Describe your approach to facilitating student learning in smart classrooms.

One of the things I try to do in these large student enrollment classrooms is first, try to earn an audience. They’re not science majors, I’ve got to get them interested in the topic. So one of the things I do is every piece of equipment that’s in the room—I use it. Not in a pattern, but irregularly so you never know each day exactly what’s going to happen. The message is coherent, but the media change throughout in a pattern that doesn’t reproduce from day to day.

The way I choose the equipment really depends on the topics. First, what equipment is in the room, I have learned how to use it—some of them have been new to me. Once I know they exist, now I’m looking for the best thing available. Let’s take hurricanes as an example. I find this geophysical fluid dynamics laboratory, here they have real imagery of the insides of a hurricane. Well, what does it take to run them? It takes a PC, then I use a PC. I try to find the best visuals I can in a topic, and some of them are restricted to only one kind of equipment, and that determines the pattern. The material determines the delivery mode.

Everybody’s used to PowerPoint. We familiar now hearing the lectures of “Death by PowerPoint”—you got to do something different, be a bit original, try to find pieces of equipment or things that they’re not used to. I try to show imagery that’s new to hold their attention. If it’s the same old things they already know, then they’ll tend to walk out of the class, to be blunt. They’re anonymous in a large lecture hall, you’ve got to hold their interest and you’ve got to do that by doing things that are new and different for them. The trick is finding those things that are on the topic, because remember, they’re only to accentuate and get across the material.

Finding resources really is the biggest trick. Not so much that they’re scarce these days, but there’s so darn much. So I’ll look at things, like I subscribe to Science and Nature, and I see what they recommend each week. I listen very carefully to some of my colleagues; I listen to Eric Frost, and other people who are on top of a lot of these topics, and I pick up tips from them. And you just kind of have the radar out at all times trying to sense where something might be interesting, give it a quick look, see if it brings something into the classroom that will capture interest and help further understanding.

What factors contributed to your choosing that approach?

Through the first half of my career here at San Diego State University, I was working in classrooms where you can’t really squeeze in more than 50 or 75 students. You have a one-to-one dynamic then; you know the names of all the students in the class, and you have that kind of interchange. As soon as you go into the two-story, large lecture hall—when I took my same approach in there, at first my feelings used to get hurt all the time. Students would just get up and walk out. What I did in the other classrooms did not work in the large lecture hall. Thus, I became very motivated to find ways to interest them, and one of the things that’s been the biggest help to me is this rich range of electronic media where I can kind of appeal to the “MTV Generation”, if you will, not by chopping up the message, but by having the message be coherent and logical, and then chop up the media that deliver it as a way of engaging and holding attention.

What data, observations, or feedback from students have you received regarding your approach?

I have talked with colleagues now and then about doing some scientific, real surveys and assessments of learning, and in all honesty, it has never gotten done. What I really do very simply is one: I see what the student comment cards are at the end of every semester. I read those very carefully and take those to heart. And the second thing, very pragmatic, very brutal: you watch the students.

At times I’ve got jaws dropped in the classroom, and rapt attention, and part of my brain says “What am I doing right now? I’ve got to repeat this kind of thing.” There are other times, even on some of my favorite topics, where students are getting up and walking out. The door slamming behind them gets to be so much it’s interrupting the class. I have to stop, not let my hurt feelings dominate things and say “What am I doing right now? I’ve got to change something here.” So I’ve basically used that direct feedback, empathy feedback from the audience to try to see when I’m connecting with them and when I’m not.

Did you encounter any problems implementing your approach? If so, how did you resolve them?

The only problems I’ve had in moving to using a variety of media was I’m not a media or a high-tech person. So I first had to learn them and get used to the point where I am now. It doesn’t take very long where I can mechanically be changing the medium without stopping the lecture flow, or without using any words saying I’m doing it, to where I can still be on my material doing what I need to be doing and then part of me is over here, mechanically switching things. And that gets easier all the time, as the advances in the electronics in the classroom make those switches easier. It’s no longer a problem for me.

