Lipscomb professors weigh in on using technology in the classroom ...

Posted on 12 November 2012.

Over the past couple of years, social media and technology have reached an all-time high in daily usage. Many forms of technology are available almost everywhere via smartphones and laptops?including school classrooms. Because of this increase, teachers are struggling to keep the attention of their tech-savy students.

At Lipscomb, technology can be found in many classrooms. While some professors utilize the media in?capacities?like Internet searches or PowerPoint presentations, there are still some that enjoy having no media in the classroom.

Dr. Alan Bradshaw, chair of the physics department at Lipscomb University, prefers for students? laptops to stay in their backpacks.

?It bugs the fire out of me when people use computers and cell phones in my class,? Bradshaw said. He is not completely against using technology, though. Bradshaw explained that he uses Lipscomb?s online blackboard to send questions to students so they can prepare for the lecture the next day.

?I started doing this thing this year with my college physics class where I?ll do what?s called a JIT (Just In Time) quiz,? Bradshaw said. ?They?re due the night before class, and it?ll be two very simple questions about what we?re going to cover in class and then a question that says, ?What would you like to see covered in class?? So, I can go through those and kind of get an idea of where everybody is. I like that a lot.?

Bradshaw also explained that it is difficult to use technology in his classes because physics is a hard subject to teach using media.

There are plenty of other subjects that provide the opportunity to use technology. One of these subjects is communication.

Jimmy McCollum, the associate professor and?interim?chair of the Department of Communication and Journalism, explained his reasoning behind why he allows some computer and media usage in his classes.

?I think having media available in the classroom can be a really exciting thing because sometimes I?ll just say, ?Hey everybody, Google this subject,? and students can be looking at it while I talk about it,? McCollum said.

He also knows when to tell his students to power down.??At the same time I think it?s important for students to understand etiquette,? McCollum added.

Much like Dr. McCollum, Dr. Mary Sledge, an associate professor at Lipscomb, allows students to use computers in her classes with one exception.

?In a large auditorium-style class that is mostly freshmen, I usually do not allow it,? Sledge said.

According to Sledge, students should be considerate of other pupils that are trying to get the most out of their classes.

?The reason that, in particular, I don?t allow freshman students in the big auditorium-style class to use computers is not that they are distracted but that they distract other students.?

Source: http://www.luminationnetwork.com/2012/11/12/lipscomb-professors-weigh-in-on-using-technology-in-the-classroom/

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