By Matthew Curtis, Fourth-Year Journalism, Carleton University
Digital tools can make you laugh, cry, wonder at the marvels of human ingenuity, and want to control alt delete their existence, but love them or hate them they’re in the classroom and, in most cases, here to stay. The following Carleton instructors recently facilitated a Welcome to My Classroom session on social media in the classroom, and we followed up with them to discuss how technology affects their teaching in the digital age.
[These interviews have been lightly edited and condensed for clarity]
Kim Hellemans – Department of Neuroscience
How has the digital world impacted your teaching?
Hellemans: The most obvious one is having a tablet or an iPad in the classroom allowing real time connectivity with information, [having] the ability to bring videos, multimedia into the classroom. Now when I teach anatomy I have [the] capability of having a digital image of the human brain that I can manipulate to teach students the different structures of the brain. That’s pretty incredible.
What’s your policy on student electronics in the class?
Hellemans: My policy is I don’t permit cellphone usage in the classroom. My students can use their laptops, but I say to them please make sure that it’s on the course materials [and] that you’re not surfing the web. It’s distracting to the students around you.
Let’s say there’s an overuse of cell phones, how do you stop it?
Hellemans: So my strategy is I see someone on their phone, I walk over to them and I talk. They’re like *bwah* suddenly aware of my presence. I don’t believe in public shaming, I don’t believe in going “You!” *points*. There are some profs that are ok with that, they’ll say “You can leave my classroom now.” That’s just not my MO.
What’s the funniest thing that’s happened because of digital change?
Hellemans: Oh my goodness. So I have this Poll Everywhere software. One of the features is you can change up the kind of question you ask. Typically I use a multiple-choice question, but you can have open-ended questions. So one of the questions was how do you cope with stress? So people are putting dancing or talking to a friend. And then suddenly it popped up: “Dr. Hellemans will you marry me?”
And I was like uh oh, I was kind of taken aback. I said “I’m already married. Thanks though,” and then right away, “Just because there’s a goalie in the net doesn’t mean you can’t score.” And I was like what does that mean? And then I was like oh my God! Shut ‘er down, nope, NOPE. How do I get this thing off? *laughs*. And then that’s when I learned that if you have open-ended questions you have to have a conversation about what’s appropriate and what’s inappropriate.
Deanna C Whelan – Department of Psychology
What is your policy on student electronics in the classroom?
Whelan: For me I’m a little bit liberal in that I don’t have any restrictions per se. I teach statistics courses to students that are non-mathematical majors – generally there’s already enough apprehension involved so I don’t want to add any additional anxiety. I do definitely try and keep them on task, and I do let them know that it’s very obvious when someone’s looking at their cellphone. People do not naturally look at their crotch and start smiling.
Do you have any tips on how to control phone and media use?
Whelan: I’m not trying to control it, I think that’s one of the big differences. I see the students in my class as adults and it’s their choice at the end of the day. If they’re not paying attention it will hurt their grades, it will hurt their learning, but that’s their choice and we all need to unfortunately learn the hard way sometimes.
Have you had anything funny happen due to the digital change?
Whelan: The thing I know students [in online courses] do, which when I see it always cracks me up, is when they take screen captures of [my lectures], sometimes the facial expression that they manage to catch me on in those moments are fabulously awesome. So there’s lots of um, “excellently horrible” photos of me that exist in the world now thanks to the digital technology, which I’m ok with if students manage to get the tools [and information] that they need.
Bill Skidmore – Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies
How has technology impacted your teaching?
Skidmore: I’ve been here 25 years almost, so there’s been major changes in terms of what I can access through the internet and whatnot. I can look far wider for articles, readings, videos, which used to be such an onerous process. Now most of it I can get either through streaming or other sources and I like to use those kinds of tools in the classroom. The downside has been students have been so addicted to their phones and that has made it difficult in the classroom.
What’s your policy on student electronics in the class?
Skidmore: I ban all electronics including laptops. For years I asked students please only use your laptops for class purposes, and people consistently ignored it even though I would explain why and go into detail. Students were distracted by other students, that was one reason. I also had complaints from a couple of the [guest speakers], people being on all their stuff while they’re giving a talk. I went up to the top of Minto Centre 2000 to just check the room and the audio and I saw all these laptops with Facebook, movies, Instagram, whatever it was. [Students] weren’t paying attention as [a guest speaker] spoke about deeply personal, important issues.
Any tips to reduce their use?
Skidmore: Well sadly the tip is ban them. I didn’t want to. My concern was the students with learning disabilities or other disabilities, so I found a way to deal with that by working with the Paul Menton Centre (PMC) by uploading my actual lecture notes to a portal. So that would be my main advice. You have to think who’s being disadvantaged because of a disability and then find a way to overcome that. But that can be done. Actually, I think it’s a much better classroom when people are paying attention and engaged and not constantly distracted and distracting others.
Do you have a funny experience thanks to the digital change in the classroom? What’s your stance on cell phones and laptops in class? Let us know by leaving a comment below!