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[puffin]

I am a very happy Puffin today.

I switched to a new university over a year ago. When I arrived, I adopted the practice of making detailed powerpoint slides for the students and walking them through the topic. I hadn't done it with that degree of detail before, but the colleagues did, and I did my best to fit in (and meet expectations, of course). I'm still convinced this isn't bad in an undergraduate lecture, but I've never considered it conducive to group discussion and work, either at the senior undergraduate or the postgraduate level. I have to say, I observe that even the post-grads tend to ratchet down their ambitions and adopt the role of audience under these conditions. I can get them moving, but it takes more effort than it did before. I'm not a fan of this method of teaching.

Today I dispensed with slides for most of the time, using them judiciously. I did some lecturing, used the blackboard a bit, repeating and sometimes even spelling out a few things, and I did some group discussion (sometimes awwwwwkwwwward if you haven't done the readings, but that's not my problem) and I did, on request, some in-class discussion of 'how to write a good research paper' (which was really articulated as 'what do you want us to do'?) and some general Q&A.

The atmosphere was positive, for the most part. I was happy and the vast majority of the students appeared even happier than in other weeks. And I think I'm not the only one who picked up on that. I am so pleased. The students who didn't want to participate blended into the woodwork and I didn't really bother them. We had a critical mass. I know this well enough from previous appointments.

Next thing you know, I'll start doing something revolutionary like insisting that they come to my office hours for help on writing a good paper. Remember when students came to hours to actually learn, and not grub for marks?

How strongly has electronic & presentation-based teaching displaced traditional methods where you are? Would you like to reclaim some of the good old stuff? Could you?

Traditional methods. It's the new way of doing things.  At last.

[concerned_parent]

You covered most of the student problems and you have become a role model for many. I would love be in your class.

I would like to share my experience from a class in Economics 101 that I took at a community college (in 2001). The instructor prescribed books were not stocked in the bookstore and I had never ordered books via internet. I told this to the instructor; he went back, made hand written notes, stood at the copiers to make 50 copies, and gave them for each lecture. Since we did not have books, he made sure he gave much of supplementary materials needed to understand the subject. Furthermore, he made us write individual reports on a select work of noble prize winners and made us feel like grad/PhD students. He worked with us individually to rewrite the essays.

He was my model teacher. When I read your approach, I uphold you in the highest regards.

Many others are doing the same or more;  they are select successful student-centric professors.

[gourmetless]

Rah, Puffin!

I would add that this kind of successful interaction is almost completely determined by discipline.  I use PP on occasion in more lecture-oriented classes where I need to get across specific information very quickly(about maybe a third of my load), but more often I use it as a way to show images. 

But I would add that, in this day and age, being an audience member disconnected from the object of the performance is becoming easier and easier.  Our modern focus on technology and modernization often removes the face-to-face learning model, which is in most cases the most effective way to teach information.

[john_proctor]

Traditional methods. It's the new way of doing things.  At last.

Caveat:

I do use some more innovative methods and current technologies when, and only when, they accomplish some specifically defined goal that I can not otherwise achieve via lecture/question/one-to-one meeting (e.g. using powerpoint for slides and maps; using video of rituals rather than just readings).  These are effective if and only if one begins by articulating a specific goal that can not be achieved by "traditional" methods AND one carefully (and critically, selects and adopts an alternate method purely on the basis of achieving goal X).

In art, Picasso and Pollock were not as powerful as they were just because they violated convention.  Nope.  They had a specific point that required the violation of tradition to articulate.

Being "innovative" just to be "innovative" is the dumbest freaking thing anyone ever convinced smart people to attempt (right up there with flat roofs).

Traditional methodology: ca. 3000 years of successful history.
"Innovative" or "student centered" methodology: ca. 30 years of "meh."

Burden of proof?

I am convinced, I avow, I assert, I insist: "student" centered teaching is, in actual application, far, far, far, far, far more often about the teacher's ego and desire to "connect."  Further: there is more than the opposite "professor" centered model.

As a "young" pedagogically trained and publishing young faculty member, I am dutifully resisting the new overloards.

Our craft got along swimmingly for millenia by "content centered" teaching techniques.

Lectures are the single most effective way to communicate large amounts of content (apart from writing).  And one-to-one interaction, discussion, mandatory meeting (if needed to get them in the room) is the finest pedagogic method ever devised.

I am, however, as is well known, legendarily counter "innovative pedagogy."

[mountainguy]

Good work, Puffin!

I despise PowerPoint. Like Gourmetless, I use it only when I have to cover large amounts of lecture material in a quick amount of time (which ends up being around 3 or 4 times per semester). Some of my students weep and gnash their teeth at the beginning of the term about how "haaaaarrd" my class is because I don't do PP, but they get over it quickly.

[airball]

Conform puffin! Before it's too late! Conform, or you will be brought to heel.

[offthemarket]

Amen.

Powerpoint lectures with outlines of content turn students into unthinking cattle.

I do use powerpoint -  however, there is almost no text, just images and the questions for the 2-5 min question breaks every 20 min.  If I want students to have something written down, I write it on the board.

[anthroid]

Good work, Puffin!

I despise PowerPoint. Like Gourmetless, I use it only when I have to cover large amounts of lecture material in a quick amount of time (which ends up being around 3 or 4 times per semester). Some of my students weep and gnash their teeth at the beginning of the term about how "haaaaarrd" my class is because I don't do PP, but they get over it quickly.

