Technology in the Classroom:

Can there be too much of a good thing?

A walk through university lecture rooms as the semester winds down shows us a very different setting than even a few years ago. Most lecture halls are outfitted with the latest in audio/visual equipment, including projectors, access to wireless Internet and a built-in sound system. It can be argued that this allows us to present material to our students using a medium in which they tend to immerse themselves and therefore understand very well. But are we actually doing our students a disservice by taking advantage of this equipment as much as possible?

Studies have shown that material conveyed using multimedia resources, as opposed to a traditional chalk-and-talk lecture, can be extremely valuable, particularly to students to have struggled academically in the past. A study performed as early as 2001 indicated that teaching with multimedia resources increased both student retention of facts as well as the transfer of information (such as a student demonstrating his or her knowledge through application-style tasks).

However, surveys of students currently attending such classes indicate that students are, on the whole, dissatisfied with the method of instruction, particularly when it comes to the now-ubiquitous PowerPoint presentation. How can students dislike a medium which they otherwise enjoy? What seems like a paradox can be explained by examining just why we as instructors choose to use this new technology, which tends to be for its ease of use (and re-use), and not necessarily for its educational value.

In the same study mentioned above, the instructional value of a visual presentation decreased if a lecturer simply read from the slides and did not engage the students. Likewise, if there were too many “bells and whistles” in the presentation (such as animations, text transitions and sound effects), students also experienced a decrease in their ability to remember the material. It turns out that it’s not about the technology, it’s about what we do with it.

When preparing a lesson, ask yourself not just what a certain piece of technology can do in your presentation, but rather how it can add value to your lesson. How can technology be used to engage the students, not just convey information?

One source of error on behalf of the instructor when it comes to new technology in the classroom is that by using “cutting-edge” tools to replace the dusty overhead projector, one automatically increases student interest and success. As a rule, technology should never simply replace the teaching techniques you have already perfected. Instead, it should supplement what you already do during lectures or labs. The trick is to introduce new resources with the technology that we couldn’t do in the classroom a decade ago.

There are many things we can do as instructors to both take advantage of the resources available to us and increase student interest and performance, with the majority of these being ideas to supplement our current teaching styles, not replacing them.

· Visual Presentations: Use slideshow software to convey your lecture material, but take advantage of the ability to embed video, sound files or images of your topic in order to engage your students. A similar suggestion would be to continue teaching on the chalkboard or overhead, and use a digital projector to display a graph, chart or image off to the side in order to complement your discussion. In terms of special effects or transitions, remember that less is more.

· Remote connections: The latest in communication technology allows us to videoconference with virtually anyone in the world. Bring a colleague who is an expert in the field you are discussing into your class for a presentation via the Internet. Most programs will allow your students to interact with the virtual guest; Elluminate, Webex, Skype and gotomymeeting are good starting points for introducing this into your lecture. Remote telescopes are also a possibility for lab activities.

· Interact with your students: There are several new media available for interacting with your students in a less formal setting than the classroom. Blogs, course websites, chat rooms and wiki pages (a page created by you or your students and editable by anyone in the course) all allow you to generate discussion, let students know about updates to the course as well as promote interaction between students. These will take a bit of set up at the start of a course (or just before you decide to use them), but there are many good resources available to help get you started:

o More information on blogs, and how they can be used as an educational tool: http://supportblogging.com/Educational+Blogging

o A wiki server and an example of a wiki page created for a Sheridan College course: http://ccit205.wikispaces.com/

o Course groups on social networking sites such as Facebook and or a course Twitter account are also great ways to communicate with your students in a manner of which they are very familiar.

Don’t forget that the introduction of technology to your lectures does not mean you should drop the chalk and throw out your overheads! Continue to teach the way you feel most comfortable teaching and look to simply enhance your lessons with the technology available to you.

Simons, T. The Multimedia Paradox. 8 December 2004. AllBusiness.com. Viewed 10 December 2009.