Most of my classes are in a 300 seat, two-story lecture hall. Throughout the semester, there’s no piece of equipment that I don’t use several times. They all get used, they all get used repeatedly. A given lecture might the use the PC and the Mac; I might have them both pre-loaded in advance, before the class begins, so it’s just a matter of making the switch. I still use VHS tapes, I got a lot of events I want to show. I use DVDs, I use CDs, I still use the carousel projectors. I like to do a lot of before and afters, and by having twin carousel projectors I can have two images up side-by-side for ready comparison that are far larger than I can get at this time by putting parallel images in PowerPoint. I still bring in maps and other things and hang them on the walls on occasion. I still use colored chalk on the board if there’s some point I want written down. Because if I write something on the board, they’re going to write it down. So if there’s something that’s extra critical like that, I’ll do that.

Plus, I still use a lot of hokey demonstrations. Just things that they haven’t seen before. For example, bring in a carbon dioxide machine, hit it with fans, and make tornadoes, real tornadoes, spinning at a very, very rapid rate. And then I can turn around then and say “What does this fan represent in North America? What does this fan?” I still like to use things like that. Anything that I can engage their thoughts on, get them visually and intellectually going. I like to use a lot of things where I’ll put images up on the screen, irrespective of which medium it is, and then have them talk to the people around them. In an unorganized fashion, I have them talk about things. First, I didn’t know if they’d be on the topic, but let’s say we’re doing earthquakes and faults, and you look out there among the students and you see hands doing all kinds of funny geometric motions and you realize they’re actually talking about the topic, trying to visualize a 3D geometry. I’ll do anything that engages the students on the topic.

Have you told colleagues or others about your approach? What interest/reaction have you received?

I do Tuesdays and Thursdays for the large lecture halls, that’s the 75 minute lectures. I do a different coat, tie and shirt each day of the semester. I don’t say a word about it, it’s just part of the overall richness of the mix. I have colleagues derisively insult me, use terms like “edutainment.” And I thought about that, “Edutainment? I like that. I like that, I adopt that term, thank you.”

I use it to describe myself now, and that is the trick: it’s not entertainment, I never tell a joke, I never tell a little story for “entertainment,” there has to be some teaching message, some pedagogical point to it. Now that’s the tricky part—you try to be “entertaining” and be on the topic at the same time. I primarily use it with lots of visuals, using all the media, I do it by being excited about the topic, physical, walking around the room.

I am absolutely blown away by the number of my colleagues who go into that room and say “Oh, I don’t need the wireless microphone.” My words to them are “Amateur, rookie, you are not utilizing the potential.” It’s inconceivable to me that a person is not using the wireless microphone. You’re now free to roam around the room, and you can drop your voice down low if you want to emphasize some point. You can raise it high, you can get the full value of all the intonations and abilities of the human voice, having that wireless microphone on. Well, I’m distressed to see that so many people don’t use that and are proud of the fact they don’t. I think you’re not maximizing your own potential.

How does the feedback you've received match up with your observations and/or expectations for the impact and success of your approach?

On this whole question of edutainment versus entertainment, again [in] “edutainment,” there has to be something learned. Let me give you an example, here’s one that works very well in the classroom. You never start off with something quite like this—remember, it’s a 75 minute class—if you’re 45 minutes into a class and people are wearing down, some of these things will be real good.

For example, seismic waves. I talk about seismic waves, I talk about sound waves, and then I kind of stop and I act it out physically, and say “Waves, you’ve been to a music concert, you’ve been to a sports event where you’ve done the wave, haven’t you?” They kind of look like “What a nerd. What a jerk.” And I say, “Oh, let’s do the wave right now.” And then they don’t like that at all, they’re just thinking—I don’t want to know the words are they’re thinking about. And I say “I don’t mean any wimpy little raise your arms, I want you to stand when we do this wave. Put your books down and get ready so you can stand.” And then I have the whole room do the wave, and then one, they get energized by it, and then all of a sudden you say, “Well, what kind of seismic wave did you just model?” And you ought to see their faces go blank and the embarrassment and the shock because they’re not thinking topic. Then when you go “Yes, that was the s-wave, that was the shear wave, your motion was up and down, but the transmission of energy was horizontal.” Then I go through a few other things, like what was the period of those waves? By that time you start going through a lot of the other definitions, which are basically describing what they just collectively did. And then I tell them, “The next time you’re at a game, or a music show, where the wave is done, I want you to tell all your friends. Remember, that’s the lesson, that’s your homework assignment. You explain to them, you are modeling the s-wave, the damaging wave in an earthquake.”

