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[unusedusername]

Wow, I'm glad this guy isn't my dean.  It's one thing to discourage faculty to use certain teaching methods.  It's another thing to forbid them from doing so.  There are many useful things that can be done on a computer besides Power Point.  In my class, I can show interactive computer demonstrations/calculations, and videos.  Without the computer, I wouldn't be able to do it anymore.  I would simply have to lecture.

But the whole point of the changes is to get rid of the lecture, right?  Well, small group discussions are one way of learning.  In fact, I use them myself.  But, there are some things that simply need to be told.  Students can't "debate" how to find the pH of a benzoic acid solution.  They have be to told how to do it, and they need to be in the same room with the professor as he/she is teaching so the students can ask questions.  Watching it on a podcast is not the same experience.

The article makes it clear that students don't like the change.  I bet most faculty don't either.  The only ones who do are the people in administration, who are being praised as "leaders".  After all, what to students and professors know about learning?  My favorite comment in the article was when the dean commented that you "need a Ph. D." to understand a remote control.  Someone needs to tell him that professors do, in fact, have Ph. D.s.

[conjugate]

I'm getting Page Not Found.  Is this the Emperor's New Article?

"Oh, yes, very fine workmanship in this article.  Very, um, very fine, um, I gotta go now."

[erictho]

I'm getting Page Not Found.  Is this the Emperor's New Article?

"Oh, yes, very fine workmanship in this article.  Very, um, very fine, um, I gotta go now."

My guess is that this isn't so much a computer glitch on the part of the Chronicle, but rather the Dean / Author insisted the article be pulled rather than have it displayed via that evil device known as technology. After all, technology is bad for teaching and therefore can't be used to disseminate information about teaching.

[kedves]

I'm getting Page Not Found.  Is this the Emperor's New Article?

"Oh, yes, very fine workmanship in this article.  Very, um, very fine, um, I gotta go now."

Yes, every old-fora article link generates "Page Not Found."  (I tested several in the Discuss Chronicle Articles forum just now.)  The home-page search box works, though, and let's see if this new link to "Teach Naked Effort" works.

[science_expat]

It does, thanks.

[conjugate]

Thank you, Kedves.  Having read the article, I am now in a position to contribute:

I've mentioned before that I don't use PowerPoint in class (although there are times when I demonstrate the proper use of Excel to do some kinds of things).  I think there are times when a computer in the classroom would be of great help for a math class (especially if the point of the class is to demonstrate, for instance, the use of Maple or Mathematica, or the uses of the spreadsheet). 

On the other hand, I don't allow that to replace the lecture.  I still believe in the power of lecture for many purposes; as UnusedUserName points out:

But, there are some things that simply need to be told.  Students can't "debate" how to find the pH of a benzoic acid solution.  They have be to told how to do it, and they need to be in the same room with the professor as he/she is teaching so the students can ask questions. 

My favorite comment in the article was when the dean commented that you "need a Ph. D." to understand a remote control.  Someone needs to tell him that professors do, in fact, have Ph. D.s.

Much the same is true of math.  Also, I thought it was telling that the dean apparently does not himself have a Ph.D. (or else was saying he wants more Master's-level instructors; I wasn't sure of that myself).

I also took umbrage at this bit:

It's worth pointing out that PowerPoint presentations are generally better than many older classroom technologies, like slate chalkboards or overhead transparencies filled with hand-scrawled notes that students struggled to decipher. So computers have probably led to a slight improvement in teaching.

I would prefer lots of large slate chalkboards, thank you.  When I am going through a complicated calculation for my students, I want formula A over here, formula B over there, and appropriate rules and equations nearby.  Then I substitute formula A into the basic equation thus, and B thus, and apply this rule from over there to the result, and expand.

If I put all that onto Powerpoint, one of two things happens:

• I try to put all the relevant data onto one slide, which becomes unreadable unless the screen covers 15 feet in width;
  
• I put formulas A and B onto one slide, and put appropriate rules and equations onto another.  This is exasperating because I can't show how my manipulations on a third slide correspond to the rules as applied to A and B without flipping back and forth madly. 
  

