Teaching and Technology

Announcement I have posted visual guides for the items I didn't have time to cover during the presentation. You may find them under "Internet Resources" below.

Tips and Techniques for Engaging the Modern Student

While this is a symposium for teaching and learning with technology, technology is just one of the tools we need to use in a redesigned modern classroom. The age of the sage on the stage has passed, and we are in the time of the collaborative learning environment where we need to use a variety of approaches and techniques to enliven our instruction and assure our students' learning.

The truth is, we don't just need to use technology in the classroom. We need to transform our teaching in a technological age to fit our students' needs. Students today regularly express themselves in 140 characters, and find it difficult to draft a 5 page paper. They often begin and end research on Wikipedia. Answers and essays are freely available on the Internet. And students want you to justify their attention, and to keep them engaged when it's granted. Otherwise, they'll return immediately to Tweeting, instant messaging, and surfing the web. Students want to know how and why your course is relevant to their lives and academic careers. If your course content and skills taught aren't relevant, why should they put in the effort to succeed in your class?

Students aren't customers to whom we're delivering a product, but they aren't pupils who hang onto every word the master offers either. If we want to share our passion, we need to connect to modern students using new methods that break from traditional pedagogy and the lecture-based class.

Students and Teaching Today

A new pedagogy is needed, one developed for the modern student that fits his needs and assures learning. However, before new methods of instruction are devised, we must understand the modern student: his interests, goals, attitude, abilities and limitations, background, etc. Essential to understanding the modern student is understanding his world: instant information, ready resources (albeit unreliable), a life dominated by social media (Facebook and Twitter), a constant stream of media (webpages, Instant Messaging, email, news, videos, blogs). The essential nature of the media is collaborative and social. Students interact with their peers and the various things presented to them. Instead of passively accumulating information, students are responding, participating, redefining what is presented to them and constructing their own knowledge.I admit from the onset that I don't engage the modern student as thoroughly as I should, and I don't utilize technology as well as I could. However, I - like you - am working to transform my instruction to suit my students in this modern technological age. I hope you will find the resources and shared insights on this site helpful.