While citing Wikipedia still tends to be considered off-limits to the older generation of academics, many professors are warming up to the digital era. Youtube videos, as well as other media, have become increasingly acceptable in the classroom as the ancient traditions of the chalkboard and the textbook are quickly becoming relics of the recent past.
“Either faculty see a huge value to it, some are just interested in technology or some do it because students are interested in it,” said Jolee West, director of Academic Computing and Digital Library Projects. West cited podcasts, blogs and recorded lectures as popular technological ventures.
In Professor of Music Eric Charry’s class, “History of Rock and R&B,” students create their own music recordings and music videos for a midterm and final project, which are all collected on a classroom blog supported by Wesfiles. Students either record their projects on their laptops with Garage Band or they utilize the recording studio at the Green Street Arts Center.
“Recording is something I’ve always done,” Charry said. “What’s interesting [with a class blog] is that once students make a project, they can share it with the class in a convenient and intuitive way.”
In Charry’s class, many students have embraced the opportunity to use technology in the classroom and enjoy being able to easily create and view their projects.
“I thought that the final projects and ability to share them in a blog format was an amazing experience,” said Alex Lawrence ’08. “I loved having access to other projects and would listen to them and watch them as soon as they were uploaded. The use of the production studio and Garage Band was incredibly fun, informative and exciting.”
Charry also noted that technological advancements in the last few years have made the blog increasingly easier for students to use.
“Students can take the initiative and create their own projects in relatively little time, without knowing HTML or programming,” he said.
Other professors have found the video-sharing site YouTube to be a useful source as well. Professor of Government Peter Rutland regularly uses YouTube in his Russian history classes, as he prefers the website’s short, informative clips to lengthy documentaries that are difficult to screen in class. One of his favorite clips features Mikhail Gorbachev in a Pizza Hut commercial that aired only once in Russia.
“I typed in ’Gorbachev’ and the clip came up,” Rutland said. “I had heard about it but had never seen it…That told me instantly this is a good resource. Another very strong favorite of mine is a short Brazilian film called ’Island of Flowers’—it summarizes the Marxist analysis of what’s wrong with the economy in eight minutes, and it’s Monty Python meets Das Kapital.”
Rutland, however, has not become a total YouTube junkie. He acknowledges that while the site contains a huge volume of video material, only some of it can really be pertinent in the classroom.
“There’s a lot of stuff out there you couldn’t get otherwise, but there’s a lot of garbage [on YouTube],” Rutland said. “It’s a needle in a haystack.”
As a result of several grants, new technology is constantly being incorporated into classrooms across campus. Large science lectures often use “clickers,” which allow teachers to conduct in-class quizzes and attendance, in addition to fostering student participation. Phillip Resor, professor of Earth and Environmental Studies, uses slate tablet computers that have Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the field, which allow students to take pictures of the geography and make notes directly on the picture. In Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Ishita Mukerji’s class, students compiled their research on a Wiki web site instead of writing a traditional research paper.
While technical difficulties sometimes arise, many students and professors say they have benefited from incorporating multimedia into the classroom. Many professors have found that technology enhances—and facilitates—learning.
“There are two constituencies at odds with each other—students texting, using Facebook more than anything else, and the faculty, who would never have a Facebook,” West said. “Faculty on the whole are pulling back, students are pulling forward [with technology]… We are always looking for faculty trying new things, however.”
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