QuickTake: Students--Staying Ahead of the Curve
I had to write a quick followup to my previous post when I noticed that the University Business piece linked in that post and this one includes a take on student responses to technology in the classroom. Bart Collins, director of Digital Content for Teaching and Learning Technologies at Purdue, is featured:
Students, in Collins' experience, already get it. "In some ways," he says, "they're already past it." Desktops with webcams are already old hat. Student lifestyles are different from what they were a generation ago. They discount the idea that a person needs to be physically present in order to experience fully what is happening at another location. Flexibility is more important to them; how and when they communicate is up in the air. "I walk around lecturing, watching kids send instant messages while I'm talking," says Collins. "It may annoy me, but I have to acknowledge that a classroom is a place to have other relationships, too."
Flexibility! That's one characteristic of distance learning that appeals to faculty, too.
Students, in Collins' experience, already get it. "In some ways," he says, "they're already past it." Desktops with webcams are already old hat. Student lifestyles are different from what they were a generation ago. They discount the idea that a person needs to be physically present in order to experience fully what is happening at another location. Flexibility is more important to them; how and when they communicate is up in the air. "I walk around lecturing, watching kids send instant messages while I'm talking," says Collins. "It may annoy me, but I have to acknowledge that a classroom is a place to have other relationships, too."
Flexibility! That's one characteristic of distance learning that appeals to faculty, too.
posted by Ronald M. Ayers at 2:38 PM
1 Comments:
While both faculty and students may enjoy the flexibility. I myself prefer, in all situations, good old-fashioned human interaction. Just as much can be lost in translation, so can much be lost when body language, eye contact, and voice inflection are left out.
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