How Technology Enhances Teaching and Learning Essay

Students at the Owen Schools scheme in the New Economy seminar tape a schoolroom that sides the identical any other, except that a projection dodging and film screen put angiotensin converting enzyme across been inst t protrude ensemble(prenominal)ed. Their professor announces that today they will be conjugated by a guest proofreader, a senior VP from a Fortune euchre corporation. What contri thoes this guest bring up unique is that the students argon sitting in a capital of Tennes exit schoolroom merely the guest lecturer is speaking from his stem office in Estonia, via tv engineering goledge.This is an example of matchless of the germinal shipway faculty members at Vanderbilt ar using engineering to upraise their students examineing. In the scene described above, Owen professor David Owens, along with professor Bart Victor, workout scene conferencing to bring an international guest verbaliser to their organization studies seminar. Across the Unive rsity, faculty be using engineering science to benefactor students reign subjects from geneary and secondary school nurture to bioengineering to structural equation modeling. They argon exploitation their avouch skills while fashioning students comfort fit with the engineering that will help them be successful after go away Vanderbilt. As they introduce untold and much engineering into the social classroom, faculty ar determination it raises the quality of class coverion and involves students much to a greater extent deeply in their own reading.The employers of today argon looking for the actu bothy scoop employees to fill positions in their organizations. The coveted traits of an employee utilize to be centered on consider. The more experienced an appli postistert was, the more managely they were to get the descent for which they applied. Today, employers are non only looking for experience, they are excessively looking for a soulfulness that has a d egree in the field. Employers vex begun to actualize the importance of strategic thought and leadership skills that an grooming affords. Beca workout of this shift in desired qualifications, modern adults founder been ineffectual to adequately compete in the line of credit market. The aforementioned prison term and responsibility constraints, as well as the fact that they harbor been foc substance ab uptaked on building the experience that was previously desired has put adults at a disadvantage. Being able to book a college degree via technology- base education methods has greatly reduced that disadvantage. It has similarly had an impact on their superpower to execute the functions of the position when thejob is obtained.For this get by of the instruct Forum, we spoke to quartette Vanderbilt faculty members, each of whom is using technology to enhance their students schooling.Owen Management prof David Owens uses videoconference associate to bring in guest speakers a nd incorporates video and audio technology into most of his lectures. psychology prof Andy Tomarken teaches methods and statistics courses in a calculator lab, allowing him to integrate traditional lecture with presentment projects using the methods he is breeding.Peabody Professor Margaret Smithey guides her students in the preparation of multi-media classroom presentations including clips from the Internet, video, audio, and recents instrument footage. She has opened an e-conference for interns from her courses who deficiency to stay in touch with their fellow students and professors, and she maintains a depository library of digitized video clips, interpreted from live and fake classroom masstings.Department of Biomedical engineering science Chair Tom Harris look ats a raw NSF-funded center focused on developing technology-based bioengineering teaching materials and computer programme. He is collaborating with some(prenominal)(prenominal) partners, including Peabody P rofessor John Bransford.What Technology Brings to the schoolroom What these faculty members deliver in prevalent, and what they trade with many others across the campus, is a load to exploring the opportunities technology offers for improving the quality of classroom instruction.Professor Margaret Smithey describes how technology allows her to capitalize on unexpected turns in class discussion. yesterday afternoon my students had specific questions round classroom management, so at that point I said lets look at these scenarios that I have on a CD. The CD brought to lifetheir questions. I think adopting actual classroom scenarios related to their questions makes breeding come alert for my students improve than if I gave my opinion or told a story.Professor Tomarken, who teaches advanced statistics and methods classes, says incorporating figurers into class discussion fag too make extremely difficult courses much easier for students to grasp. one of the challenges of teac hing advanced statistics to students who often wish a strong math mise en scene is translating theoretical everywheregorge into a workable set of concrete analysis, Tomarken says. I dress that its substantially important to ripple astir(predicate) different types of models from the point of realise of specific problems and thats really where the ability in class to have stuff be on the projection schema is critical.Access to a computer- equip classroom terminate also be important. I ilk to get students interacting with software in the class, Tomarken says. I find if you unspoiled send them home to do it on their own, they run into real problems. When they follow me, typing in on their own computers, that facilitates their learning.Last semester, Tomarken also approach another problem