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Folks:
The posting below looks at "Teaching in the Era of YouTube,"and
points to some interesting new technologies for stimulating student
thinking. The article is by Kendall Madden a science-writing intern
with the Stanford News Service, on a presentation by Professor
Tom Byers of Stanford University as pat of the "Award-Winning
Teachers on Teaching" series sponsored by the Stanford Center
for Teaching and Learning. The article is from the Stanford Report,
March 7, 2007, Volume XXXIX, No. 19, http://news.stanford.edu
© Stanford University. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with
permission.
Regards,
Rick Reis
reis@stanford.edu
UP NEXT: Engaged Learning and the Core Purposes of Liberal Education
Tomorrow's Teaching and Learning
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'The Brave New World' of Classroom Technology
Tom Byers, faculty director of the Stanford Technology Ventures
Program, gave a talk as part of the "Award-Winning Teachers
on Teaching" series.
Teaching in the technology age can be daunting, even for Tom
Byers, a seasoned professor (teaching) of management science and
engineering. "It's a brave new world of technology out there,
and I am just a professor of entrepreneurship in the School of
Engineering trying to make my way," Byers said Feb. 22 during
his "Award-Winning Teachers on Teaching" lecture, hosted
by the Center for Teaching and Learning.
Despite his humble protestations, Byers, the founder and faculty
director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, is an international
leader in technology entrepreneurship education. The McCoy University
Fellow in Undergraduate Education, he has received Stanford's
Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching, the School of
Engineering's Tau Beta Pi Award for excellence in undergraduate
teaching and three recent national teaching awards.
"Today there will be no death by PowerPoint," Byers
announced to the group of about 40 students and educators gathered
in the Hartley Conference Center to hear his lecture, titled "Teaching
in the Era of YouTube." "We are just going to use everything
else. I am going to show you some of the tools I use when I teach."
Byers then took his audience on a tour through Educators Corner
(http://edcorner.stanford.edu/), a website dense with multimedia
teaching resources, such as video clips and audio podcasts of
various professionals speaking about their experience and thoughts
on entrepreneurship. He showed the audience two thought-provoking
video clips featuring Kavita Ramdas, chief executive officer of
the Global Fund for Women, and Guy Kawasaki, managing director
of Garage Technology Ventures.
"Why might I use these in a class setting?" Byers queried
the crowd. Some audience members said clips give students exposure
to a diversity of voices in a lecture, whereas others pointed
out they help with pacing. Byers said the clips also allow the
professor to jumpstart conversations, as for example, in Kawasaki's
video, where he says the point of entrepreneurship is making meaning
above making money.
Audio podcasts have many of the same advantages as video clips.
But Byers said he has found the visual component more engaging
for students in a class setting. Podcasts could be used for class
assignments, he recommended.
Teachers can use a host of other technologies to enhance their
courses and students' learning experiences, Byers said. These
include course-specific websites with available resources and
links, wikis, animations, simulations and course discussion boards.
But simply having technology at hand is not enough, Byers said.
Instructors must stimulate their students to want to use it. "Unless
I show that I am excited about this technology and care about
it, the students will not care about it." Byers gave an example
of his experience running the Mayfield Fellowship course, a work/study
program designed to teach students about entrepreneurship strategies
while providing them with a hands-on internship experience with
a local start-up. "When I stopped posting on our course discussion
board, the students also stopped posting as often," he said.
Byers acknowledged that the use of technology has a few caveats.
For example, technology tools are not substitutes for good teachers
and good teaching. Some things may still need to be taught the
old-fashioned way, with chalk and chalkboard, Byers said.
Incorporating technology into a class session also can greatly
increase the amount of prep time involved. For a two-hour class,
Byers said it takes him eight hours to prepare. And the creation
of a website like the Educators Corner requires a great deal of
technical expertise as well as funding. Byers gave significant
credit to the technicians who, according to him, had done much
of the heavy lifting in the creation of the website. Robyn Dunbar,
senior associate director of the Center for Teaching and Learning,
added that departments and disciplines are increasingly encouraging
the use of these types of tools and investing in them.
"The possibilities are very exciting," Byers said.
"Ten years from now I'll be saying, 'Remember when I gave
that lecture on classroom technologies? Look what's happened since.'"
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94305. (650) 723-2300.
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