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Show page 20 , Fall 2006 Motivating Students with Technology BYLIZFELGER PHOTOGRAPH BY KENDRA HORN Karla Zimmerman, a political science major, recalls one of her most frustrating classes: Ancient World Civilizations. In this history class, a tremendous amount of material was being covered, and she found herself trying to write everything down. She soon found that focusing on writing the lecture word-for-word was not an effective note-taking strategy. She couldn't write as fast as the professor could talk, and she found herself missing out on just as much material as students who missed class completely. To complicate things further, her professor spoke with a heavy German accent, making him hard to understand. After almost failing her first exam, she took advice from another student and switched her note-taking strategy. She began listening intently to the lecture, then jotting down what she felt were the most important points. However, her poor test scores still did not improve. Apparently, what she felt were key lecture points, differed from what her professor intended. "It was far from motivating. I felt like I was putting forth my best effort and getting nothing in return." What could have improved her situation? She says PowerPoint. Using PowerPoint to outline a lecture can be more effective than lecturing alone. Students are better able to follow the lecture and focus their note-taking on what the professor emphasizes as key concepts. PowerPoint can also be helpful in instances where there are language barriers. Students have visual displays of what the professor is talking about and don't have to focus their attention on figuring out what was just said. Although PowerPoint can be a more effective means of engaging students, it is the easiest technology in the classroom to misuse. Technology should not take over teaching, and entire lectures should not be posted. Instead of motivat- ing students to be involved in class, this will encourage them to disengage in the class, only reading over the PowerPoint slides right before the test. A business student, Emily Cutler, complained that one of her professors used the CD-Rom included with the course text as his daily PowerPoint lecture. "Everything we needed to know for the test was taken directly from the lecture notes, which was word-for-word out of the text." When asked about the class's motivation, she said "More than half the class was absent everyday, and a quarter of the students who showed up left within the first half-hour." Dr. Kristin Smith-Crowe, an organizational behavior professor at the University of Utah, is an excellent example of a teacher using technology to enhance learning in the classroom. She attributes her success with PowerPoint to the way she uses it. Her PowerPoint slides carefully outline main lecture points, but do not contain her lesson plan word-for-word. Each semester Smith-Crowe surveys her students concerning the use of technology in her classroom. She receives consistent feedback from her students: "Students tell me that they don't usually like PowerPoint, but they like it in this class" she says. That's because her slides are posted prior to class and students are able to print them off and use them for note-taking during the lecture. This allows students to shift their focus from trying to write everything down, to understanding concepts, and filling in pertinent information. Videos are also often viewed as an abuse of technology. "No student wants to feel they are paying tuition to be taught by a video." Cutler said. But there are ways to incorporate this technology in a valuable way. Smith-Crowe has used videos more than she has in past semesters and has really enjoyed it. "My students say they also enjoy the videos because they are visuals learners, but what I think they mean is that the videos provide them with a real life tie in, or tangible example of what we are talking about, and that makes it easier to remember." After video clips are played, |