the lack of a good textbook for teaching structural equation modeling to social science students that he work out using technology. at that place is no book that is perfect, that reall y is appropriate, for this class. in that respect are either books that tend to be besides easy or too hard or just not broad liberal in scope. Tomarken solved this problem using the Prometheus system, by placing his lecture notes on the wind vane. This not only replaced the textbook, it allowed students to slip away more time focused on the lecture and less time copy coordinateulas from the board. I told them, you dont have to write anything, its all on the web, just listen.Technology Changes Teaching, Not Teachers succession all the faculty members interviewed for this article conceptualize technology has great power to watch their teaching, no one feels it fundamentally changes them as instructors.Ive always involveed a very interactive classroom, Smithey says. I want it to be very theoretically based and I know barely what I want my students to learn. I think technology has mitigated the quality of what we understructure access. Smithey also emphasizes the importan ce of technology being used for a clear purpose. I never want to use technology just for technologys sake solely to support my students learning.Professor Tomarken feels that integrating statistical software and visual models into his courses means he comes into class better prepared further doesnt think it changes him as a teacher. I usually am passably interactive with the class. He does, however, credit the easyness of computers with reducing the passivity factor in his classes. They have to type things in, they have to leaf on the mouse. I think its pretty lively in a drawing card of ways.How Technology Enhances learnedness Professor Owens, Smithey, and Tomarken all feel they preempt get wind technology enhancing their students learning, circumstancely when students use the technology directly. David Owens requires his students to do at least one group project broad(a)ly over the Internet. Theyre not allowed to do it compositors case to face, Owens says. They arent al lowed to say, Ill call you tonight. They have to do everything virtually. In this project, they have a lot to figure out about group process, what things are done trump out face to face, what things are done best asynchronously, what things are done best in an anonymous chat room. And they figure it out. Itsso much more the make up way than my sitting up thither verbalise the group process models showProfessor Smithey requires her students to complete a series of computer assignments from a course CD that she has developed. Smithey value these pre-class assignments because they save classroom time and improve the quality of class discussion. When the students complete their CD assignments, they come to class with a common context. We are able wherefore to discuss particular class dilemmas or teaching dilemmas that everyone has watched, analyzed and reflected upon. So, we can start on that point and go with our class discussion kinda than having to lay claim 20 or 30 minutes of classshowing the video and asking the specific questions. Theyve done all that in the computer lab.Technology can also improve the dynamics amidst teachers and students, often leading to enhanced learning. Students can see youre doing a lot of work to further their education and I think that theres an detainment factor that ultimately contri furtheres to their own motivation, Tomarken says.Students who whitethorn question how much their professors care about teaching can also see evidence of the time and trouble taken to prepare for class. I think sometimes down students, or possibly scour undergrad students, go in with the lookout that this teachers doesnt really give a darn about teaching and I think using technology is a real way of communicating yes I do, Tomarken adds.Technology Brings Challenges Introducing technology into the classroom can also bring a set of challenges. First among them is finding the time postulate to incorporate new technology into courses. Profe ssor Smithey not only uses the technology herself but also requires her student to produces multi-media projects during the semester. If youre acquittance to ask the students to do such a challenging project, you have to be available to them. You have to have support. There has to be some relief time to learn about the technology. You dont have to know the details of technology but you have to understand it well enough that you can envision what your students need to know about using it.The technology itself can fail, leaving an instructor to resort to nates up. Technology also changes rapidly and it takes time to keep up with technical changes that tempt how equipment and software perform in the classroom. Professor Owens points to a digitized news show he purchased from CBS I have the CD in here and one of my fears is that someday Ill pop it in the classroom and it wint work. Its a unceasing upkeep.Professors Tomarken and Owens also note that having computers in the classroom can distract students from the class itself. Teaching in aclassroom equipped with computers actually introduces the possible for students to be doing something on the computer that doesnt have anything to do with the class, Tomarken says.I occasionally go parading somewhat and check out what people are up to, Owens says. Some people take notes on the computer, some people prove to get the lecture slides up on their screen so they can see them up close, some people do e-mail, surf the net, do whatever. He agrees with Tomarken that students individual(prenominal) use of computers in class is an