Some Reflections on Teaching with Technology
In my experience, many discussions on technology in the classroom seem to fall into the dichotomy of either a wide-eyed celebration of gadgetry or with a generalized grown and a shrug of the shoulders, I find that the relationship is not that simple. Yes, technology opens up doors that never would have otherwise been possible, and the applications are many. And no, it is not a fix-all for bad teaching, not a method to be used in place of sound pedagogical principles. Thankfully, we’re not yet in the age where one can simply put a clip on Youtube that will impart all of the knowledge a student needs.
In the end, my view of technology in the classroom is very much like the way in which I approached Service Learning as a pedagogy: neither good nor bad, but a tool to be used in the hands of a capable teacher in order to facilitate learning.
This being said, I have the great luxury of teaching courses in media studies, which means that students are already intimately familiar with the object of study, as opposed to subjects like chemistry or calculus which do not have the advantage of students' daily lived experience being a fundamental part of their subject of study. Students (and almost everyone for that matter) consume media at an astounding rate, and to be able to teach them to re-evaluate their landscape necessitates an understanding of how that landscape emerged, and this is done largely through the use of technology.
Part of teaching is meeting students on their own turf, which we forget sometimes as academics, but it’s no different than Plato describing how social harmony works by using the folk songs of the day as an example that his audience would understand. As such, one of the greatest advantages of technology in a media class is that we can directly experience the object of study in the classroom, and do in a way that makes sense to students. In my course, The Political Economy of the Media, for example, the first few minutes are dedicated to a sharing period where students can bring in some sort of media (or non-media) that is relevant to our current discussions and course materials. These were often video-based, accessible on Youtube or the Daily Show’s website or DVD clips that students brought in themselves. These were highly popular in the course, but more importantly, they provided a practical application of course materials that brought the material to life. In a class where we examined what it meant to be a media consumer from the viewpoint of media producers, everyone was able to at least understand the way in which media are created through examples of critical, in-class analysis that was brought to the table by students rather than imparted on them by myself. It was a highlight of the course, and yet another reminder of the way in which technology is a tool, just like any other in that its use is one that supplements or applies one’s own knowledge and skill rather than one that functions as a substitute for these essential aspects of what it means to be a teacher.