{"id":18091,"date":"2015-12-21T09:48:23","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T14:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/edc\/?p=18091"},"modified":"2022-01-06T15:24:26","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T20:24:26","slug":"chalkboard-teaching-in-the-age-of-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/2015\/chalkboard-teaching-in-the-age-of-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Chalkboard teaching in the age of technology"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Professor<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

By Cassandra Hendry, TLS staff writer<\/em><\/p>\n

In education and beyond, technology is always adapting and progressing. Students are often seen toting laptops to class to take notes, or pulling out their smartphones to take a picture of a friend\u2019s handwritten notes for later perusal. PowerPoint has made its way into almost every classroom, and some classes even exist without walls in an online format.<\/p>\n

To be a proponent of teaching with simple chalk and blackboard may seem old-fashioned to some, but to others, it\u2019s what\u2019s saving education. A small but growing number of professors are speaking out about the benefits that chalkboard teaching\u2014and its slightly more advanced technological equivalent\u2014has, not only for their teaching, but also for their students\u2019 learning.<\/p>\n

Simon Power, a professor of economics at Carleton, is a staunch supporter of what he calls \u2018chalk and talk.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past 40 or 50 years, a number of people in education have argued against the use of chalk and talk, urging other methods of instruction, perhaps more informal methods,\u201d Power says. \u201cI\u2019m arguing in favour of the traditional old-fashioned approach. In some ways I think it\u2019s more effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a professor who teaches a subject involving numbers and logic, he says chalkboard teaching meshes well due to the subject matter\u2019s organized and analytical approach. Power finds it\u2019s easier to organize his thoughts and he\u2019s able to stray from prepared lessons to further explain a concept if he\u2019s using a piece of chalk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a huge advantage of chalk and talk if you\u2019re teaching math or economics. You can look around the class and if you see confusion or people not being happy, it\u2019s easy if you have a blackboard to explain a rule of calculus,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re using a PowerPoint slide, it\u2019s not easy to go sideways. That\u2019s why I always ask to have three blackboards in the classrooms in which I teach.\u201d<\/p>\n

For chemistry and environmental studies professor Pam Wolff, she felt the same way\u2014at least until two years ago, when she had to teach in rooms that did not have chalkboards or ones that were too small.<\/p>\n

\"Pam<\/a>Instead of abandoning chalkboard teaching altogether, she turned to a technological upgrade that allowed her to continue her method, but with a slight twist.<\/p>\n

Wolff uses a tablet and pen-like stylus connected to a large screen at the front of her classroom. Before class, she prepares roughed-out slides with minimal words\u2014an equation or fact here and there\u2014and writes directly on the slides in class to work out problems or explain further. To her, transitioning to full PowerPoint lectures just wouldn\u2019t work for her teaching style.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m showing my students information that has been pre-printed on a slide, it\u2019s like I\u2019m handing them information down from on high. If I\u2019m writing and talking and inviting them to talk about it, then it\u2019s something we developed together,\u201d Wolff says.<\/p>\n

Unlike a traditional chalkboard, Wolff\u2019s tablet has some advantages, such as being able to use colours, pre-write equations or facts, or include the answer to a problem they\u2019re working on on the slide itself, hidden from view in a light colour.<\/p>\n

But while Wolff appreciates the convenience that the tablet has brought, she says sometimes she feels disconnected from her students without a real chalkboard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI make eye contact with my class far more with a chalkboard. When I\u2019m using my tablet, I find I\u2019m focused on it for the whole class and after class I find I don\u2019t really know who was there. Unlike with the board, I spend 90 per cent of my time with a desk between me and my students,\u201d Wolff says.<\/p>\n

Power agrees that technology can sometimes have a distancing effect on teaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents as humans are social animals. If you try to take education out of context it begins to become alienating,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Wolff says that disconnect of relying too heavily on technology for pedagogical purposes can have a definite effect on student learning, one that she strives to avoid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think you overcome the psychological difference of me hitting a button and the next line appears. It just doesn\u2019t feel as inclusive . . . You can\u2019t trick your brain into really thinking about something if you know that at a push of a button it\u2019s already there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Cassandra Hendry, TLS staff writer In education and beyond, technology is always adapting and progressing. Students are often seen toting laptops to class to take notes, or pulling out their smartphones to take a picture of a friend\u2019s handwritten notes for later perusal. PowerPoint has made its way into almost every classroom, and some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[593],"yoast_head":"\nChalkboard teaching in the age of technology - Teaching and Learning Services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Cassandra Hendry, TLS staff writer In education and beyond, technology is always adapting and progressing. 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