Many colleges and universities are investing in professors' increased use of technology in the classroom, but at least one dean is pushing for the opposite, something he calls "teaching naked," National Public Radio reports.
Jose Bowen, dean of the Southern Methodist University Meadows School of the Arts, is encouraging professors to stop using technology in the classroom and instead alter current lecture-based collegiate teaching models. Instead of having students come to class to ingest information being disseminated by a lecturing professor (likely one using PowerPoint or Blackboard), Bowen wants students to use these technologies to familiarize themselves with material before coming to class. He then hopes class time can be devoted to discussion of course material among students and their professor.
"First contact with the material is about you, the student," Bowen says. "Then you come into the classroom, and now we have what's called learning. We work together on problem sets, we argue. And then you go away and I assess you."
Bowen considers his proposal a more innovative way to learn.
He says colleges should consider "changing their ways" before they become outdated and obsolete. Colleges and universities "are medieval institutions. We haven't changed in a very long time, and our basic mode of operation is based upon medieval technology," he says. "I mean, the lecture was an efficient way to deliver content a thousand years ago. It's just not anymore."
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Muser of NM 11:04AM August 19, 2009