Journal # 5

"Finding New Ways to connect: Professors adjust their methods to reach technology-savvy generation" by Eleanor Yang Su
January 28, 2007 in The San Diego Union Tribune

Eleanor Yang Su discusses the many changes new technologies have brought the classroom, and will continue to bring. The possibilities, it seems, are endless. The author cites many examples of how professors are trying to keep up with the newest group of incoming college co-eds dubbed, “Echo Boomers,” “Generation Y,” or the “Millennials.” Echo Boomers are more comfortable with technology, relish the opportunity to explore new technologies, and often use their knowledge to multi-task during the day. On the other hand, their teachers and professors are often slow to adopt these new technologies in the classroom. However, there are some professors who are getting very innovative during lectures and outside of the classroom to check on their students’ progress. The author contends that those teachers unable or unwilling to learn the new technologies will be left behind as new schools, like public high schools, seek to keep up with the demand to prepare their students for advance work and real-world scenarios. Like it or not, Yang Su states, “technology-teaching” is slowly but steadily making inroads in nearly all educational settings. As a response to their students' technology abilities, teachers are scrambling to be just as tech-savvy and innovative as their students. Some teachers will keep their lectures short, ask more questions, and give students a remote-controlled device called a “clicker.” Just like on a game show, the teacher asks a question, the students push a button which sends a radio-frequency signal to a server which then calculates the percentage of correct answer. Immediately, the teacher use technology to gauge how well their teaching is working. How many students got it? In another experiment, students are using the software programs created by their teachers to dialogue with students around the world. More and more teachers are required to have online forums, blogs or websites so their students can reach them day or night regarding a question. Educators will have to be more accessible to student and their parents, if appropriate.

What are some of the criticisms of using new technology in the classroom?
Some professors and teachers believe that technology teaching is really lowering course content standards by focusing on entertainment instead of the challenging “question and answer” discussion format so respected in the educational community. Gordon Clanton, a SDSU professor since the early 1970’s, says, “I don’t believe replacing readings and lectures with entertaining videos is engaging students … I teach about the founders of sociology. I can’t make that as entertaining as a TV show.”

What do students do with all the new tech toys during lectures? Are they actually taking notes on their laptops?
During lectures, these tech-savvy students will: text-message each other, post a message on a friend’s blog, send a few emails to another professor regarding class matters, check the hottest “You-Tube” videos online, log onto search engines, Wikipedia and other popular websites, shop, play video games, download music to their laptops, take notes, scan “Facebook” or “Myspace” for new friends, or experiment with all the features on their cell phones. These students are compulsive about multi-tasking.