Entries Tagged with “smartboard”
What data, observations, or feedback from students have you received regarding your approach?
I always encourage them to have the laptops open on the table in front of them. I love that “deer-in-the-headlights” look when you ask them “Well, what was that reading about?” And the reading is on an article database, or it’s on electronic course reserve. And they just stare at you and wonder, “Is this a performance? Am I supposed to perform now?”
After about two weeks of saying “You got a computer in front of you. Look up the reading, look up the answer. You have these resources, you have the tools, you have the technology—literally.” They really got into that, using the technology in a dialogic fashion during class meetings.
So it wasn’t a question of “Did the students bring the readings?,” or “Are they doing the research?,” because they could do it right there in class while discussions were going on. And I think it allowed more types of learners to succeed in the classroom—the tech, that is. Students who perform well and think on the spot tend to be the ones who rise to the top in the classroom environment. But a situation like this allowed students to think in the classroom environment, to use the resources there in front of them in order to answer questions and to engage the process of being a historian.
— Beth Pollard, History