This semester, I've had the distinct pleasure of doing a little teaching in the form of a few guest lectures for some freshmen IST students. Its an experience I've most certainly enjoyed and might just have to explore doing more of in the future if given the opportunity. Though I should probably figure out if I was any good at it first... Ha!
This semester wasnt my first time at the front of a class, but it was the first time I've been given a blank check and an open mic to corrupt the minds of America's youth. <Evil laugh>
And I have to say, despite the fact that the experience gave me a new found appreciation for a fraction of the work that must go into planning and delivering an entire class, I had a lot of fun. I'm relatively young as far as our office goes, but I'm still 4 years removed from my own undergrad days, 8 years the senior of the new freshmen in these classes. I pride myself on bringing a millennial perspective to the academic conversation, and without getting too big headed, I'd like to think I'm at least acceptably cool ... marginally cool? Better than uncool? Ok fine I'm lame.
Things can change a lot in 8 years and to be honest, its nice to reconnect - to be back in the classroom watching, listening, and realizing how in touch, or totally out of touch I really am, even if only for a few hours. No disrespect to any of the tools, metrics, or surveys we use to guide our efforts here at ETS - they are all top notch. But they are no substitute for taking it to the street, at least not for me.
If you've never been fortunate enough to teach in a technology classroom, its interesting to say the least. For the greenhorns in the audience, I've prepared a simulation for you. Begin talking while staring at the following image.
Obviously I'm exaggerating slightly for effect.... some labs are oriented in vertical rows ;-) But the point is, when classrooms are filled with computers, you can be fairly confident that, you'll see about as many profiles cast in the cool glow of a monitor as eyes looking back at you. The occasional ultra-low volume YouTube clip followed by visibly restrained laughter only reinforces the message. These students are doing other things in class besides listening to you. No surprises there, right?
Though if this is a new experience for you, at first, it is somewhat humbling. Do I totally suck? Am I not engaging enough? Am I boring these students into oblivion? Are they just apathetic learners?
But as time goes on, and you talk into the void for longer and longer, you slowly realize that despite the clearly divided attention, things are sinking in. The message is getting across. And people are participating. People are paying attention. It just might not look like what you'd think.
Yesterday, one of the most vocal students during my lectures was playing World of Warcraft the entire time with the guy next to him. He responded to as many ideas, shared as many of his own insights as anyone in the class. But between his comments, you'd never guess to look at him that he had any interest at all in what I was saying. Things however, are not always as they appear. Clearly he was listening. Clearly he was paying attention. He was balancing it all with something he enjoyed doing. And he was very obviously not the exception, but the rule.
What I was seeing was the new look of engagement. Truth be told, it shouldnt be some sort of big epiphany. I get the multitasking, twitch attention deficient culture. But to experience it from the other side of the coin... it only solidified some of the thoughts I've been having about a 21st century education.
In debriefing with Bart (the course's instructor) after class yesterday, he shared that this had been a disorienting revelation for him too - something that had taken some time to get used to. I'm not suggesting that every student who was face planted in a monitor was fully vested in what I was saying, or that eye contact is becoming some kind of lost art (there were plenty of students who appeared "traditionally engaged"). But clearly the classroom... the student of today, of tomorrow, has more to them than meets the eye.
To what end? Am I heralding the end of the sage on the stage? Probably not. But I do herald an end to their dominance. Make no mistake, the sage is just another input now. Attention is something to be earned, not expected and the days of monopolizing it are over. And you know what? Thats perfectly ok with me. If the message makes it from point A to point B, who am I to worry about what happens in the meantime? Undoubtedly, some would consider this divided attention to be rude. But the students are doing exactly what we all know they do - what we as educators hope to capitalize on. Who are we to begrudge them for that? If you don't like looking at profile head shots, maybe the questions should be going inwards instead of outwards. What are you doing to engage? Maybe just maybe, if you can make all these so called "distractions" work for you instead of against you, you'll create something worth looking up from the screen at. But then again... looks arent everything.
Hopefully the 50 or so students got something out of my involvement in their class. I know I learned a lot - probably a lot more than I taught.
P.S. In a beautiful bit of irony, the image of the students at computers that I used above comes from the website of an Apple tool designed to manage and control what students are doing on their computers. Control. <shakes head>
Images from Apple.com and freshinkonline.com
This semester wasnt my first time at the front of a class, but it was the first time I've been given a blank check and an open mic to corrupt the minds of America's youth. <Evil laugh>
And I have to say, despite the fact that the experience gave me a new found appreciation for a fraction of the work that must go into planning and delivering an entire class, I had a lot of fun. I'm relatively young as far as our office goes, but I'm still 4 years removed from my own undergrad days, 8 years the senior of the new freshmen in these classes. I pride myself on bringing a millennial perspective to the academic conversation, and without getting too big headed, I'd like to think I'm at least acceptably cool ... marginally cool? Better than uncool? Ok fine I'm lame.
Things can change a lot in 8 years and to be honest, its nice to reconnect - to be back in the classroom watching, listening, and realizing how in touch, or totally out of touch I really am, even if only for a few hours. No disrespect to any of the tools, metrics, or surveys we use to guide our efforts here at ETS - they are all top notch. But they are no substitute for taking it to the street, at least not for me.
If you've never been fortunate enough to teach in a technology classroom, its interesting to say the least. For the greenhorns in the audience, I've prepared a simulation for you. Begin talking while staring at the following image.
