Scenario from Professor: Pretend there are plenty of computers in your classroom and they are all connected to the Internet, describe what you think will be several of the most significant challenges you will face when using the Internet in the classroom.
Honestly, this isn’t a stretch for me to answer at all and I think this is probably more of a concern for the K-12 classrooms then it maybe is for a college classroom. I have a classroom lab consisting of 18 student computer stations, 16 of which are equipped with video editing software and hardware including dual-flat screen monitors. Each of these is connected to the Internet and is loaded with the most current version of the most popular creative software available. I’m lucky!
Well…let me rephrase that…my students are lucky.
That said, none of this comes without some certain concerns. In our readings this week, we were intrigued by discussions from a ‘net gen learner’, delved deeper into the world of copyrights and fair use, learned more about how dividing our country really is when comes to ‘being connected’, how to bridge the use of different cultures effective through technology and how to deal with different learning styles.
I have two concerns that I could right away identify in my teaching, and oddly, one of them was not really discussed in readings this week, however, one of them was. As an instructor of interactive media and video editing, I especially have concerns regarding copyrighting and fair use guidelines. In all the reading I have done on the topic of fair use, I have found the guidelines to generally be gray in manner and not all that clear. There are too many leniencies with these guidelines and I think that makes the walking along the fair use high wire to be extremely tricky. “Fair use can raise some of the most difficult and controversial issues in copyright law. Users often wish there were clear rules to establish exactly when a use is fair and when it is not. But the ambiguity of the fair use doctrine is also its strength, because it allows courts to apply fair use to new and sometimes completely unanticipated uses of copyrighted works.” (Besek, 2003). The age of the Internet has obviously allowed for quicker, easier and more frequent access to technology and therefore, the ease of copyright infringement. Without fully understanding the boundaries of copyright and fair use, one can find themselves plagiarizing very easily.
My other concern deals with how to juggling a diverse population in class, but not in learning styles, rather, in digital familiarity and use. Having a student population that ranges from the traditional 18-year old recent high school graduate to the 50-something who is trying to reinvent themselves and their career paths, this can create quite a unique teaching environment. In an introduction course in interactive media, for instance, I may have someone who has been dabbling in web sites since they were 12-years old (now being 19 years old), but who still does not know the formalities of the software, why they do certain things when creating web sites or the structure by which a web site should be created. However, the first few weeks of class could be a complete bore to them because they already have much of the basic knowledge, whereas others, who have never attempted to create a web anything, need this very basic, yet incredibly important foundation.
I am not certain how many main campuses have this same concern, but for those at regional campuses, like myself, and at community colleges, I would think that this happens quite often. One article that has helped me a little more discusses how a range of four generations is currently all working together. Classrooms, really, are not much different than an office because everyone still needs to know how to communicate and work together.
Though there are obvious managerial benefits from having different generations working together, when technology is involved, the digital divide sometimes just grows wider. I am absolutely not stating that the ‘older’ generations are not tech-savvy; however, if there is going to be a person in the classroom who is not familiar with texting, emailing, surfing or im’ing, chances are, it is not going to be the traditional aged college student. Adapting the classroom to fit the needs of all generational learners definitely takes some extra time and effort, but it can work. Allowing the Gen-Y’er to take a lead role in the sharing of technological information has been one successful method I have used so far, for instance.
Overall, even though the ease of accessing information with the click of a button has awarded many opportunities, it does not come without its complications, adversities and changes. I have only identified two that have greatly impacted me over the years – I’m sure they will not be the last.
Additional resources:
The Challenge of Teaching Across Generations
Teaching/Training Across the Generations – a blog post by Karl Kapp
Teaching in a Digital Age – a YouTube video post by Vanderbilt University
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment