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Make Classrooms Student Centered or Relinquish Teaching
Responsibilities To Software Companies As Information Deliverers.
by Dr. Theodore Panitz
Professor of Mathematics and Engineering
Cape Cod Community College
College professors are at a crossroads. We are under increasing
pressure to incorporate technology in
our courses and to offer
extraterrestrial learning environments
commonly referred to as
cyberspace or internet courses in
order to deal with the information
explosion. Simultaneously we are
expected to teach students how to think critically and interact socially in
preparation for the workplace. Something is missing from the discussion on how
higher education should be changing to meet societal changes. The question,
which should be driving this debate, is "what is the underlying philosophy
of education and the learning experience?"
Several questions spring to mind which should form the basis for
Discussions about the future of higher
education. They are:
*Should
we provide our students with as much information as possible, usually through a
professor centered expert lecture with the student as a receptor, or should we
use student centered approaches to learning Which provide students with the
capability and desire to understand what information they need to make a
decision and how to obtain and use that information?
*Should
we facilitate learning through student centered courses or focus on information
transfer to students and thus enable computer
companies to take over higher
education teaching responsibilities
through information delivery devices
such as CD-Roms, the internet, and
video courses?
*Is
education a matter of convenience of time and place, by taking courses in the
home via the internet, or should we encourage students to deal with the hard
work and difficulties associated with student centered learning in the
classroom?
*Do
we wish to create learning environments where the students never see each other
or "talk" to the professor except in electronic chat rooms, or should
we focus on harnessing the power of learning though social interactions within
the classroom and outside of the class?
The author believes that the rush, throughout the world, to infuse
technology in every course and provide
asynchronous internet courses for all students seriously threatens the social
aspects of learning and the need for human interaction in learning, which
enables students to become productive members of the various academic, social
and workplace
societies they wish to join. For
example people become mathematicians,
historians, writers, etc. by learning
the vocabulary and culture of
their chosen field(s) of study. They
must learn how to communicate their ideas to their peers and people outside of
their field through writing and oral persuasion. Argumentation, discussion, and
consensus building through human interaction is the most effective learning
paradigm developed to date. Student centered courses build learning
communities, which accomplish these goals, in every class.
Communicating over the internet is only one small tool available to us
and because it does not come close to providing the human
interactions that classrooms do it
should not become the primary
delivery system in higher education. I
want to be in the classroom with
my students, to observe their
reactions to learning experiences. I want
to observe their body language when
they interact with their peers and
myself. I want to have individual
discussions with students, in real
time, in order to share our
experiences regarding learning and life in
general. I am not impressed with
internet discussions where a smiley face on a computer screen replaces a real
smile or capital letters are used to
emphasize shouting, etc.
Cyberspace and asynchronous distance learning are being presented
as the savior mechanism for all of
higher education and the future
delivery system for colleges and
universities. What is the driving force behind the effort to infuse technology
into college courses? Initially distance learning was promoted as a way of
reaching a few students in remote or inaccessible locations. This is no longer
the case. Economics now drives the rush to cyberspace. College administrators
each envision the internet as a mechanism to reach a vast pool of applicants
throughout the world. As they consider the potential market available to them
the dollar signs in their eyes grow exponentially, blinding them to the real
basis for learning, human interactions.
The fallacy in their reasoning is that it only takes one organization or
company to develop and deliver internet courses. Computers and education
technicians will take over the delivery of information, exams, paper grading,
chat rooms, etc., which can all be delivered through a single computer.
Technicians can be hired as tutors instead of faculty. The economics of
internet courses are not lost on the computer companies. The real driving force
behind the push into cyberspace is the privatization of higher education by
corporate America.
We cannot compete with the big computer software companies in the
production of technology oriented
bells and whistles meant to enliven
the transfer of information to
students. We can compete, however, by
changing our pedagogy by moving away
from the lecture format and making
students the center of the learning
experience. There are many
interactive learning paradigms which
could be used to create student
centered courses, giving
professors choices in their approaches
to
teaching.
Lecturing is used by most professors in higher education as their
principle teaching strategy. This has
created the rationale for
replacing lectures with information
delivered by computers. If we can
replace professors with teaching
assistants in recitation sections then
the next step is easy, replace
professors with videos of the best
lecturers and use computers as
teaching assistants. Lecturing is a
flawed approach to teaching and must
be replaced by more effective
interactive teaching paradigms.
Administrators from the president of each college to department
chairs must set a new tone in the
discussion of what learning means by
encouraging faculty to learn about
student centered learning paradigms
and by providing the resources to make
this discussion and transition a
reality. Faculty development efforts
should move in this direction by
providing the means for faculty to
become informed and trained in the
use of interactive learning paradigms.
Faculty need to be encouraged to
involve students in every aspect of
the teaching/learning process and
move away from the sage on the stage
role they now play. If
administrators spent half the time and
energy they now use to promote
technology instead to encourage faculty
to use student centered learning paradigms we could transform our colleges and
universities into real learning communities.
This position paper will explain the benefits of student centered
learning paradigms, provide examples
of interactive learning structures, and analyze the problems associated with
lecture and technology based information delivery teaching systems. A series of
policy statements will be presented. These policies are needed for colleges to
facilitate changes necessary for student centered learning to become a reality.