I never use Powerpoint, or chat rooms, or discussion boards, or peer grading, or blah blah blah.  In Intro, I lecture and encourage questions and comments, but I lecture.  JP, I love the concept of professor-centered classrooms.  I agree with your assessment.  I suppose John Rosemond is persona non grata around here (he is a back-to-basics family psychologist with a column about childrearing; I am a fan) but his column today was about parent-centered child-rearing and making the child pay attention to you as the parent rather than the other way round.  A child who is paying attention to the parent doesn't have much time to be bored.  A student who is paying attention to the professor doesn't have much time to be bored either.  I will occasionally show a film for precisely the reasons JP outlines--because it demonstrates a point much more effectively than merely reading about it. 

In advanced classes, the classroom is still professor-centered, as I direct the group discussion, but at that point at least some students can begin to learn from each other (if they have done the readings). 

Yea! for tradition. 

[offthemarket]

I suppose John Rosemond is persona non grata around here (he is a back-to-basics family psychologist with a column about childrearing; I am a fan) but his column today was about parent-centered child-rearing and making the child pay attention to you as the parent rather than the other way round.

I'm guilty of "psychological parenting."

My wife and I used to read his column for the humor value, when it was in the paper where we lived.  And have fun drawing on his photo in the header.  The first 2/3 of his column is always well-reasoned, sensible, and trumpets the idea that kids should be treated rationally like people (without being overcoddled or manipulated or fawned over).

Then, at the end of each column, he predictably goes over the deep end in a diatribe against "psychological parenting" and in praise of traditional values (whatever those are) and comes to a bizarre conclusion that doesn't really seem to fit where he was going.  The guy clearly loves kids and has good intentions, but his worldview is tainted through this narrow prism.

[/hijack]

[cc_alan]

My wife and I used to read his column for the humor value, when it was in the paper where we lived.  And have fun drawing on his photo in the header.  The first 2/3 of his column is always well-reasoned, sensible, and trumpets the idea that kids should be treated rationally like people (without being overcoddled or manipulated or fawned over).

Then, at the end of each column, he predictably goes over the deep end in a diatribe against "psychological parenting" and in praise of traditional values (whatever those are) and comes to a bizarre conclusion that doesn't really seem to fit where he was going.  The guy clearly loves kids and has good intentions, but his worldview is tainted through this narrow prism.

I stopped reading his column because I keep thinking-

"Hey! You kids! Get off of my lawn!"

Perhaps it was simply coincidence, but each column I read had him complaining about current parenting techniques and then he would pine for the good ol' days. Or was that pining for the fjords? I forget.

I'll simply end with-

"Hey! You kids! Get off of my electronic presentations!"

Alan

[educator1]

Each term I send my students a mid-term survey designed to improve my class. For the past two semesters I have included a section concerning their perceptions as to the effectiveness of various classroom practices. Both times using Powerpoint slides in class was rated by my students as the LEAST effective practice. Powerpoint slides come with my textbook and I give them to the students on Blackboard. Some use them to study and some do not. The most highly rated activities are those where students are actively involved.
I lecture using a Tablet PC instead of writing on the board. That way I can provide the lecture notes on Blackboard as they were presented in class, including answers to questions, and students can concentrate more on what is going on rather than madly copying everything down. I use a problem centered approach so I can copy problems from the book, make them a part of the notes and begin the problem analysis portion of the lecture by annotating, circling, etc the problem itself. Solves the "where did that come from" situation.
Perhaps you could say I use a "technologically enhanced, traditional approach" for the lecture portion of the course supplemented by lots of carefully selected and directed student activities (both discovery and practice) in the remainder.

[asa_phelps]

There's nothing better than a really good, well presented lecture.  There's nothing worse than a really bad, poorly presented lecture.

Powerpoint, like overheads, slides, maps, video, oil paintings, cave scratchings, etc. can be useful but is not an end in and of itself.  Too many get seduced by technology without thinking about what they are supposed to be teaching in the first place.

The best teaching professors I ever had didn't even use the board much.  They simply talked with us.  (note, not TO us but WITH us.)

[csguy]

I'm moving more and more to in class demonstrations as the best way to teach. I'll have slides on, for example, looping constructs but then I write some programs using loops to solve problems and think aloud while doing so.

The PowerPoints that come with the textbooks usually have 50 slides basically regurgitating the chapter as bullet points.

[anthroid]

I'm moving more and more to in class demonstrations as the best way to teach. I'll have slides on, for example, looping constructs but then I write some programs using loops to solve problems and think aloud while doing so.

The PowerPoints that come with the textbooks usually have 50 slides basically regurgitating the chapter as bullet points.

Ooo, yeah.  I hate that.  And the book reps try to argue that having powerpoint presentations ready made are just wonderful for us, and that's why we have to have 15 editions in 12 years.  I would never use those powerpoints.  They're awful.

[prokraz]

I'm so freakin' tired of people referring to PowerPoint as if it were some major technological innovation. Unless you embed lots of videos and other flashy stuff, it's JUST AN ELECTRONIC MEANS OF PRESENTING AN OUTLINE, folks! Some people use it well, some people use it poorly. But if you're going to dismiss it out of hand, then you might as well dismiss blackboards, whiteboards, and overheads.

I started using it for two reasons: 1.) I'm a disaster at the chalkboard, in terms of the legibility of what I write and in light of my very special talent for covering myself from head to toe in chalk dust, and; 2.) I got into trouble in my department, at the beginning of my teaching career, for being the #1 user of transparency sheets (and therefore a financial liability), and PPT is both an EASIER and GREENER (editable, reusable) way of conveying the same info.

And I use it as much to keep myself on track as I do to make my lectures easier for students to follow.  I have absolutely no problem speaking off the cuff and at great length. My PPT slides help to keep me at least somewhat on track.

Bad way to use PPT: Include everything you want to say on slides and essentially read them to your class.

Good way to use PPT (at least for me): Provide a skeletal outline of my main points to keep me on track and give my students some sense of where I'm going and how things fit together.