TP Guide to Teaching: Using Technology in the Classroom

The Guide to Teaching

Using Technology in the Classroom

Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 22:24:48 -0500 (EST)
Sender: Joel J Schwartz <jjschwar@email.unc.edu>
mailto:jjschwar@email.unc.edu

The new topic for the H-teachpol Teaching Guide is: Using technology in the classroom

I am currently teaching a graduate seminar on the Teaching of Political Science. Since I am a novice at Computer-Assisted Instruction and I assume many of you are also, I am seeking suggestions for myself as well as for others who are interested, but trepidatious, about incorporating some of the new technologies as a learning and teaching device. I am most interested in ideas which are specific to the discipline and go beyond the use of Discussion Forums and putting syllabi and assignments on the web. What are your experiences using programs such as Idealog? What do you do with the internet or web? Do you have computer facilities in your classrooms? Does your school require students to own their own computers? Does your school have sufficient computers with internet capabilities so that you can require students to do assignments on the web, etc. What is your primary goal when requiring students to use the internet? Is learning to use the internet as a tool a goal in itself? All comments welcome.

Author: "Carol Botsch" <carolb@usca.usca.sc.edu>
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 14:40:56 -0500

I am teaching a class completely over the web, using a web page and an email discussion list for students. It is working fairly well, but is extremely time-consuming! The biggest problem is the technology. People have older computers and older browsers, or don't know how to set up or use their email, or they have a computer crash, or something doesn't work right. Every week I have to fight a few fires. Then there was the week I was scheduled to give a test, and the university decided to move up routine maintenance, so the server was down. I am also using email discussion lists in my other classes, with mixed success. Most of the students have never been subscribed to an email list, so it is a good learning experience for them. My lower level students are mostly computer illiterate, and have to use the university email program available for students, Eudora light. It is not user friendly, they have trouble learning it, and it doesn't always work. Most of the upper level students know how to use email. Again, people's email doesn't always work right. I suppose in time the technology will improve. Meanwhile, I tell them to save a copy of everything to a disk.

Carol Sears Botsch USC Aiken Aiken, S.C. 29801 Carolb@Aiken.sc.edu

Date: Sun, 22 Feb 1998 13:20:03 -1000
From: Vincent K Pollard mailto:pollard@hawaii.edu

How do I use the Internet in my Political Science 150 course?

Specifically, how do I use private e-mail, group e-mail and the World Wide Web. Comments below follow up on my response (H-TEACHPOL, Wednesday, 18 Febrary 1998) to a question on "teaching undergraduates in an international setting." (Some subscribers to H-TEACHPOL may wish to read my earlier response again before going on to the suggestions below.)

My Political Science 150 course reflects a mix of ancient and modern information technologies (mini-lectures, book chapters, handouts, large-group and small-group discussions, video clips, private and group e-mail, World Wide Web), my first advice is: Use common sense, and don't be stampeded.

On the one hand, keep firmly in mind YOUR teaching-learning objectives for the course YOU are teaching and then determine, on your own or in consultation with others, which technologies support your teaching-learning objectives and which do not. That someone else is promoting the values of a particular technology with evengelical zeal does not necessarily mean that you are derelict in choosing not to utilize it.

On the other hand, do NOT overlook THE LIKELIHOOD that new information technologies may open up new teaching-learning possibilities for you and your students.

Assume that learning new technologies will, in some cases, require the investment of time -- your and your students. Assess the trade-off's. (And do not assume that all your students are equally conversant with computers or the Internet. Some will be. And some will be, for want of a better word, "technophobic.")

DO assume that utilizing and incorporating some new technologies will, even after being "mastered," require more of your time than in the past.

For example, if you make yourself accessible to your students by ordinary e-mail, on conferencing software or in some other mode and are writing thoughtful comments in response to their assignments or questions, the hour will FLY by before you are finished. Without MANY years of experience, I imagine, utilization of the newer educational technologies will not make teaching any easier. However, I am firmly convinced that, appropriately adapted and utilized, they WILL improve teaching. Anyway, I enjoy the cognitive and intellectual CHALLENGES of teaching. So, ease, in my view, should not be the primary consideration.

A few years ago, I had the benefit of taking a graduate class where much of the commentary on assigned readings, reactions to class discussions and preparation for a class presentation HAD to be done on conferencing software and by ordinary e-mail, I noticed that I was doing much more writing than I might have done. Today, the "addictive" power of colored light on a computer screen, arguably, facilitates MORE WRITING on the part of some of my students than, I suspect, they would be doing if our group e-mail account (and their private e-mail ID's) were not part of their learning repertoire.

