Technology in education is a quickly growing trend, starting with overhead projectors and wheeled-in carts carrying VCR’s. Now we have moved on up to DVD players and remote-controlled projectors. As of this moment, there are currently only three rooms on Saint Xavier’s campus that are not “smart rooms.” That may seem like a good thing on the surface. More tools should equal more efficient learning, by most standards.
Molly Caldera, Operations Manager at Media Services, said that students simply have different learning styles than they have had in the past. Young people are so accustomed to fast-paced, highly visual content that they need teaching methods that entertain them and keep them interested. The new smart podiums with accompanying pens can help keep students engaged in the classroom, which will hopefully lead to better learning.
In addition, teachers can now use newly-available podcasting kits to post their recorded lectures onto Blackboard after class. Panopto Lecture Capture is video-capture management software that teachers can easily employ to record their lectures visually, as well. This is certainly useful if one wants to listen to lecture material and study after class.
All of this new technology may seem like a good idea for a school to progress and keep up with the times. A big part of any university’s job is recruitment, after all, and if new computers sell parents on K through 12, it should work for the next four years as well. And the question of whether or not new technology is a selling point is no longer even up for debate. In high school, it may have been laptops and smart boards. Now, it seems to be smart rooms and new software. It seems as though we may have given up on the idea of education at this point.
If we are more concerned with the precise number of expensive toys (sorry, tools) that a school can afford than with the actual learning experience at that school, we have a massive imbalance of priorities. We have to learn to sniff out the difference between what we actually want and what we are told we want, however. Perhaps advertisers simply give consumers what they don’t know they have asked for. More likely, advertisers find ways to give consumers very attractive packages of things they do not actually need.
A good example of something students are sold but do not need is expensive technology in the classroom. We involuntarily buy these new smart podiums and lecture recording tools each time we pay our tuition bills. True, we hand over a massive amount of cash with the understanding that the school can essentially do whatever it wants with our money. That is the deal we make when we purchase a modern college education.
But with that deal comes the assumption that the school knows best what to do with our tuition. We trust them to do their best leading us through our expected four years, cramming the best quality education into the smallest amount of time and space. Better technology can only help in the name of efficiency, seems to be the argument.
We do not need smart podiums, to start with. Our generation does not need to be constantly stimulated in order to learn anything. We are fully capable of reading actual books with sewn binding and paper on the inside. An adult trying to guess what adolescents think is cool or interesting will absolutely always be wrong. They often make the mistake that what is advertised to us is precisely what we desire. Unfortunately, that is an incredibly backwards, if unintentional approach.
Take, for instance, labs with Mac-mini computers. They seem fun and useful at first, but they do not necessarily improve academic performance. Leigh L. Linden, an assistant professor of economics and public affairs at the University of Texas in Austen has found interesting results in her work studying the effects of personal computers in schools. Linden has found that in the best scenarios, computers can only match educational gains that come from things as simple as using extra teaching aids. And sometimes, the introduction of personal computers in a classroom can actually lower students’ test results. (NYTimes)
Instead of spending so much of our money on expensive toys with questionable benefit, our school decision-makers should think about what actually helps students learn. Talented teachers, focused attention and solid hard work help us get through our college years. We already have jobs, clubs and families to deal with on a daily basis on top of our classes. We do not need animated PowerPoint’s to keep us awake in class.
The Xavierite Staff
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