Teaching Comparative

When technology trumps teaching

On August 8, I wrote about Guy Kawasaki's "10/20/30 Rule of Power Point."

Well, I just found out that back in November 2004, The Chronicle of Higher Education published an article about a survey done by the Educause Center for Applied Research that reinforces what Kawasaki said about limiting yourself to 10 slides in 20 minutes using a font size of at least 30.

When Good Technology Means Bad Teaching

"Giving professors gadgets without training can do more harm than good in the classroom, students say

"Alison Lesht, a senior at Connecticut College, dreaded going to her organic-chemistry classes, held in one of the college's wired classrooms.

"It wasn't that the material was dense and challenging. It was because her professor 'would write on the PowerPoint slides complete sentences, which she would then read,' explains Ms. Lesht, who is majoring in biology and minoring in religious studies. 'It didn't really add anything to the lecture. It just made everything more complicated and convoluted.'

"'I call it 'PowerPoint abuse,' she says. 'It's pretty widespread.'...

"The problem was underscored in a national survey released last month [October 2004] by the Educause Center for Applied Research... After surveying and interviewing students at 13 colleges of different types, researchers for the group said they were surprised by the number of negative comments about how professors used technology. 'The qualitative findings revealed students' strong feeling that faculty use technology poorly,' said the researchers' report...

"Some complaints involved the kind of PowerPoint abuse bemoaned by Ms. Lesht, but other technological teaching blunders were cited as well. Some instructors wasted class time fumbling with projectors or software. Some required students to use chat rooms and other online features that went unmoderated, or that seemed to have been tacked on to the syllabus as afterthoughts. Some devoted too much time to teaching students some quirky Web tool at the expense of delivering course material...

"Students also complain, however, when professors make no attempt to use new tools, putting pressure on faculty members to try high-tech tools even if they are not comfortable with them...

"The most common technology used in the classroom seems to be PowerPoint, and it is also the most criticized by students.

"A good PowerPoint presentation can enliven a lecture by offering imagery to support key points, and having a prepared set of slides can keep professors from straying off on tangents. Many students also praise PowerPoint slides for being easy to read, noting that professors' chalkboard scrawls can be illegible.

"But students say some professors simply dump their notes into PowerPoint presentations and then read them, which can make the delivery even flatter than it would be if the professor did not use slides...

"And unlike overhead transparencies, which professors can annotate with a pen during a lecture, PowerPoint slides cannot be easily changed during class...

"HOW NOT TO USE TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM

"In a recent survey... students said they liked technology -- when used well -- but some gave their professors failing grades when it came to using PowerPoint, course-management systems, and some other kinds of classroom technology. Some specific complaints:

• Reading PowerPoint slides verbatim: Many professors cram slides with text and then recite the text during class, which some students say makes the delivery flatter than if the professor did not use slides.

  
• Wasting class time fumbling with software and cables: Professors who are uncomfortable with technology can spend too much time troubleshooting instead of teaching.

  
• Failing to moderate chat rooms: Some professors require students to make weekly contributions to online chat rooms, but then never monitor the results or mention the discussions in class, making the discussions seem like busywork.
  

posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:43 AM