Reading the articles for this week as well as viewing “Exploring the French Revolution” and “Who Killed William Robinson” makes one realize that the digital age is rapidly changing. The articles set forth, although varying in their relevance to digital media today, prompt questions of how to properly use digital media. Each article and website (with abstract) had me noting various layers necessary to “properly” incorporate new technologies in the classroom.
Earl F. Mulderlink’s article, “Enhancing the United States History Survey Course” raises the issue of an academic environment that is not competent in the use of technology whether it be computers as a whole, the web, or software. This environment still exists, but by newer faculty adept in this technology and seeking out how to utilize it, they are capable of teaching future professors the scholarship of scholarship of teaching and learning. With each onslaught of new faculty, using technology will no longer be a trend, but hopefully a standardized method of preparing course material. Of course, by no means does this serve as a replacement for methods currently used, rather as integration into traditional teaching methods.
Not only will new faculty be comfortable using this technology, it is a perfect time to teach the importance of creating course portfolios to the new generation of faculty by the professors that currently use them. Teaching the creation of course portfolios at the graduate level will ensure that future faculty will begin to consider their role of teacher just as important as their role as researcher. Drs. Kelly and Cutler’s articles on the course portfolio prove what a great tool the course portfolio is not only for the professor who created the portfolio, but as a tool for other’s so that they may review what “works” and “does not work” in their own course preparation.
A common theme within most articles is “time.” Integrating technology into the classroom takes a vast amount of time – from creating digital media to teaching the students the necessary skills on how to use technology properly. The issue of time goes beyond class preparation, but to how much an institution is willing to allow their faculty time for this technology. As faculty becomes more use to integrating forms of technology such as LCD projectors and detailed online syllabi, the issue of time will always be relevant on how much time to spend on ensuring that the students are using digital media properly in context of blogs, the web, etc.
Yes, students today are more capable of using the technological tools provided, but for me, I feel that their use of technology is more informal than scholarly. How can professors make certain that the research students do for a class is not bases on poorly constructed, misinformed websites? To do so not only requires time, but creating new approaches on how to decipher scholarly material. I remember when I began my undergraduate career I had a handful of professors who wanted their students to explore the web and use email. When I had to use the web for research there were not nearly as many websites as today and deciphering the “good” from the “bad” was a difficult skill to learn. My professors that had me use the web as a source made sure that the majority of my sources came from a traditional library setting. I believe that because of the large margin of error that could occur by unleashing students onto the web without keeping traditional research methods, how students conduct research could be a disaster. It is the role of the professor to guide his or her students to use the web and other digital tools as a supplement to lectures, books, and textbooks – not as a lone tool for leaning. This alone, will make implementing the use of the web as research very time consuming for the professor.
Overall, technology is not going anywhere and will continue to develop and improve. The university is the perfect environment to use digital media as tools for learning, tools for engaging students in subject matter, and as tools for critical thinking and analyses.
I agree, especially with it being the teacher’s role to teach the student how to use the web and other technologies. It’s just like a book, a mathematics teacher has to teach a student how to use it as a tool for learning math, a history teacher does the same, but applies that tool to the field of history. The web and other technologies are tools, just as books, lectures, etc. If teachers want their students to use the web in appropriate ways and find relevant materials, then they need to instruct their students how to use them that way.
Comment by Ammon — September 25, 2006 @ 10:24 pm
So this raises a question that I almost asked at our departmental faculty retreat two weeks ago: “Why aren’t we requring our students to learn digital skills in the history major?” I raised so many other fundamental questions about the undergraduate major that I didn’t have the heart to raise this one too–but I think it has to be raised. Right now we do not require our students to acquire any digital skills, which seems to me a real disservice to our majors.
Comment by Mills — September 26, 2006 @ 6:21 pm