Pedagogical Peacocking.

Here's another topic which is near and dear to my heart: technology in the classroom. Is it, as I suspect, a sign of the end of days? The first horseman of the apocalypse storming the hallowed halls of academia to bring judgement upon us all?

Technology in the classroom (TIC) takes many forms. It can mean engaging outside of class in interactive discussion forums. It can mean a course which consists entirely of watching pre-recorded lectures and then doing "group projects" during class time -- a model called the inverted classroom. Sometimes, students read from an e-textbook which allows professors to track how many pages they've read and what they've hilighted.

Some of these ideas have tremendous merit, others do not. Let me begin by saying that there are two things that don't sit well with me in the whole TIC discussion.

1. Call me old fashioned, but there is some value to being able to sit quietly through an 80 minute lecture on a topic that you dislike or don't understand. I guess it builds character; I consider it like eating my mental vegetables. I don't really love green beans, and I don't really love homological algebra, but if I just sit through the lecture, and absorb whatever nutrients I can, then I'll be better for it. We are concerned with today's youth being too impulsive, media driven, and lacking patience, well, perhaps having them learn calculus through a series of 3 minute youtube videos isn't the best way to ameliorate that.
2. I fear that my dream job is in jeopardy. How am I supposed to become a curmudgeon if I'm handing out wireless clickers and skimming youtube for good "Arc Length" videos?

But very seriously, I think that the TIC effort is all aimed at making the classroom a more entertaining place, which is fine, as long as we don't lose sight of the fact that most of calculus isn't actually very entertaining (in the traditional sense), and perhaps that's just something we need to live with. There comes a point in time when the burden is on the student, entertained or not, to make the choice to delve into the material and take ownership of it. If that boundary is never reached, then no amount of pedagogical peacocking will ever get through to them.

For this reason, I find the interactive etext particularly discouraging. The professor is essentialy hovering over the student saying "So, did you do it yet? Did you learn something? How about now? No? Still no?" It takes away the student's autonomy, sense of ownership and responsibility, and most distressingly, never allows them to enjoy that beautiful moment of free-fall when they realize that they are learning for learning's sake, and would do it whether someone was watching or not! For me, this moment could not have come if somebody was looking over my shoulder pressing a hilighter into my hand; it probably wouldn't have come from watching videos online either.

While it seems like I sit squarely in the court opposing TIC, I will admit that I'm still so green as an educator, that I don't really know anything about anything. With these next few years will come some eye-opening experiences and a chance for me to make a fully-formed opinion on these matters. Until then, I lecture in the old style. Just like Hilbert.

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