This Week’s Presidential Roundup

See Edward Tufte’s essay, The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint.  http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/powerpoint

Check @nancyduarte and her books, Resonate & Slide-ology. http://www.duarte.com

I think a lot of us have thought about or even tried the conversational classroom. One big problem I’ve always had with it is student participation. Even if they like you, even if they’re interested in the topic, it is often difficult to get them motivated to participate in the conversation.

It’s not about technology, it’s about training.  Most faculty have never received any significant training in teaching or learning, let alone technology.  As someone once said: “College teaching may be the only skilled profession for which systematic training is neither required nor provided–pizza delivery jobs come with more instruction.” 
When someone argues against technology in the classroom, it makes no sense.  The classroom itself is a technology, and filled with technologies that all impact teaching and learning, such as the arrangement of chairs.  Textbooks are a technology.  Whiteboards are a technology (there were controversies about using chalk boards or “slates” back in the 1800s, too).  Even the language we speak was invented by us, and is a technology, or technique.  Teaching, with or without technology, is a skill that requires an understanding of how people learn, how to design effective learning environments, how to communicate effectively, how to use technology, among other many other skills.  

TLDR: teaching is hard, and “a bad carpenter blames his tools.”
 

I know the feeling very well, but I have begun using pre-reading questions to set the mood for the topic and post-reading reflection questions or responses to statements taken from essays or whatever the reference material.  Both types of questions allow students to voice their opinions, and they value that.  At the same time, it is a way to actively engage the students.  These responses can easily be related to whatever the reading. 

The word “lecture” does not resonate with students; in fact, I dislike it because it is boring and rigid.  Most of all, a lecture is a permit for students to disengage and behave as sponges passively sitting and soaking up bits and pieces of information only to regurgitate it because they just want to “pass the test” or complete the assignment.  They do not analysize or synthesize, which means they do not understand. 

PPT in an of itself is not the evil.  The true elephant in the classroom is the need or desire to be in control.  PPT puts the clicker in the “teachers” hands, where in “adult education”, the true participative learning facilitator relinquishes the power to the people. 

It requires a major shift in style, and may require the need to throw away those yellowed notes, or PPT slides, that have been in place for decades. 

Be it an academic setting or a corporate “university” setting, the rules apply across the board.  

I have been using “guided discovery” for over three decades and the power really does lie in the people.  Boy, have I learned a ton!!!   

Power point smower point.  The last good teaching aid was the magic lantern with glass slides.  OK they weren’t gas but when I was in grammar school at P.S. 62 we did use glass slides.  It was great fun lettering, drawing, and coloring the slides for a class presentation.

I recently read “Beyond Bullet Points.” While its author focused on typical presentation and not classroom lectures, many of the points he makes are transferable. I have revised my classroom presentations using his principles and have found them more effective. I then post more in-depth, traditional PPS in the course management software for students who were absent or who want to review the points of the classroom presentation.

I loved that book. I use the background color coding system from BBB’s template and teach students what they mean (black w/white font = main concept of day; dark grey w/black font = Roman numeral I, II, III, in an outline; light grey = IA, IB, etc.); and white background = 1A1, 1A2, and so on. It is easy for them if they zone out to know right how important a slide is, etc. That has made a HUGE difference in my 350 student classes!

Many years ago when I was a performing musician, one of my very wise teachers told me: “there’s no such thing as corny music, only corny musicians.”

Perhaps it’s time to say: “there’s no such thing as ‘boring’ lectures, only bored listeners.” Hate to sound too Zen-like, but boredom, like everything else, “comes from within.”

People are becoming what they behold. The typical timing for jump cuts in promos for local news is about 250 milliseconds. Blockbuster action movies have chase scenes where it has become impossible to have an actual frame of reference for what’s happening; it’s sufficient to simply hear squealing tires, explosions, etc. Not only are the vehicles moving at a high rate of speed, the editing is as well. When I show my students an “action” film from a couple of decades ago, e.g. “Bladerunner,” their squirming makes it apparent that they are “bored.” Oh Tarkovsky, where are you when we need you?

This, along with the now junked-up TV screen, which increasingly apes the Internet, have so shortened the attention spans of acolytes that it might be our “mission” to turn them onto such as “the slow food movement,” and other (humanistic) movements that perceptive people have initiated. Awareness grows slowly . . . 

Bored is as bored does. (And watches, and texts, and tweets, and etc.) I wish I could say the problem is as trivial as “amusing ourselves to death,” as per Neil Postman. I think not. It has essentially become little more than “distracting ourselves to death.”

Finally, “technology” is the hair of the dog that has bitten them . . . further doses inside and outside the classroom are not going to alleviate the boredom and aimlessness they feel . . . 

I absolutely agree. We tend to blame the tools rather than the carpenter. I also agree that many faculty do not get training and there are few incentives to get faculty to participate. At our campus, we’ve tried small financial incentives (although in tough budget times, that approach also raises more questions). If there is not more active support by Deans, personnel committees and administrators, it is hard to convince faculty it is worthwhile to participate (you can tell by now, I’m sure, that I’m a faculty development director!).

After agreeing that teachers need to be aware of more tools, I must say that I do enjoy a good lecture. I talk about it more in this post http://idajones.wordpress.com/2012/03/09/lecture-fail-long-live-the-lecture/

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