What is a classroom?
The university ramps up technologicallyBy: Robert Lovinger
The university's technological makeover began five years ago, and in that time, two million dollars have been spent to revamp classrooms and lecture halls, outfit faculty with laptop computers, and build the virtual infrastructure to enable multimedia instruction, podcasts, distance learning, and outside-the-classroom engagement. It is a new day. "The static classroom is dead. It's gone," says Art History Professor Magali Carrera.
Such dramatic change inevitably sparks questions. One of the central ones is: When the tools of the trade change, how does it affect the trade? Some of those quickest to adopt the new tools suspect that technology may be altering the nature of teaching. It is generating "a real emphasis on reflecting about the education process," says Robert Green, vice chancellor for library services, information resources and technology.
"It reenergizes my teaching, because you have to constantly go back and assess what you did," says Jeannette Riley, associate professor of English and women's studies.
"When you teach online, the pedagogy changes," says Carrera, who came to the university in 1979 and was 2002-2003 Teacher of the Year. Online, you cannot see the facial expressions or body language of students.
Every other month, Carrera and Riley run a two-week course for colleagues in the ways of web-based teaching. To their surprise, "We have people talking across disciplines about teaching," Riley says.
And Math Professor Stephen Hegedus is at work on a project with huge off-campus implications: changing the way math and perhaps other subjects are taught in middle and high schools.
Vice Chancellor Green is overseeing a seismic shift in the way students are educated-or in which they educate themselves. Green sees two major thrusts: changing the classroom environment and providing new avenues for learning beyond the classroom.
Today nearly 90 percent of classes are taught in rooms newly equipped with such things as overhead projectors, DVD players, wireless capability, laptop hook-ups, and yes, telephones. In one back-to the-future move, chairs are being replaced by new ones equipped with half-tables on which students can rest their laptops.
Today, when text is no longer confined to textbooks, "I can send students directly to an article on the Internet," Riley says. Here, standardization can be a good thing. In addition, with the classroom experience becoming an increasingly multimedia one, it's critical that faculty know what to expect in each room.
"When I first arrived here, I had to take my computer and my projector into a classroom designed for teaching about literature," Hegedus says. "I was pushing a cart around for a few years," echoes Carrera. "Administration had the vision to put together a coherent infrastructure and to think ahead as much as possible."
Green says faculty members have surprised themselves with the speed at which they've adopted technology. There's no going back: professors must now use the Internet to post grades, even to find out who is in their classes.
"There is always the risk of progressing so far ahead of the curve that you're getting technology that is not appropriate for your faculty," says Hegedus, who believes the university is moving at the right pace.
An increasing number of professors are creating podcasts- recording their classes and making them available online. In some cases, these are for "distance learners," folks who will never come on campus. In other cases, the podcasts are provided as supplements. Hegedus posts his classes, but he insists, "I'm all about learning inside the classroom." While students can access his classes online, they also must attend in person. Podcasts, he says, "are a resource for them to go back and watch afterwards."
"Students are out there on Facebook and using their MP3 players. When they're coming from that rich environment, we have to rethink what we do in the classroom," Carrera says. She and Jen Riley came together five years ago with the idea of opening up the world of online teaching to other faculty. They created the Instructional Development team, whose members today include Kathy Bancroft, Damon Gatenby, Bev Johnson, and Tracey Russo.
Carrera is particularly excited about how technology is making it possible to archive and rebroadcast. "When you had a great classroom discussion five years ago, it may have been great, but it just disappeared. Now, it is forever."
When Hegedus arrived at UMass Dartmouth, he immediately became involved in the university's SimCalc project. In partnership with Texas Instruments, he and his colleagues are focusing on the role that technology plays in middle and high school classrooms, particularly regarding math and how youngsters learn it.
SimCalc, simply put, is graphical software that puts a handheld device-half calculator/half Gameboy-into young hands; it makes math more accessible by dropping the fancy symbols and turning it into something that can be manipulated by students and teachers into moving pictures. The calculators are linked to a classroom computer via a wireless network. SimCalc is being piloted in local classrooms, Hegedus notes, "and what we've found is that this is having a profound impact on learning and participation.... We think it will lead to a restructuring of the classroom."
Is there a downside to plunging forward with all this technology? Hegedus does worry that while students in his pilot projects are gaining in conceptual skills, little is being done to cure what he calls "an epidemic" in the lack of core math and science skills.
Asked whether anything is being lost, Bob Green replies, "I don't think so. In general, faculty find that it doesn't depersonalize teaching. If anything, it increases it because there's more interaction than before."
Riley says the only downside she sees is that occasionally, fully online students will find something too technical, and say they miss the fact-to-face interaction.
Is technology changing what's being taught? Carrera says no. "The material is the material." But she sees some evidence of a shift in students' majors, towards subjects- graphic design, for example-that dovetail more with modern technology.
"The question I have is: Are we really improving learning outcomes?" says Green, adding that a lot of people in academia are asking the same question. He feels that the variety of learning options offered by high technology may allow teachers to engage more students.
For example, podcasting classes could prove invaluable to students who need to listen to a class twice. Or the student who never contributes in class may turn out to be an unstoppable conversationalist at 2 a.m. online. Riley also finds that "when people talk online, they start talking more in class."
What's still to come?
Immersion, Green says, whether it's using virtual reality media to plunk students inside an atom, alongside ocean currents, or walking through an art museum in Europe.
Looking ahead, Riley sees virtual language labs and "learning object repositories." The latter are online storing system for the work which students produce. It accepts different media and hosts Internet links, and continues to evolve. It is also a place where students can comment on their work and on what they're experiencing. In an era of Facebook and MySpace, it may feel very familiar to young people increasingly comfortable with jotting down their thoughts and self-examination.
"Students are out there on Facebook and using their MP3 players. When they're coming from that rich environment, we have to rethink what we do in the classroom."
-Professor Magali Carrera
"Sometimes you realize what college was about 15 years later," Carrera says. "We want students to be thinking about it from Day One."
Eportfolios might have a number of interfaces giving different access to several types of users. Students could use their eportfolios to track progress and to create portfolios for job interviews. For the university, they would serve as tools to help gauge what students are learning. An eportfolio pilot program has been underway on sharing of resources. campus for 18 months. A full-blown eportfolio program is at Perhaps the development generating the most excitement is the least several years away.
Each campus of the University of Massachusetts system is largely pursuing its own course when it comes to technology, Green says, but there is communication and sharing. "We try to see where the synergy is. We learn from each other."
He sees the University of Massachusetts system moving to the technological cutting-edge among its peers. "We're not way out front, but we're positioning ourselves well. Within our resources, we're doing what we can."
Carrera, who specializes in ancient art and culture, is one of UMass Dartmouth's most passionate advocates for the use of high technology.
She finds no irony or contradiction between what she has devoted her life to as a scholar and her championship of technological change: "I've always wanted to do the next thing and to be challenged."
In fact, she sees it as seamless and completely logical. "The Maya were the group who came up with the concept of 'zero.' It's about a quality of mind and an amazing vision of the world. And isn't that what we're doing now?
"I am a teacher, and I will do whatever it takes to help my students learn," she says. "The material is the material, but today, why would you want to use only a whiteboard?"
Robert Lovinger is senior writer with Lifespan in Providence.
Spring 2006