To put part of my earlier suggestions in the present context, students' utilization of the Internet facilitates participation in all of the following activities flowing from assigning students to answer "early response questions" as we move into new topics:

a) encouraging students to think about a topic before we have discussed it thoroughly;

b) encouraging students to express more complicated observations, analysis and questions;

c) giving the students space to pursue issues that we simply don't cover -- or don't cover comprehensively -- in class;

d) providing me a reading on what they do and do not know or assume about American government, politics and society;

e) alerting me to the need to reteach certain themes; and

f) flagging opportunities for me to respond to individual student concerns without derailing the syllabus or absorbing common (classroom) time that "belongs" to all of them collectively.

So much for private and group e-mail.

Our College Librarian puts the syllabi of all interested faculty on the World Wide Web. Probably more importantly, my students also use the World Wide Web as part of a small student-selected 10-week group research project (4 or 5 students to a team). My purposes in requiring them to this were straightforward:

1) to show them HOW to find information relevant to their topics on the WWW;

2) to impress them with the enormity of information available in cyberspace; and

3) along with their search of printed library materials, to convince them of the need to "narrow down" the (initially) global topics they had selected for research earlier in the course.

Documenting (citing) and evaluating information (printed and cybernetic) is, in my view, just as important than being able to locate data.

I believe that, while keeping our own teaching-learning objectives for each course specifically in mind, we owe it to our students to investigate the possibilities of the newer educational technologies. But don't just take my word for it.

We are in a VERY early stage of VERY incomplete anecdotal accounts of what works and what does not. Your skepticism and your questions may open up teaching-learning pathways not even considered by most of us today!

If you agree that students' level of "comfort" with teaching- learning activities should not, in my view, be the ONLY criterion of concern in making decisions about whether or not to require specific activities, then the same notion should apply to us as teachers.

Vincent K Pollard Research Assistant, SSRI/Futures Studies * Voice: 808 956-4240 Adjunct Faculty (political science) * Kansai Gaidai Hawaii College Ph.D. Cand., Dept. of Political Science * University of Hawai'i-Manoa Fax: 808 956-2889 (Futures Studies), 808 956-6877 (Political Science) http://www.kghc.org/classresources/Amergov.htm

Date: Thu, 19 Feb 1998 14:32:33 -0500
From: "Robert D. Duval"
mailto:bduval@wvu.edu

>The new topic for the H-teachpol Teaching Guide is:

> > Using technology in the classroom

This is clearly a topical question and seems to be more so almost daily. I'll give a few quick responses to the direct questions.

>What are your experiences using programs such as Idealog?

Haven't tried it, but wish there were more such efforts out there, especially in IR.

>What do you do with the internet or web?

Right now as a tool for every class. All my class syllabi and writing assignments are provided as web pages. I am also starting to make assignments and class notes and spreadsheet based tutorials available from the syllabus. I also find that every semester I learn a few new tricks to make the Web based syllabus more versatile. My methods class syllabus now contains links to my class notes (still quite incomplete), downloadable data, instructions for assignments, and small tutorials. I have three classes that integrate Web based assignments and materials into them. If anyone is interested they are at:

http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/Duval/PS299/299syl.html(Political Computing)

http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/Duval/PS160/160syl.html(International elations)

http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/Duval/PS400/400syl.html(Graduate Mehods)

In addition, I now have students create web pages for at least one assignment. FrontPage/Composer makes it easy enough to do this now. The Web now contains enough content to justify its use for research support. (Not to say it should be the sole source.) >Do you have computer facilities in your classrooms? Small lab - 15 computers, all Ethernet LAN connected to the Internet

>Does your school require students to own their own computers?

No...but increasing percentages of students have them, and the dorms at WVU are all wired now.

>Does your school have sufficient computers with internet capabilities so

>that you can require students to do assignments on the web, etc.

Yes..as of this year. Also bandwidth back in the hills here has now been improved so live Internet in the classroom is feasible.

>What is your primary goal when requiring students to use the internet?

The same thing it is when they use the library. Find stuff. Sort out the good stuff from the not so good, and assimilate it into a presentation/text/web page/etc/.

>Is learning to use the internet as a tool a goal in itself?

I'd appeal to the library concept again. Can you support assignments that teach using the library as a goal in and of itself? Probably justifiable, but seems like it should be someone else's job. Thus I try to find a substantive hook to drive learning the technical skill. Not always easy to do. As the Web content gets better, and finding it gets easier, much of this will smooth out.