This means that the ideal solution is 15 feet (or better, 20) of dry-erase, synthetic green, or slate boards with appropriate marking tools, unless they want to pony up for a huge screen and projector that can show slides that wide without distortion.  That way, students can see whatever part of the calculation they didn't quite follow, and get it down in their notes even if I am writing something else.  This won't happen with Powerpoint.

There is research that shows (and I'm sorry I can't provide a link) that the way to learn mathematics is to do it yourself; to write the things down, to insert equation A with your own pencil on your own paper.  That doesn't mean that the dean is right to remove the computers, however.  More and more, students need to see what can be done with the good software, and need to know how it works.  Really, Excel isn't rocket science, especially if you want to use it to crank out the first hundred or so Fibonacci numbers just to show students.

[grasshopper]

Wow, I'm glad this guy isn't my dean.  It's one thing to discourage faculty to use certain teaching methods.  It's another thing to forbid them from doing so.  There are many useful things that can be done on a computer besides Power Point.  In my class, I can show interactive computer demonstrations/calculations, and videos.  Without the computer, I wouldn't be able to do it anymore.  I would simply have to lecture.

Well, to do him justice, he hasn't gotten rid of computers - he's replaced them with laptops. He's not anti-technology. If anything, I think he's suggesting that we rely more on technology than I'm comfortable with. Give lectures solely on podcasts, and use class time for discussion? That wouldn't work for me. I tailor my lectures to the mood and tone of the classroom in the moment. If I look around the room, and see looks of confusion, I can adapt my lecture notes to address that. If a student interrupts the lecture to ask a question or to make a comment, and I see that other students are responding to this, I can incorporate it into the rest of the lecture.

I couldn't do that with a podcast.

What I have found useful is online discussion forums to flesh out some of those in-class tangents. There's another example I would have given if class wasn't over? Well, I can post it online, and students can discuss it there. If the discussion looks promising, then we can bring it back into the classroom again the next day.

What I dislike, and this was more evident in the video interview, was the dean's seeming belief that there was one way to teach effectively. Lecture (in podcast) followed by discussion. Now, this structure works for me, and in fact, that's the way I teach - although, again, I would have trouble lecturing solely by podcast. But I know people who don't lecture at all, and teach great courses. I know other people who only lecture, and have no structured discussion or group work periods, and they, too, are phenomenal teachers. There's no one size fits all method for effective teaching, and it sounds to me like this is what he's trying to force onto the faculty.

[magistra]

Teaching a language is like teaching math -- you need the board.  And you do have to lecture in person, since there are LOTS of questions, I need them to interact and answer questions, etc.  Podcasts just aren't the same.  Lots of differences by discipline.

What are the poor art historians supposed to do? 

[watermarkup]

"Take away the PC's and give the faculty laptops" sounds nice, but in the real world it leaves you with a bunch of adjuncts and VAPs with no computer in their classrooms. Universities, in my experience, are much more willing to hand teaching duties to someone than they are to provide a laptop. I disliked getting stuck in the laptop-only classroom, because the laptops I could and can afford weren't up to much.

[conjugate]

"Take away the PC's and give the faculty laptops" sounds nice, but in the real world it leaves you with a bunch of adjuncts and VAPs with no computer in their classrooms. Universities, in my experience, are much more willing to hand teaching duties to someone than they are to provide a laptop. I disliked getting stuck in the laptop-only classroom, because the laptops I could and can afford weren't up to much.

Good point.  Maybe this is a backdoor that could be used to force the U. to decrease adjunct use. 

[concordancia]

"Take away the PC's and give the faculty laptops" sounds nice, but in the real world it leaves you with a bunch of adjuncts and VAPs with no computer in their classrooms. Universities, in my experience, are much more willing to hand teaching duties to someone than they are to provide a laptop. I disliked getting stuck in the laptop-only classroom, because the laptops I could and can afford weren't up to much.

Good point.  Maybe this is a backdoor that could be used to force the U. to decrease adjunct use. 

It is also ability discriminatory. I have a bad back and lugging my laptop to campus and individual classrooms would not be an option when my back was wonky.

