Mixed Reviews on Classroom Technology

James Porter, associate dean of the Odum School of Ecology, uses PowerPoint slides during his lecture on Tuesday, Oct. 6, at the University of Georgia. (Photo/Sarah Pelham)

SARAH PELHAM

Technology is changing the way professors teach and students learn at the University of Georgia, but not everyone agrees that these changes are always for the best.

“In some cases, I have seen technology make a bad talk worse. Please, please, no more boring PowerPoint text slides!” said James Porter, associate dean of the Odum School of Ecology. “You shouldn’t use technology to fire a hose at students with more information.”

Porter incorporates short video clips from the news and uses animated computer programs to show how ecosystems change over time in his classes.

“Instructional technology is a tool,” Porter said. “In skilled hands it can help to create a marvelous learning environment. However, it cannot make up for instructional incompetence, sloppy thinking or boring ideas.”

Visual media, the most commonly used form of classroom technology, has the potential to engage students better than lectures alone. Images and graphics can help students organize, understand and remember information and ideas, several studies show.

“I’m a very visual person, so it’s really good for me,” said Kate Mischaikow, a senior public relations major from Decatur, Ga. Mischaikow also said that some instructors do not use slides effectively, but even then she still enjoys having the visual element incorporated into lectures.

“I like having the text of the lecture,” said Megan Hooper, a sophomore animal science major from Covington, Ga. “Sometimes lectures are hard to follow or the professors are difficult to understand.”

Although students may enjoy slides to help them take notes or prepare for a test, a recent study reported that 59 percent of students find at least half of their lectures boring and that PowerPoint might be the cause, according to a July article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Researchers at the University of Central Lancashire surveyed 211 students at a university in England to conduct the study, which was published in “British Educational Research Journal” in April, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Some students at UGA also find presentation software, such as PowerPoint or Keynote, boring.

“It’s overused, and it’s the same thing over and over again,” said Vishal Aggarwal, a junior biochemistry major from Johns Creek, Ga. “Kids just start tuning out. It can be used in class, but just sparingly.”

James Moore, a professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine, agrees.

“Probably my biggest concern about the use of technology stems from people using it just because they can,” Moore said.

For the past 15 years, Moore and other instructors in the College of Veterinary Medicine, have used computers to create 3D models of the organs inside of a horse, which helps students in his classes understand and diagnose diseases specific to horses.

“I’ve learned that if you’re teaching something and the students get it, you can teach it on a blackboard,” Moore said. “We need to utilize technology to help get points across. But if your students get it and have no trouble with the concept, then we don’t need it.”

“I think our natural inclination is when something is new, exciting or cool we want to use it for everything,” Moore said. “But we don’t need to use it for everything.”

Edited by Erin Dillard