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Symposium surveys use of new education tech
5:01 p.m., Oct. 5, 2006--About 85 educators recently participated in a conference exploring the incorporation of personal response systems, known as clickers, to promote enhanced classroom involvement and engagement between students and faculty in large class settings. The daylong symposium, “Emerging Technology for Student Engagement,” was held in the Perkins Student Center on Friday, Sept. 29. Keynote speakers included Neil Carlson, an emeritus member of the Department of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, who spoke on “Active Learning Strategies and Technology,” and Doug Duncan, of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Colorado, who discussed “Making a Large Classroom Feel Small.” The author of Clickers in the Classroom, Duncan said that these hand-held devices can serve educators in several ways, including pre-assessment, measuring student attitudes and finding out if students have done required reading. Using clickers in his classes at the University of Colorado has transformed his classroom demonstration approach and has helped student retention of the information they have received, Duncan said. “I had to ask myself, 'What do I want to have happen with the students in my class?'” Duncan said. “If the use of technology makes things better, then I use it.” Besides testing a student's understanding of a particular subject, clickers can make some forms of grading and assessment easier and also help in the testing of conceptual understanding, Duncan said. “The use of such devices should depend on your goals,” Duncan said. “We need to be clear about what we are doing with the clickers and to let students know what we are doing.” Duncan said that the use of clickers seems to work better than the traditional lecture format in stimulating classroom discussion and peer instruction, as well as boosting attendance. “Teaching by telling is surprisingly ineffective,” Duncan said. “Learning has to happen in the student's mind, not yours.”
“The use of clickers as part of an interactive teaching approach can add a new vitality to your teaching,” Duncan said. Before a morning workshop led by Duncan, several UD faculty members offered presentations, including James Wingrave, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, Carrie Smith, assistant professor of psychology, and Tom DiLorenzo, chairperson and professor of psychology. “I used clickers during the past three semesters in three different classes. I asked concept questions that were not for a test. I wanted to produce a nonthreatening environment where the students could talk to each other,” Wingrave said. “I believe it makes big lectures smaller and more accessible to students, and that it encourages critical thinking.” Classroom discussion and participation in courses involving race, gender and other sensitive issues can benefit from the use of clickers, Smith said. “When you have questions about a student's use of drugs, alcohol, criminal behavior or opinions about politics, abortion and prayer, it presents a unique challenge for student engagement,” Smith said. “Students don't want to be socially incorrect, and they don't want to be the first to raise their hands.” In his presentation, DiLorenzo said that he had become increasingly dissatisfied with the traditional lecture format as a means of advancing student learning and class participation. “Students do not internalize what we present. They don't change their thoughts. They don't integrate what we teach them in a lecture format,” DiLorenzo said. “You're presenting information to the students, but they are not learning.” DiLorenzo said standard transfers of information, such as lectures, reading and note taking do not always result in the actual learning and processing of information. “You have to ask yourself, how does learning occur, how does processing occur, both in and out of class,” DiLorenzo said. “First, there needs to be time for students to process. We need to incorporate this into our teaching. When you are up there lecturing for 50 to 75 minutes straight, there is no time for students to process this information.” In the afternoon keynote address, Carlson said that his goal as a teacher is to encourage student learning outside the classroom and increase student discussion in the class setting. An active researcher focusing on the relationship between the brain and behavior--specifically the role of the limbic system in learning and species-typical behavior, Carlson said he has employed some of the principles of the personalized system of instruction (PSI), including clickers, to further his teaching goals. Books by Carlson, who received his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois, include The Science of Behavior and two best-selling behavioral textbooks, Psychology: The Science of Behavior and Foundations of Physiological Psychology.
Carlson said that he has used a PSI-based teaching technique that includes the use of a CD, “Neuroscience Animations,” to accompany the use of his Physiology of Behavior textbook, as a means of encouraging student learning outside the classroom. “Some topics are not well-covered by lectures and books,” Carlson said. “In teaching about the dynamic sequential processes, where students learn about the structure of the brain, they need many different views. I decided that to do this, I needed animation.” Kali Kniel, professor of animal and food science at UD, discussed the use of adaptable games as a powerful teaching tool for reiterating basic topics and helping students understand complex situations while developing communication skills. Mark Serva, assistant professor of management information sciences and accounting at UD, discussed the use of wiki technology to get students to think about and evaluate what others have written, and noting how their own contribution to the content forms a part of the broader wiki document. A wiki is a web site or similar online device that allows users to add and edit content collectively. “In my class, students using wikis work in groups,” Serva said. “Each class had groups that included affirmative and negative teams. Over time, the students came to understand that it comes down to presenting a balanced perspective of a problem.” James Hoffman and Robert Simons, both professors of psychology at UD, discussed combining problem-based learning and technology in the development of an innovative “ultimate classroom” for active learning of statistics in “Measurement and Statistics” (PSCY 209) using “We found that we need to actively engage students in learning,” Hoffman said. “We discovered that by using Fathom, we are achieving things with students that we thought were impossible.” A panel discussion, “How Do You Know When It Works, moderated by George Watson, senior associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, included Duncan, Carlson and Beth Morling, assistant professor of psychology at UD. The symposium was sponsored by UD's Department of Psychology, the College of Arts and Sciences, IT-User Services and other campus units, with support from Pearson Allyn & Bacon/Longman. Article by Jerry Rhodes
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