that person to drop by during office hours, or even call me. I recently created a Facebook account so that I could see what the social networking sites were all about; within a couple of hours I had been contacted by several friends and family members who were delighted to find me online.
Even so, I am aware that my students are not the readers they once were; their vocabularies are not as robust when it comes to academic words that I used to assume that college students understood. They don't always recognize historical or literary references. Frequently, they tell me that they don't really like to read or write--in spite of the fact that I see them reading or sending email, checking out Facebook pages, or posting to our discussion board. Somehow that isn't seen the same as reading a book, newspaper or magazine.
I've become subversive in my efforts to promote literacy; my Composition 2 students get Newsweek as a supplemental reader. I create a set of discussion boards for posting interactive journals, where they practice their skills of summarizing what they read and then reflect on what it means to them. I do an exit survey, and almost everyone says that this is their first experience reading a print publication on a regular basis; most admit that they weren't thrilled about it at first, but that now they feel smarter, more informed, and actually look forward to getting the next issue. When one student fretted about not getting his issue, another one said, "Um...he could go to the website and read his article there, couldn't he?"
Technology is certainly changing the way we work, interact, and write--with text messaging shorthand, a world of "Kum and Go" and "Kwik Star" stores, internet slang, Google, wikipedia, and You Tube, maybe it's a wonder that anyone can spell or write complete sentences. However, most of us know how to add a smiley face, change fonts, add some clip art, or otherwise make our documents "look pretty!"
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