Now that’s edutainment. They physically acted something out, which was pure entertainment. They thought they were wasting time, but when it was done, I think I got that message across in a way where they’re liable to remember it and hopefully will tell other people when they do it. That’s edutainment, they’re carrying something out in a way that I think they’re going to remember, where if I had just said it, shown a PowerPoint slide, it probably would’ve gone in one ear, out the other and be gone. This, I think, goes into deeper memory and is something use and carry with them.

How does the feedback you've received match up with your observations and/or expectations for the impact and success of your approach?

How I interact with the large auditorium was a learning experience. At the beginning, when I took the same approach that I did in the small classroom it was not good. But you observe, you painfully observe, you don’t take things personally. You watch them, and see what happens. I would never run a whole video. You start watching, and I look at the clock. If I run a video clip, a portion of a video, you watch the time, and you start seeing, “Oh, oh, how many minutes am I into this? Oh, oh, we’ve gone six minutes and now somebody’s just walked out?” You start noticing the pace of it go faster, you compare the quality of the video, and you just start learning these things over time. A video clip, one continuous thing like that, can’t be more than several minutes long. If I’m gonna run one where I really needed to go, ten, eleven or twelve minutes, I tell them in advance, “Now this one is ten, eleven, twelve minutes. Stick with it now, it might drag a little bit, but there’s a great thing at the end, that’s why we’re going the full twelve minutes.” I even apologize in advance so that they know what’s coming. They can look at the clock themselves, and know it’s almost over to go to the next part.

Patience is short among this generation of students. I really like this generation of students, I like them a lot better then the group that went through before them. But, labeling some things in advance about what’s coming up to prepare them is a big help. It’s trial and error. You’ve got to try it yourself, observe, and see what works and then consciously change your approach.

Describe changes or improvements you have considered to further refine your approach.

I think there is no magic teaching approach. When I see some of these things about “here is the way to teach,” I think basically that teaching is an extension of personality. Any personality can teach. We have to know what the strengths are of our personality, what the weaknesses are of our personalities. For example, I learned a long, long time ago I cannot tell a joke. Even if it has an educational point to it, I cannot tell jokes, therefore, I never do. I learned that I can flip the switch and get my energy level up high, and that has a positive effect on the group. Basically, it’s almost like performing. I walk into the classroom—I don’t even say I’m going to teach anymore, I say I’m going to go perform—and I flick on the energy switch, because I can control it and it has a positive effect. But that’s me.

I have distinct weaknesses, so I don’t do those. I play into my strengths. One of my colleagues who has an ultra soft voice, doesn’t use the microphone on purpose because his voice is so soft, yet he’s interesting, that he’ll use it to hold their attention because they all have to be quiet and pay attention otherwise you can’t hear him. Now that only works for somebody who’s got some really engaging material. But my point is, “no one way.” Look at your personality, see what works, go with what works for you.

Even though I have lots of years of experience—it shows in the color in my hair and the lines in my face—I would never be what I would call a finished, accomplished product. For one thing, the material changes all the time, and you’ve got to see what goes over well and what doesn’t. Sometimes I’m absolutely blown away with some topic that I do research on, that there’s a new discovery on, that I find fascinating. And somehow or another, I can’t translate it, I can’t get them interested in it. Other times I can be talking on something where I’m doing a setup of something, or that I don’t even consider all that interesting, but it’s material I need to set up to go to the next level, and I look out there, and their jaws are dropped, they find this fascinating. So, I expand the part that catches their interest, and put more material more of the basic learning into some of those things that catch their interest, and I literally throw out some of my topics, including some of my PhD dissertation research topics, that I cannot sell, to a large audience. And by “sell,” I mean, are they paying attention, do I feel like active learning is going on? And so, I go with what reaches them, rather than what reaches me.