Two last comments...

(1) Don't forget instructional technology such as LCD projectors and integrating a 'slide show' presentation with computer applications from the podium. I am redoing my methods class this year with a projector, multimedia presentation slides (hmm...what music goes with the Central Limit theorem?), live Internet, etc. The ability to utilize the PC from the front of the room is a real asset. Also, presentation software lets you produce a fairly acceptable set of Web pages from your class notes with a few clicks. This is clearly the way to teach methods in my book.

(2) We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in education. I do not believe that distance learning will seriously erode the classroom environment as the shakedown occurs. After all, if our job was simply to be the purveyor of facts, the libraries of the world would have driven us all out of business eons ago. But a well developed Web-based distance learning course can compete well with a classic lecture class. It is the enhanced instructional environment in the classroom that will keep us in our cloistered halls. Just make sure to retro-fit your ivory tower with fiber optics. This is the information revolution - kind of like the industrial revolution, only this time it is being produced by MTV, and your kids keep playing it on fast forward. Bob

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Bob Duval (304) 293-3811 Ext 5299 Dept. of Political Science West Virginia University Morgantown, WV 26505-6317 bduval@wvu.edu http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/Duval http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/PolyCy Moderator - PSWEB-L@WVU.EDU

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 19 Feb 1998 10:34:14 -0800
From: "Matthew Wetstein"
mailto:mwetstein@sjdccd.cc.ca.us

Joel Schwartz recently posed the following questions about computer technology in the classroom:

>What are your experiences using programs such as Idealog? What do you do with the internet or web? Do you have computer facilities in your classrooms? Does your school require students to own their own computers? Does your school have sufficient computers with internet capabilities so that you can require students to do assignments on the web, etc. What is your primary goal when requiring students to use the internet? Is learning to use the internet as a tool a goal in itself?

I teach at a community college in California that has supplied me with a classroom computer projection system that is state of the art. I use the computer regularly in my class -- either as a vehicle to project slide show outlines of my lectures (using PowerPoint), or to demonstrate how I use the internet & web to find political information. This ability to use computer technology in real time in front of students has transformed my lecture style -- with positive and negative side-effects. First the positives: students seem to like the fact that they can follow my lectures both visually (on the large screen) and by listening to what I say. I think they like the use of visual media because they have been immersed in a visually driven media culture. The down-side is that they often get into the rote habit of "writing what's on the board," or in this case, what's on the "big screen." Thus, they occasionally tune me out. I overcome this problem by stopping that habit -- telling them to stop writing, start thinking and listening to what I'm saying, and start responding to my comments. Thus, I have a word of advice for professors who will use this "slide show" approach in the future: make sure your visual presentations have brief textual descriptions -- allowing for less writing and more listening.

Another negative that comes with computer projection systems is the lighting of the room. Running the lecture slide shows in a dimmed room can induce sleeping patterns that are not healthy for students. I counteract this by roaming the room while I lecture. If your campus is moving to this form of classroom renovation, make a strong argument for dimmer switches that allow you to control the lighting atmosphere.

Having stressed the negatives, the single most positive feature I've noticed is the ability to educate students on responsible use of the web, and the ability to use myself as a mentor for web browsing. Nothing beats showing students that even you can do this. You might also "empower" a student by allowing them to show off a web site they've found -- as long as it is relevant to the material of the course.

Because I have the technology to do these things, I've incorporated web-based writing assignments into my American Government course. Students must inspect a web site, write a paper describing the content of the site, and apply concepts from the course texts in a brief 4 page paper (two papers a semsester are required). I provide a set of guidelines for the assignment, and a list of "suggested" web sites on my web page. To complete the assignment, students can visit one of two computer labs on campus, or do it from their personal computers (if they have them). I have not received the papers yet, but I expect two things to emerge from them: 1) increased competency in using computers & the web to complete a research project; and 2) increased understanding of course content through its application and analysis outside of the classroom.

Faculty interested in my approach can check out my web-based assignment at: http://www.sjdccd.cc.ca.us/Wetstein/sp98essay.html and other material at: http://www.sjdccd.cc.ca.us/Wetstein/wetstein.html

Matt Wetstein San Joaquin Delta College Stockton, CA mwetstein@sjdccd.cc.ca.us

{ Top of Page }

Teaching Politics is published by William J. Ball (ball@tcnj.edu)

small ink.gif (1557 bytes)