[conjugate]

"Take away the PC's and give the faculty laptops" sounds nice, but in the real world it leaves you with a bunch of adjuncts and VAPs with no computer in their classrooms. Universities, in my experience, are much more willing to hand teaching duties to someone than they are to provide a laptop. I disliked getting stuck in the laptop-only classroom, because the laptops I could and can afford weren't up to much.

Good point.  Maybe this is a backdoor that could be used to force the U. to decrease adjunct use. 

It is also ability discriminatory. I have a bad back and lugging my laptop to campus and individual classrooms would not be an option when my back was wonky.

Nice catch.  Let's go find a faculty member at that place, and see if we can't arrange a sweet lawsuit!  Of course, we couldn't profit from it unless we could arrange for that person to adopt us or something.  Never mind.

[rdhclark]

I posted this reply to the "Teach Naked" article itself, but I think I'll have more comments here.  What do you think?

"I think the point of removing technology from the classroom is being overlooked for debating the merits of PPT, and technology in the classroom is read to mean PPT.  The real debate is about technology and education, and the future of classroom teaching.  If you think about it in terms of the future of classroom education, then you necessarily need to balance the merits of classroom teaching versus online teaching.  That is, PPT and lectures are things that can be delivered almost or just as effectively online.  If this is true, then a effective lecture with or without PowerPoint does not necessitate a student appearing on campus.  However, I certainly do not advocate abandoning the classroom for an online curriculum.

If we wish to continue with classroom teaching, then we need to emphasize the strengths of classroom teaching which is the immediacy of the environment and not technology.  I mean that an instructor in a classroom can adjust the course of a class meeting as necessary whereas an online lecture or a lecture organized by PowerPoint is constrained by its very nature.

I suggest, and I believe Dean Bowen would agree, that we move away from the technological classroom towards a classroom in which education is facilitated through dialogue rather than lecture.  In a classroom in which the medium of teaching is dialogue, technology is both unnecessary and clumsy.  Immediate and adaptable dialogue in a large group setting, say 10 to 25 students, is very difficult online with today's technology.  In addition, I believe that teaching with dialogue is more effective than strict lecture in that it forces the interaction of students with his or her peers, the material at hand, and the professor.

Looking to the future, classroom dialogue can never be replaced by static, online courses.  As technology improves, it will be possible to hold virtual classrooms, but the essence of a class meeting will remain the same even with video feeds and microphones facilitating the dialogue."

[scienceguy]

I suggest, and I believe Dean Bowen would agree, that we move away from the technological classroom towards a classroom in which education is facilitated through dialogue rather than lecture.  In a classroom in which the medium of teaching is dialogue, technology is both unnecessary and clumsy. 

There's an inherent problem here.

Exactly what good is dialogue when you're attempting to teach students physics, chemistry, or calculus? The laws of thermodynamics and the finer points of a Taylor series expansion are not exactly debatable.

The use of technology in the classroom is so field-specific that any broad, sweeping changes to its implementation are going to meet ardent opposition.

[rdhclark]

There's an inherent problem here.

Exactly what good is dialogue when you're attempting to teach students physics, chemistry, or calculus? The laws of thermodynamics and the finer points of a Taylor series expansion are not exactly debatable.

The use of technology in the classroom is so field-specific that any broad, sweeping changes to its implementation are going to meet ardent opposition.

I am coming from the perspective of a historian, and my initial reaction to my own thoughts was that it could not be done in a freshman level, survey course in which there is large amounts of specific information for the student to assimilate.  I read up on the Socratic Method, but that is not appropriate at this level.  Then I came across the lesson plan of a teacher who was teaching simple addition concepts to young students by only asking questions.  I was amazed at the apparent effectiveness of the technique.

I think it is possible to apply the dialogue format across disciplines, but I am still trying to work it out myself.  I know that the method requires absolute mastery of the content by the teacher or professor, and I know that at the university level it is going to require students to prepare for class.  However, wouldn't it be nice for students to have actually read the material in concert with class and not simply the night before an exam?  This is going to require active learning on the part of the student, and I suspect the opposition from lectures will pale before the opposition of students.

I have tried the dialogue method last week in response to this very article.  This was in a summer course I am teaching in which I have regular material for the students to read.  The students were surprised, but after class, I had two mention that this had been their favorite class meeting of the semester.