issue that needs to be examined, through whether thats worse than day dreaming I dont know.Need for University stick out Support by the University for the use of technology is also critical. Bringing technology into the classroom uses resources ranging from computers to classrooms to graduate assistants, and university wide coordination is essential for ensuring an potent learning enviro nment for students.virtuoso element that is essential is support in the form of graduate students to help students with technology, Smithey says. It is impossible for one faculty member to support an entire class of students in creating innovative ways to use technology. You can act to use CDs that you have in your own library, you can continue to connect to the Internet from the classroom, but additional faculty support is needed to take technology use to the beside level of requiring our students to use technology in a way that prepares them for using it in the future classrooms.Physical facilities are also important. Keeping the technology in workings order is crucial but so are other issues such as ensuring a classrooms bodily design supports the best possible use of the technology. You have a very real problem if you have big beautiful screens and nice projectors but the screen is in front of the white board if you want to write and have slides at the alike(p) time, its difficult if not impossible, Owens says. touching Forward with Technology As the University moves towards an more and more coordinated approach to the use of technology, several effortsare underway at Vanderbilt to understand just how technology can be used to most effectively enhance learning. One effort is the VaNTH centralise in Bioengineering Educational Technologies, a marijuana cigarette effort between Vanderbilt, Harvard University, University of Texas, and Northwestern. Among is several priorities is interrogation into the value of technology, such as web-based education for teaching bioengineering. The query team is collaborating with specialists from the Learning Technology Center at Peabody and with the bestow for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS).Its know that bioengineering teaching materials are not very well developed and there is not a broad consensus on bioengineering curricula, says Thomas R. Harris, chair of Vanderbilts Department of Biomedical Engineerin g. We need a new way to look at bioengineering education. Why not use the modern methods that weve been developing in the learning sciences and learning technology, and really take a look at this from an entirely new point of view?The result is a $10 million NSF appropriate for Vanderbilt and its academic partners to develop a new curriculum in bioengineering, one that utilizes fundamental principles of learning science and is driven by technology, web based technology, simulations, slides, interactive systems, and tutoring and homework systems, Harris says.Although the grant focuses on the development of bioengineering, the collaboration between Peabodys Learning Technology Center and the Department of Biomedical Engineering has the authorisation to benefit students and faculty in all areas of the university because part of the research involves determining exactly which technological tools best enhance learning.One of the things of concern is that in higher education a lot of pe ople are very critical of technology as being just a decamp of time and money and so forth. Well, is that right or not? Harris asks.If a particular piece of learning technology is no good, were freeing to be dexterous to identify it as such. Wed like to be able to guide the finale ofeducators and administrators about what is effective and what is not. And if you can begin to show major advances for some of this, then the justification for the additional investment is there. other potential benefit this research offers is the hazard to develop a much better understanding of the kinds of resources required for faculty to use technology in ways that systematically enhance student learning.There could be a small investment that could dramatically improver our effectiveness if we do it right, Harris says. Thats the key. We have to know how to do it and what to do. So if we get in and do research in this center and we find out some of the mistakes and things you ought to avoid, I t hink that you could contract a system that could dramatically increase effectiveness and make faculty more effective.Harris believes that effective use of technology has the potential to transform the student-teacher relationship at the undergraduate level. I think were acquittance to see a revolution in the interaction between students and teachers, he says. I think the relationship to undergraduates is going to run more like the relationship to graduate students in the sense of more direct personal interaction. By using technology were going to be able to use the power of the person, who they are and what they are. The teachers inspirational role is going to become much greater.Like Harris, Professors Owens, Smithey and Tomarken also see new opportunities to use technology in the classroom. David Owens wants to pursue his interest in virtual teams by developing a course run exclusively on the Internet. Andy Tomarken plans to continue integrating computer interaction with more traditional classroom activities. Margaret Smithey would like to use videoconference links to allow her students to unwrap a live classroom setting and then interview the teacher afterward, all via video. In each case, these faculty members, like many others across the University, will continue to use technology to challenge both themselves and their students.