David A Robinson (david@scotweb.com)
Tue, 8 Dec 1998 09:57:42 -0000
From: "David A Robinson" <david@scotweb.com> Subject: Re: [ifets] Asynchrony by any other name.... Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1998 09:57:42 -0000
-
> Final thought--and a question. The many reports that students
>take readily to computer based activities do not reflect my own
>experience, and I'm not sure why. What experience have instructors
>had with computer use (of any kind) when it must be done on the
>students' time and outside the regular classroom, vs. that done as a
>group, during class time?
>
As an educator and learner I would like to offer a somewhat simplistic view
on this. Is it not the case that an answer to this question can only be
arrived at when one considers the context and motivation of the student. I
went to university at the age of 28. I thoroughly enjoyed the learning
process and saw it as more than a means to and end (i.e. getting a degree).
I was highly motivated and used computers extensively both as a learning
tool and as a design tool. Younger students saw these tasks as a chore as
indeed they were mainly extra curricular and in many cases didn't bother
with them at all.
In our colleges and universities today we have several types of students.
Somewhat crudely we could categorise them as "want to learn" types and "I
suppose I should learn" types. Our challenge is to turn the "suppose"
students into "wants" and in our experience at the University of Aberdeen
Medical Faculty using computer based teaching techniques finds favour with
most students. The packages we develop provide concise multi-media overviews
of complex topics and to some students that's as much as they want. The 'A'
stream students use the same packages as their starter for ten (as dear old
Bamber used to say).
---------------------------------------------------------
Forum website: http://zeus.gmd.de/ifets/
Email address for sending message to everyone on the list ifets@gmd.de
Forum's contact person ifets-info@gmd.de
Join/Leave Digest or Normal List http://zeus.gmd.de/ifets/maillist.html
---------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Tue 08 Dec 1998 - 11:49:31 MET