Technology Incorporation in Problem-Based Learning
With the progression of technology each year, future college students will have been born straight into a heavily technology-driven world; there is a new type of student arising. There is a misconception that because of this new culture there must be an entire shift in education. Hency and Tormey reject this belief arguing that, “[videos] had the unintended effect of distancing a number of them [students] from the content, perhaps because they were culturally predisposed to be passive in their engagement with video/television content” (313). Students are accustomed to performing other tasks while watching a video that online courses will yield to similar distractions. The comfortability of videos provides students with ease in distancing themselves in other activities during an online lecture. For this reason, online lectures are not beneficial to students. Because these lectures are being watched independently, students do not receive repercussions for their deviating actions as they would in a lecture hall. While there is always the probability that a student will get distracted in a lecture, students will be even more distracted in online courses. Online classes are not an effective alternative in higher education, there are many glitches that still need to be addressed for this method to retain its desired benefits.
While online classes are not an appropriate change in our teaching approach, adjustments in our current teaching methods are required because of the shift in thinking and culture. Problem-based learning has an optimal flexibility for technology implementation in lecture classes.; this teaching method allows for that use without retroceding the intended goal of student success. For example, the use of clickers within college lectures has become a widely used tool. A clicker is a device that allows students to interact with a technology platform to input their answers to any question presented by an instructor. The use of clickers allows students to continue to have a certain anonymity within the classroom, stimulate the brain individually or in groups and maintain engagement through incentive such as clicker points. Problem-based learning allows for professors to use whatever tools they desire in order to have students thinking critically, it is a happy medium between technology usages and human interaction.