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Tech truants - or just tech savvy?

'If you build it, they wont come' is an article that attracted my attention recently. The basic premise behind the article is that technologies such as podcasting are responsible for the decline in student attendance at lectures. More worryingly is the implication that technologies are having some sort of adverse effect on the delivery of education. The arrticle contains quotes such as:

"I had started putting every possible networking technology into the class," Azevedo said, and saw a drop-off in attendance by mid-semester. "I just felt awful, because I thought it was all my fault." "Once we started webcasting, students had the choice of coming to lectures or watching them on computer. I suspect if they didn't have that option, more of them would show up," said Vince Resh, a professor of environmental science, policy, and management who has seen his attendance drop by 50 percent. "The problem is that you've got the technology people on campus wagging the dog," charges Resh. "Every year they add new technology that separates students from the classroom and each other. I think that's a really bad trend," added Resh."
Somewhat intrigued with this, I followed the trail to the original article, a piece in the UC Berkeley News. This article actually looked in more detail at tackling 'technological truancy' and while the above views were expressed, the complete article had a much more balanced approach to the percieved problem. While some educators may be experiencing this 'problem', there are efforts in place to understand why. It is really important to understand what is happening from a pedagocial perspective but lets start off with some simpler aspects of what may be going on. If you are simply recording a 'one-way communication' style lecture as a podcast or video and making it available one of the things you are doing is offering choice. Todays learners (and many of them in Higher Ed - particularly in the US where this originated) do not all fit in the traditional demographic for a student. A large percentage are not school leavers. These students have many impositions on their time and if there is an alternative to getting to a lecture to receive a basically 'one-way' conversation or listening to the same content anywhere at anytime and convenient to them, why shouldn't they take advantage of such a generous offfering? Anywhere, anytime is an important concept in today's environment. Learners will weigh up the cost benefits for themselves and decide the most appropriate mechanisms for them. At a conference earlier this year I heard of lecturers having quite different experiences with podcasting. What they were finding was that attendance was actually quite high. What they found was quite interesting. Students were not taking notes anywhere near as much. If something was interesting or important to them they simply jotted down the time in the lecture. Then, using the podcast later they could simply skip to those important parts and concentrate their revision on them. As a result, lectures tended to become much more interactive with students and lecturers able to engage with each other. In this type of environment, technology has not simply replaced a delivery mode but is being used to change and enhance it. The UC Berkley article sites a lecturer in statistics who makes extensive use of chalk and involving her students in exercises during class who has high attendance. Students in this class are experiencing quite a different style of class which is much more interactive. Obviously podcasts or videos would be nowhere near as effective. This method is great for local students but what would you do in a global context if you had to teach many, many students in different locations (is there likely to be a more pronounced teacher shortage in the future?) - How about more immersive technologies? Obviously the way in which technology is implemented, understood and used is going to make a difference. I guess my point is that we shouldn't write it off based on unsatisfactory experiences but should learn from them. We should use technology to create more opportunities for learning and not take away the traditional ones. It would also be worth examining the results being obtained by these 'tech truants'. Doing a thorough job of that is not trivial. If results are better or worse, are there any underlying causes? For example, if podcasts are recordings of one-way communication style lectures that are made available after the lecture, what has been the impact of lecturing to a potentially empty lecture theatre for the lecturer? Has this affected the quality of the lecture in a positive or negative way? This whole area is quite interesting and I look forward to seeing more commentary on the positive and negative experiences that technology is perceived responsible for.

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