Pimp My Course

In a comment on Podcasting has No Inherent Pedagogical Value - which has some interesting comments in it around technology and value - I was pointed to an interesting article in the Chronicle - Pimp My Course and Stephen Downes summary of some of the responses. It seems that no one is sure if the author is serious - but I worry that some people might actually think so, especially since it reminded me of conversations I had with fellow professors 15 years ago when I was teaching computer science at Loyola Marymount.

When I first started teaching, I felt that much class time was wasted as I wrote stuff on the board and had them feverishly trying to take notes to keep up. Unfortunately, that's how I went through school and so I did the same thing. I quickly realized that I could have a much better classroom experience if I provide my students with class notes that meant they only had to write down the 20% that was in the discussion or dialog around the topic that would be there thoughts on the topic. I also changed to start every topic with a problem that would hopefully capture their interest and then answers would unfold through the material as we worked through and discussed it together. It changed the dynamic somewhat, but, of course, it's still lecture. What technology did I use? MS Word - posting links on an intranet - remember this was 15 years ago.

Now I would definitely be using a Wiki for my class notes and syllabi - it's just easier. I'd also have students use blogs for collaborative learning assignments.

Still, even using MS Word and problem-based learning seemed like a big leap from what other professors did in their classes. When I discussed this with them, they seemed to conceptually get the idea, but none of them seemed to change to actually do it. It's not like as a young professor I really challenged why they would stick to a note-taking approach, but it was interesting to me.

Back to the Chronicle article. I'm still not sure how serious the author was ... which is maybe why there's such concern. I could believe that 60-80% of teachers/professors feel that way. But it was also interesting to see the comment in my other post that points out that unless you start with what you want to be happening for your students and in your classroom, technology makes no difference.