Don't Stuff the Classroom with Stuff: Avoiding Gratuitous Technology

This has been a busy week trying to reach my goals.  I’ve read about social media use in the classroom, listened to a webinar on flipping the classroom, and attended the Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy located at Virginia Tech.  My week began with the drive from warm, dry Georgia up into the beautiful valley of Blacksburg, Virginia.  On the way there, I had the experience of driving over a mountain in the middle of a snow storm.  As a victim of Atlanta’s 2014 snowpocalype/snowmageddon/snow jam (or whatever moniker you prefer), I was not a happy driver. In fact, I was anxious, sweaty, nauseated, and exhausted when I finally began the descent off that horrible mountain.

Reflecting on the past week and progress toward goal achievement, I can’t help but wonder if our students don’t sometimes feel like I did as I drove from North Carolina into Virginia.  As I approached the mountain, I had some sense of anticipation.  I love the mountains, and gazing across them often reminds me of one of my favorite Bible verses from Psalms 121: I lift mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help (Yep- I’m a King James girl!)  As I grew closer to the mountain, there was no precipitation, just a view of the mountain in front of me.  Having driven over the mountain before, I knew to expect a majestic view, and I was a tad bit excited about the prospects of seeing the snow predicted by the most recent weather channel reports.  However, all this changed quickly as the snow started falling first with flurries, then larger flakes, and eventually heavy, sticky snow that was blanketing the trees and roadway.  In addition, other drivers seemed to lack any appreciation for potential risks, and were flying by.  The radio was on so I could hear any weather or road condition updates, snow was flying at me, the wipers were going full force, and the road noise was horrible as I was buffeted by other motorists.  My heart was pounding, the heat was blasting to keep the ice off the windshield, and my lips were dry and parched from the heat.  Essentially, I was drowning in sensory input, growing increasingly anxious by the second.  Finally, as began the descent, the snow began to grow lighter, the roadway cleared, some blue sky was visible, and my pounding pulse began to slow.  When I reached my hotel, I thought over drive and knew I had gained some experience and learned something (I don’t like driving over mountains in the snow!), but I also knew I never wanted to do that again.  After what I learned this week, the theme that became evident is definitely aligned with my mountain-top experience. 

First, I’ve been learning about using social media in the classroom.  To meet course requirements, I need to plan use of social media within a learning environment.  While the assignment doesn’t require that I implement this, I’m a little bit of an over-achiever.  Also, I think learning that is used is more authentic, so actually incorporating this into my class is more meaningful for me. So I have surveyed one class, and based on their responses, Facebook is the platform of choice. While I am a personal Facebook user, I’ve never used it in the classroom setting, so I needed to educate myself.  After spending some time exploring Facebook’s tutorials, I’m pretty sure I need to set up a group that will be labeled “secret” to best protect the privacy of everyone who participates.  This decision was reinforced by some of the readings that I did as well.  One article by Jessica Peck focused on social media use in general, within the specific context of nursing education.  Responsible use is necessary, including reminding students of their privacy rights, and reinforced the need to plan use of social media with a specific goal in mind.  Wang and colleagues explored the educational potential of Facebook and offered guidelines for use in higher education.  This article helped reinforce the need to set up groups rather than requiring learners to “friend” each other, because the term friend on Facebook is not synonymous with friend in the real world.  While these authors proposed that using Facebook can help the learners see the faculty member as the teacher (as a human) rather than only as a teaching function, requiring “friending” to participate can be harmful.  Again, these authors reinforced from the study findings that any Facebook activities must have a purpose, instructions must be explicit, policies for misuse should be clear, and advice and instruction on privacy settings should be provided. 

As I have a goal of flipping at least one class session, I also attended a webinar on flipping one activity at a time, a pre-conference on the flipped classroom, and also a research presentation on student opinions of the flipped classroom.  The webinar was presented by two faculty members at Dalton State College.  The key takeaway from this was that choosing what to flip must relate to something that is authentic and planned around a topic with which students struggle most.  Also, the assessment needs to be planned with a backward design approach to allow students to practice in class in the way they will be assessed.  The need to use real-world scenarios and opportunities to apply is crucial.  Peter Doolittle, in a pre-conference at the CHEP conference reinforced that flipping the classroom is an approach rather than a strategy, and challenged us to consider that the true “flip” is in moving from a teacher-centered to a learner-centered perspective.  He also stressed that technology should be used only when it makes sense, rather than forcing presence and use just to state it you have a technology-enhanced classroom.  In a research session at the CHEP conference, I learned what students think about the flipped classroom.  Christopher Seitz, who is an advocate and user of the flipped-classroom approach, was bold enough to explore what students say on ratemyprofessors.com.  In a qualitative study, he searched this website for comments related to the flipped classroom.  He identified four positive themes, and nine negative themes.  Positive themes indicated better learning, better class quality, and prefer when videos are high quality.  Negative themes included frustration with the time outside of class to prepare, feeling as if students are self-teaching (Imagine that! Gasp! Horrors!), and frustration with poor quality videos.  The key takeaway from the themes was that any activity- in or out of class- needs to be planned carefully, and it must be meaningful.  This was reinforced in the earlier research session on student interest in internet-based videos, and whether there was an effect on student learning outcomes.  The researcher was shocked to see that text-only videos had significantly better learning than those with video and text.  While the limitations included lack of signaling prior to watching the video, again the message was that we need to be careful in our selection of learning resources and strategies.

As I reflect on my week, again I think back to that drive over the mountain where I felt that I was overwhelmed by everything that was happening.  I have been the victim of courses that required tremendous reliance on and interaction with various technologies.  Rather than using one well, and giving me time to learn the platform, it felt like a chaotic ride over the mountain.  Before I became comfortable driving on a dry road with snow flying at me, I was forced into driving on a wet road and the snow was still flying.  Throughout everything I read, and every conference session I attended, the theme was consistent: choose your assignments and classroom activities with care.  Don’t just pick stuff to say it is there.  While the obligatory discussion assignment may get old and boring, that may be preferable over forcing students to use technology just so you can say it has been incorporated.  Do we need a mountain route occasionally to help challenge and motivate our learners?  Probably.  But we need to make sure they can successfully navigate the mountain terrain before we begin to fling snow and stuff. 

Resources:

Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy 2016.  http://www.cider.vt.edu/conference/

Peck, J. L. (2014). Social media in nursing education: Responsible integration for meaningful use. Journal of Nursing Education, 53, 164-169. doi: 10.3928/01484834-20140219-03

Wang, R., Scown, P., Urquhart, C., & Hardman, J. (2014). Tapping the educational potential of Facebook: Guidelines for use in higher education. Education and Information Technologies, 19, 21-39. doi: 10.1007/s10639-012-9206-z

Semi-Flip:  How to Flip Your Classroom One Activity at a Time.  Presented for the University System of Georgia by Elizabeth Lucht and Marina Smitherman.