How Technology
Enhances Teaching and Learning
Students at the Owen School’s Strategy
in the New Economy seminar enter a classroom that looks like any other, except
that a projection system and video screen have been installed. Their professor
announces that today they will be joined by a guest lecturer, a senior VP from
a Fortune 500 corporation. What makes this guest lecture unique is that the
students are sitting in a Nashville classroom but the guest lecturer is
speaking from his home office in Estonia, via video technology.
This is an example of one of the
creative ways faculty members at Vanderbilt are using technology to enhance
their students’ learning. In the scene described above, Owen Professor David
Owens, along with Professor Bart Victor, use video conferencing to bring an
international guest speaker to their organization studies seminar. Across the
University, faculties are using technology to help students master subjects
from elementary and secondary school instruction to bioengineering to structural
equation modeling. They are developing their own skills while making students
comfortable with the technology that will help them is successful after leaving
Vanderbilt. As they introduce more and more technology into the classroom, faculties
are finding it raises the quality of class discussion and involves students
much more deeply in their own education.
For this issue of the Teaching Forum, we
spoke to four Vanderbilt faculty members, each of whom is using technology to
enhance their students’ learning. Owen Management Professor David Owens uses
videoconference links to bring in guest speakers and incorporates video and
audio technology into most of his lectures.
Psychology Professor Andy Tomarken
teaches methods and statistics courses in a computer lab, allowing him to
integrate traditional lecture with demonstration projects using the methods he
is teaching.
Peabody Professor Margaret Smithey
guides her students in the preparation of multi-media classroom presentations
including clips from the Internet, video, audio, and news archive footage. She
has opened an e-conference for interns from her courses who want to stay in
touch with their fellow students and professors, and she maintains a library of
digitized video clips, taken from live and simulated classroom settings.
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Chair Tom Harris directs a new NSF-funded center focused on developing
technology-based bioengineering teaching materials and curriculum. He is
collaborating with several partners, including Peabody Professor John
Bransford. (Granberg, 2000).
The advent of the twenty-first century
has thrust educational and school reform into the public arena. Businesses have
created, have funded, and are managing for profit schools, some within the
public school system. In order for schools to change, there will have to be a
philosophical shift in the public’s perception of education. Technology
provides a turning point for that shift, as its influence pervades so much of
our daily lives. Any lasting changes will need to be preceded by a vision of
what future learning environments will be like. The basic curriculum will
change as schools focus on information and thinking skills and as the use of
tools such as computers, information storage and retrieval systems, holograms,
and virtual reality simulations becomes the norm rather than the exception. Teaching
methods will change as these tools are incorporated. Instructional materials
will reflect the tools being used in learning.
Students using computers are at a
distinct advantage in that they use a tool that can extend their capabilities.
Some schools are well equipped, with a high ratio of computers readily
available, and others are not. Whites are about three times as likely to have
computers at home as are African Americans and Hispanics; affluence students
are nearly four times as likely as poor students. Students with access to home
computer having a word processor and other productivity software constitution
an elite group with a distinct advantage that over two-thirds of the student
population does not enjoy. (Forcier).
Technology is many things. It is the
pencil we use. It includes the eraser for the white board in our classrooms.
Consider the many categories of technology-the internet, computing, telephone,
video, photography-and many new ones emerging all the time. Computers are now
so affordable that most people can have one at home. The emergence of 200-and
300-megahertz microprocessors now offers the promise of keeping up with ever
expanding software needs. The nominal speed for cruising the internet is
currently 56 kilobits per second. Wireless technology is continually affecting
all technologies. Digital photography is now considered a viable option and is
making an impact on the home camera market. Congress has mandated that
television stations start going digital by 1999. In spite of all these
technological advances, however, educators still must contend with lower end
technology and, in many areas, a definitive lack of direction concerning
technology in the twenty-first century classroom. (Cunningham).
One thing that is not very helpful in
understanding online education is the way computers have been used in the past
for learning applications. This history goes back about four decades and is
usually referred to as Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) or Computer-Based
Instruction (CBI). The main idea was that computers could provide
individualized learning experiences, including interactive sequences consisting
of problems or questions with appropriate feedback. All of this rested upon a
sound theoretical basis of behavioral and early cognitive learning theory. And
there was ample empirical evidence to show that it worked in terms of student
achievements scores or learning outcomes. (Kearsley).
There is an emerging broad consensus
worldwide about the benefits that can be brought to school education through
the appropriate use of evolving information and communication technologies. The
range of possible benefits covers practically all areas of activity in which
knowledge and communication play a critical role: from improved teaching and
learning processes to better student outcomes, from increased student
engagement to seamless communication with parents, and from school networking
and twinning to more efficient management and monitoring within the school.
All in all, this is not surprising since
the windows of opportunity that ICT offers for the development of knowledge
economies and societies are open also for education. (Hine).
Bibliography
Cunningham, C. Instructional Technology for
Teachers. Madison: Coursewise Publisher Inc.
Forcier, R. C. The
Computer as an Educational Tool. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Merrill.
Granberg, E. M.
(2000). How Technology Enhances Teaching and Learning.
Hine, P. (n.d.).
UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers.
Kearsley, G. Online
Education. Australia: Wadsworth Thomson Learning.
