Opinion On Tech Divided

A study completed this year by the U.S. Department of Education concluded that the use of technology in the classroom enhances learning.

 "This new report reinforces that effective teachers need to incorporate digital content into everyday classes and consider open-source learning management systems, which have proven cost-effective in school districts and colleges nationwide," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

The study analyzed 46 studies of online learning spanning from 1996 to July 2008. Duncan is using the study to encourage the use of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds "to bring broadband access and online learning to more communities."

Although the results of the study are clear, there continues to be a wide spectrum of technology use at Boston College, ranging from traditional lectures to high-tech PowerPoint presentations that incorporate videos and images.

Kevin O'Neill, professor in the history department, is a strong advocate for integrating new technologies into the classroom. O'Neill said that he used to lug his slide collection around campus, but now only needs his MacBook.

 He began to incorporate PowerPoint presentations into his core courses just three years ago, but now he uses PowerPoints daily for all of his classes and said that he "cannot work without them now."

O'Neill says that technology not only affects his classroom lectures, but also his preparation. Not too long ago, professors in the history department could only access their own collection of physical maps, he said, but now with Internet databases, more maps can be utilized and accessed more easily.

O'Neill said, "I depend on the University of Texas archive for maps and several others for images. I even found an archive in the Netherlands that has color images from World War I."

But finding the right images for a lecture and then preparing a PowerPoint does take time.

 "It is easy to roam the globe looking for resources, but it does take time. It takes hours and hours of hunting and deciding on images," O'Neill said. "A 50 minute lecture represents hours of preparation."

To make his preparation time more efficient, he is experimenting with new technology. He uses a program called Media Kron, which allows professors to archive images, sound files, and videos. This lets a student who misses a lecture log into the database and view the images used in that day's lecture. The program can even link images to timelines, which O'Neill said is a very useful feature in a history course.

There are some restrictions on the use of technology in the classroom, O'Neill said. Some classrooms are simply not ideal for the use of PowerPoint because they are too bright. O'Neill said other than classrooms not always being perfect for PowerPoint, he rarely experiences a technological difficulty that prevents him from teaching.

In an average year, he said, he only experiences one or two technological difficulties that typically take him not more than a couple of minutes to remedy.

Representing the more traditional teaching camp is Anna Djintcharadze, professor of philosophy, who said that she has little use for technological teaching aids. Djintcharadze incorporates no technology into her classes and simply gives a lecture while students take notes.

"Philosophy requires a real direct dialogue, one cannot distract yourself from that reality. Philosophy does not reduce itself to a PowerPoint, which would be focused on more factual information," Djintcharadze said. "I want students to engage in a creative process and avoid students just accepting what they see. An over-feeding of images in our society has devalued them and then not led the student to interpret something the way they want too. I find everything today to be readymade. I want my students to use their imagination and creativity."

But the debate over technology also focuses on how students choose to process information.

Students, sometimes encouraged by their professors, bring their laptops to class to take notes. "I type up my notes because I type faster than I write. Plus it's more organized and my handwriting is appalling," said Claire Bronisz, A&S'13.

When asked if she ever gets distracted and checks her e-mail or Facebook Bronisz said, "Yep, of course. I find myself on Agora most of the time, but I never use Facebook."

Djintcharadze said that she thinks laptops are distracting. "I don't want my students using laptops because I want to prevent the distraction of surfing the Web and because it is distracting for me as a teacher to hear the clicking and typing of 25 computers," she said.

For other students, laptops in class simply are not effective learning tools. "I choose not to use my computer in class because I can format and write my notes quicker by hand," said Muneeb Alam, A&S '12.