Does Boredom Really Leave Classrooms When Computers Leave?
This week The Chronicle’s information technology section describes the crusade of Southern Methodist University’s dean Jose A. Bowen against PowerPoint. You can read more here
http://chronicle.com/article/Teach-Naked-Effort-Strips/47398/
(Thanks to Ian Petrie the new Associate Director at CTL for giving me the heads up on this one.)
The gist of the article is that Bowen is removing computers and presentation hardware from SMU’s classrooms because students find PowerPoint boring. (The article also notes that this was cost effective because the computers were due for an upgrade. You might also note that professors got lap tops out of the deal.)
I have a lot of trouble ascribing what is boring about classes to technology (I took college classes before PowerPoint) but that assertion is an easy topic. Everyone reading this blog has seen technology turn the classroom into a vigorous, interactive space where students are involved, creative and energized. And we have all seen some boring PowerPoint presentations.
What is more interesting about the article and what is worth thinking about is what it says about students. “The biggest resistance to Mr. Bowen’s ideas has come from students, some of whom have groused about taking a more active role during those 50-minute class periods. The lecture model is pretty comfortable for both students and professors, after all, and so fundamental change may be even harder than it initially seems, whether or not laptops, iPods, or other cool gadgets are thrown into the mix.”
For those of us who work with faculty to help them use technology, I think this article suggests the value of spending time socializing students to the type of interaction that the technology can facilitate. I’m not sure getting rid of computers is going to solve this particular educational problem.
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