Obviously I'm exaggerating slightly for effect.... some labs are oriented in vertical rows ;-) But the point is, when classrooms are filled with computers, you can be fairly confident that, you'll see about as many profiles cast in the cool glow of a monitor as eyes looking back at you. The occasional ultra-low volume YouTube clip followed by visibly restrained laughter only reinforces the message. These students are doing other things in class besides listening to you. No surprises there, right? Though if this is a new experience for you, at first, it is somewhat humbling. Do I totally suck? Am I not engaging enough? Am I boring these students into oblivion? Are they just apathetic learners?
But as time goes on, and you talk into the void for longer and longer, you slowly realize that despite the clearly divided attention, things are sinking in. The message is getting across. And people are participating. People are paying attention. It just might not look like what you'd think.
Yesterday, one of the most vocal students during my lectures was playing World of Warcraft the entire time with the guy next to him. He responded to as many ideas, shared as many of his own insights as anyone in the class. But between his comments, you'd never guess to look at him that he had any interest at all in what I was saying. Things however, are not always as they appear. Clearly he was listening. Clearly he was paying attention. He was balancing it all with something he enjoyed doing. And he was very obviously not the exception, but the rule. What I was seeing was the new look of engagement. Truth be told, it shouldnt be some sort of big epiphany. I get the multitasking, twitch attention deficient culture. But to experience it from the other side of the coin... it only solidified some of the thoughts I've been having about a 21st century education.
In debriefing with Bart (the course's instructor) after class yesterday, he shared that this had been a disorienting revelation for him too - something that had taken some time to get used to. I'm not suggesting that every student who was face planted in a monitor was fully vested in what I was saying, or that eye contact is becoming some kind of lost art (there were plenty of students who appeared "traditionally engaged"). But clearly the classroom... the student of today, of tomorrow, has more to them than meets the eye.
To what end? Am I heralding the end of the sage on the stage? Probably not. But I do herald an end to their dominance. Make no mistake, the sage is just another input now. Attention is something to be earned, not expected and the days of monopolizing it are over. And you know what? Thats perfectly ok with me. If the message makes it from point A to point B, who am I to worry about what happens in the meantime? Undoubtedly, some would consider this divided attention to be rude. But the students are doing exactly what we all know they do - what we as educators hope to capitalize on. Who are we to begrudge them for that? If you don't like looking at profile head shots, maybe the questions should be going inwards instead of outwards. What are you doing to engage? Maybe just maybe, if you can make all these so called "distractions" work for you instead of against you, you'll create something worth looking up from the screen at. But then again... looks arent everything.
Hopefully the 50 or so students got something out of my involvement in their class. I know I learned a lot - probably a lot more than I taught.
P.S. In a beautiful bit of irony, the image of the students at computers that I used above comes from the website of an Apple tool designed to manage and control what students are doing on their computers. Control. <shakes head>
Images from Apple.com and freshinkonline.com
It has been an interesting class to say the least. Disorienting at first, but it's very easy to see what's actually going on after a handful of experiences in front of the class.
My class is paired up with a CAS class where the instructor WILL NOT ALLOW the students to use technology. If they bring their own laptops, they are not permitted to take them out of the bag. Want to take notes? Gotta use paper and a pen.
I ask the students a lot about comparing my teaching style and classroom management style with my colleague in CAS. They claim they are learning more in my class, but of course that's what they'd say to my face. But it is interesting to note that:
- they almost always arrive early to my class
- over 1/2 the students will stay after class to chat about Warcraft, Facebook, Digg, etc.
- over 1/2 of them tell me they actually view my class as being FUN
That last factor I'm extremely proud of because that's my number one goal. The way I structure the course, if I can get people to view it as fun, I know they are already engaged and learning.
Definitely fun for me being able to interact with a different generation of student and try to find new and interesting ways to engage.
Back when you were about a Senior in high school, the small town school when I taught decided to do away with study halls and engage students with a series of electives. My first year teaching, I got hit with creating a brand-new introduction to the Internet course, with no other guidance than, "When we teach kids in the labs, we tell them to turn off the monitors while we are talking and turn them back on when we stop."
Needless to say, that thinking and that class itself did not last long before everyone was on the Internet at home and fully engaged in technology. The days of kids who needed to learn about the 'Net in school and those dancing hamsters (or the Die, Dancing Hamsters! Die! variant) were over.
In the K-12 world, we were taught to do fun and engaging student-centered activities, but the metrics that were used when being evaluated by our administrators (sweeps of the room to see who appears to be "on-task") discouraged any experimentation and deviation from the teacher-centered lecture-based model. These metrics presume that "on-task" fully-engaged behavior of the student will have one only possible outward appearance (full attention to the teacher, ultimate uni-tasking). But, as you note, students today--as well as students will different learning styles and abilities--may not show their interest and engagement by directing their energies into a single task. Is it futile for us as educators to expect this of all of our students all of the time? Is it right for those evaluating educators to hold teachers to this standard when the culture itself is moving toward multitasking?
In the workforce, some of us younger workers (I fall between the Gen-X/Millennial lines) prefer to take laptops into meetings as an alternative to paper-based note-taking, for easily searchable, fault-tolerant notes. We may even retrieve data while in these meetings. Our colleagues may find this behavior inattentive, disruptive or discourteous, but we are really just trying to be actively engaged, bring useful real-time information to the table, and be productive.
You've given me a lot to think about for the day. Thanks, Chris, for this post!