Do I want a digital classroom?
However, I found this week’s material exceptionally interesting. The New Learners of the 21st Century Video showed ways that classrooms and teachers are engaging with students through video games. I thought of people I know who had really struggled in the traditional classroom growing up, not because they weren’t “smart” but because they felt that the way we approached class through worksheets and route memorization, wasn’t interesting or worth investing in. I liked the idea of “leveling up” as one does in games as compared to how we proceed in a steady, unyielding march through K-12 and I can remember instances in school where this would have been very helpful. For example, Math and Science was always my strong suit so I could have gone farther in those topics whereas English and writing was something I always struggled with and am self conscious of still today.
I was interested in the ways the concept of gaming and modern technology could apply to the collegiate classroom. By the times students have gotten to college I hope they are capable of some level of problem solving, which was lauded as one of the great benefits of the gaming classroom but I do think there are a lot of ways in which it would help convey ideas, especially in Civil engineering, where we often don’t get a lot of experience with design or construction of our end products before one starts a career. I like the idea of approaching the class room as totally different from a lecture and with a freeform aspect, maybe of projects that allows students to harness whatever medium they choose. I do know from my own experience though that when a power point was an option, most would take it because it was the easiest. I’m struggling with the idea of the collegiate classroom being as energetic as some of the projects and teams I’ve been apart of and I think a lot of it comes from framing.
When I approached a student design team, it was always because I wanted to be there because I wanted to get involved and I signed up for responsibilities I thought I could handle. In a class, though, sometimes I was there because of the requirement and less because of my intrinsic desire. I think something that could be interesting to play with is the idea that students come with their own project and apply concepts to their project. In my example, it may be that when learning about dynamics, you apply it to analyzing how the car you designed and built throughout the previous year, still found a way to flip over in your final race. I’m appreciating the thought that this class is allowing me and look forward to our next blog.
I never really got to addressing my thoughts on the digital classroom and to be honest. I don’t think I care how students take notes. I have noticed that when online lecture recordings are allowed, a lot less students show up to classes and I would be hesitant about providing recordings to the entire audience and perhaps would give them out on a case by case basis. If students want to be on their phone throughout the class, I don’t think its my right to restrict what they can do. I feel like there is a level of providing the resources and things I think will work and seeing if it engages students rather than enforcing an artificial authority that I don’t think I have.
7 Responses
Hello,
I liked your thoughts on this topic. I agree with you that now days a bit of human interaction is needed after spending all day in front of a computer. This is probably why I am enjoying these evening classes and the blogging so much. Its definitely a nice break from the daily routine. I also noticed the kids form Quest to Learn a bit more invested in their projects, it was very cool to see. I similarly feel more invested in projects that I see from fruition to end and that requires critical thinking. Overall, I think a finding a balance between old teaching approaches and new resources needs to be identified on a class basis. There was the comment that blanket solutions rarely solve everybody's problem, so providing more options that are doable may have to be considered.
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"When I approached a student design team, it was always because I wanted to be there because I wanted to get involved and I signed up for responsibilities I thought I could handle. In a class, though, sometimes I was there because of the requirement and less because of my intrinsic desire."
I apologize for starting out my response by regurgitating your words, but this quote says about everything. For me, the big takeaway with these readings has been the need for educators to be open-minded about evolving their teaching approach; though, at the same time, educators need to be mindful of how they're using technology in the classroom. I love, for example, how a teacher in the "New Learners of the 21st Century" video pointed out that, even with their novel off-the-beaten-path class set-up, their school was still hitting all of New York's requirements and testing students on these learning marks quite vigorously. It was just that, in addition, their school was also including other goals to hit. Amazing how, with a change of structure, the featured schools are able to hit and even surpass the basic standards that many other schools can't meet.
I love your idea of giving students autonomy to come up with their own project. This would give students motivation to play and, in doing so, learn. While teaching at Duke TIP this past summer, I asked my middle-school students to come up with and write a class story. After discussing the ways they could go about beginning and how they could agree on different facets of the story, I gave them full freedom to get going for the next three weeks. Each day, the students would beg to continue working on their class story, to be given more time, to have more time as a reward, even. While these students were writing, they were learning more about the writing process, and their engagement with this process encouraged them to slow down, at times, ask questions, incite their own class discussions; it was genuinely, genuinely amazing. My next step is to come up with similar ideas for my college students. I do this almost selfishly, as I've never felt so fulfilled as an educator.
Ishi- I appreciate your thoughts and am very much in the same boat as you when it comes to accepting change of this magnitude. For me, I have always been about simplicity and repetition, I consider myself a creature of habit, I do not need fancy gadgets or new technology when it comes to school and learning. However, similar to what you noted, there are advantages to its addition, especially for those who may not learn well in a standard classroom, which makes this change worth accepting. Having said that, there is clearly a dilemma, which one works? I think education is going to have to change, just based solely on the advances we have made in terms of technology- however, I guess the real question is, how much? And perhaps even more importantly, how quickly?
Ishi,
Interesting post. I share your sentiments about technology potentially keeping us from interacting. One of the interesting aspects of the readings from this week and last week is that technology, when employed properly, can actually help learners to engage with each other rather than keeping them isolated. I liked how you applied the concept of a project-based classroom to your discipline. I can’t say that I’m all that familiar with engineering, but it seems like this approach could be very helpful. This reminds me of a lot of the final projects for my history seminars, where the professors would encourage us to take the theories, frameworks, etc. from the subject matter of the class and apply them to our own research focus, regardless of whether that focus was specific to the time period or subject matter of the class.
-Heath
I agree with you that more students will stop coming to the class if they knew the class is being recorded but from my personal experience in teaching, students who don't come to the class are less engaging and more likely to be bored. yet those who come anyway to the class are energetic and usually ask challenging questions and show willing to learn. Thus, I wouldn't care if the class is being recorded and a few come to the class. To me, the class would be more beneficial with a few students but energetic and engaging.
I agree with you that more students will stop coming to the class if they knew the class is being recorded but from my personal experience in teaching, students who don't come to the class are less engaging and more likely to be bored. yet those who come anyway to the class are energetic and usually ask challenging questions and show willing to learn. Thus, I wouldn't care if the class is being recorded and a few come to the class. To me, the class would be more beneficial with a few students but energetic and engaging.
Mohammed
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