I was born into a world of burgeoning technology, but I don’t particularly enjoy using it. So when I began teaching, it felt natural to avoid technology use during class. I also asked that my students refrain from using their laptops or tablets during class, and provided a printed handout or diagram to accompany the discussion for the day. Upon reflection, I have considered some of the consequences and possible benefits in choosing to forgo technology for more old-fashioned fare in the classroom such as printed handouts, diagrams, pens, paper, and the chalkboard.
One of these consequences that was immediately apparent was that I made a lot of eye contact with my students. But even more so, my students made a lot of eye contact with me, instead of the PowerPoint presentation or their own computer activity. And when I consider my past coursework, the most meaningful teachers and classroom experiences I have encountered have all shared at least one thing in common – namely that I have a memory of looking at someone’s face for a large portion of the lecture or discussion.
And another thing I noticed is that I am often able to discern which of my students are engaged with the material and on which days when there is no electronic interface between us. From this, it is often readily apparent when a typically engaged student is merely having an off day, or finding the material particularly challenging, and so on. As an instructor, this also importantly means that I have to ensure that I am engaged with my students as well as the class material on a consistent basis. I often had to reconsider my position or change my mind on the spot in consideration of the specific questions, examples, or points raised throughout each class.
In general, it seems that not having technologies and their accompanying electronic interfaces to focus our attention on seems to make it easier to instead focus our attention on the class material and our fellow classmates in a different kind of way. So yet another potential benefit of avoiding certain kinds of technology in the classroom is the squelching of many distractions – for both my students and myself. But I also think this goes beyond avoiding the obvious distraction of the internet.
For example, when technology is not a central focus of the class, there seems to be a certain kind of constructive and deliberative engagement that is encouraged with others. Discussion, debate and deliberation are centrally focused on the texts and classmates, rather than a visually appealing (and distracting) PowerPoint slide or personal device. This allows for more time to slowly and carefully think and reflect on the materials and contributions from others, and so the comments and insights that students contribute during class factor heavily into the direction and structure of the discussion. The classroom then becomes a collaborative place, a place where we are all working toward the same goal of understanding. And students quickly discover it is certainly possible that they may have a more accurate, nuanced or significant contribution than I provide, or perhaps that a fellow classmate has a better or entirely different view or understanding from their own.
One might counter that that technology gives us opportunities to learn and to communicate, opportunities that we never had in the past. I agree that each teaching method has its benefits and disadvantages, and different kinds of teaching may call for different methods. But in teaching philosophy in particular, certain kinds of learning and outcomes are more amenable to focusing ourselves on the texts and the others with us in class. In many kinds of philosophy, constructing is more valuable than lecturing, creating more than summarizing, reasoning more than memorizing. And these are the kinds of things that are brought out in a classroom with less technology. I certainly fetel the weight of Jay Parini’s suggestion [with respect to the subject of philosophy in particular] that,
…the real aim of education [is]: to waken a student to his or her potential, and to pursue a subject of considerable importance without the restrictions imposed by anything except the inherent demands of the material.
(PARINI 2005)
It seems clear that positive learning outcomes can occur with the use of technology, but at the same time focusing our attention towards the texts and our classmates – and away from electronic interfaces – helps things along.
Annalise Norling
Annalise Norling is a Ph.D. student at Indiana University Bloomington. She is interested in ethics, applied ethics, and bioethics, particularly where they intersect with the philosophy of science, epistemology and social and political philosophy.
