03.23.07
The Art of Adapting
We need to adapt. I know many professors who can’t see that the students that are coming into their classes are different than those of, say, 20 years ago. First of all, these students don’t much like books and rarely use them. Second of all, they want learning to be more “pull” than “push.” But we can’t just throw technology at them. In the first place, they aren’t all necessarily fond of it and, secondly, does the technology fit the pedagogy? Further, does the professor know anything about (or have any comfort level with) the technology?
Here’s a great article from The Chronicle of Higher Education about implementing some Web 2.0 practices in our classrooms. Personally, I am a great fan of social networking in the classroom. Accordingly, I use RSS feeds, blogs, wikis, and forums extensively in my classes, both face-to-face and distance learning. But not everyone is comfortable with that. Still, everyone needs to learn to adapt and there are some good ideas here about doing so.
