Dear all,
The study that Evan alerted us to and the preceding discussion ties
in well with the problems I was encountering while teaching my 3rd
year Econ class this semester. The class has 120 students enrolled
and I've been teaching it for a number of years now.
(as a side remark, I do not allow laptops or handheld devices in the
class, and am glad that I can now rely on actual evidence to justify
this. Thank you, Evan.)
I do use the projector to present PowerPoint slides (which students
can download them ahead of time from the class website), but I also
have in the past relied heavily on notes written in class on an
overhead projector.
In my view, this encourages student note taking, class participation,
instructor-student interaction, allows for more flexibility in
leading the discussion, and, perhaps most importantly for the
students, real-time writing slows me down when I present the
material. The feedback is invariably positive - I occasional do a
quick poll on whether people want me use the overhead or PowerPoint,
and the majority always favors the overhead.
Unfortunately, this type of teaching seems to be dying out, at least
judging from the difficulties I encountered this year. The first
class room I was assigned to was flat, very wide and not very deep,
SWH 1004. The design necessitates 2 projector screens, located at
opposite ends of the classroom. While this arrangement works if you
are using a computer to project slides onto the screen, it is
obviously impossible to write on an overhead on both screens
simultaneously. To be sure, there were two overhead projectors
located in the class, but their functionality eludes me. Frankly, it
was *impossible* to use the overhead as a teaching tool in this
particular classroom, because the AV (in conjunction with the
classroom design) simply wasn't set up for it, and couldn't be
changed.
Consequently, I asked for a room change and (lucky me) was indeed
assigned a new lecture hall, this time WMC 3260. The layout is much
better (amphitheatre), it has only one centrally aligned projector
screen, and an overhead projector. I was very happy with the change,
until I discovered about 10 minutes into the lecture, that it is
impossible for me, as the instructor, to temporarily shut off the
projector from teh computer to switch to the overhead. I called AV
services and they informed me that there is no remote control for
the projector and I would have to *call them EVERY time I'd like the
projector switched on, or off*. In other words, I cannot present
something on a PowerPoint slide, say, and then explain it in more
detail, by writing notes on the overhead. Except, that is, if I am
willing to subject myself to the whim of AV and call them whenever I
wish to do so. It seems to me that not investing in a handheld
remote that allows an instructor to control the media in her
classroom and relying on a centrally controlled system instead is
putting the carriage before the horse.
(There are creative ways to get around the problem, as I discovered
later, but the basic issue of course remains)
I was wondering whether anyone has had similar problems or whether I
am the only one bothered by this. The budget for IT services has
increased dramatically over the years if I am not mistaken.
Anke
Anke Kessler
Department of Economics
Simon Fraser University
akessler@sfu.ca
+1-778-782-3443
On 12-Sep-13, at 11:17 AM, Evan Tiffany wrote:
This reminded me of a report on CBC radio a few weeks back on note
taking and multi-tasking. They were reporting on a recent study at
McMaster. I haven't had a chance to look at the published study, but
the CBC summary can be found at
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2013/08/14/technology-laptop-grades.html
)
The results showed that students taking notes on laptops vs.
pen-and-paper did 11% worse on a test they were given after the
lecture they were asked to take motes on. Most remarkable was that
students who were seated near a student who was multi-tasking on
their laptop did 17% worse than students not distracted. And those
students did not even realize that they were being distracted ( they
did not report feeling distracted on the exit survey). This seems
like strong evidence in favour of banning laptops from lectures (or
at the very least making them sit at the back where no one else can
see).
Evan
Sent from my iPhone.
On 2013-09-11, at 9:28 PM, JD Fleming < jfleming@sfu.ca > wrote:
Dear all,
This term, coming back to full teaching load after 2 yrs in an
administrative role, I have been struck by how many of my students
-- I would say 90% -- have gone back to pen-and-paper notetaking in
class, as opposed to laptop or tablet. I mentioned this in a seminar
today and was rewarded with fervent nodding and murmuring. Are
students receiving encouragement to go back to the future in this
way? Or has it just happened? And are there implications for online
learning, etc.? JD Fleming
--
James Dougal Fleming
Associate Professor
Department of English
Simon Fraser University
778-782-4713