by Jenny Wolfarth, MA

In the spirit of full disclosure, I should start by clarifying that I’m not a technophobe. Once a rabid photocopier who generated reams of handouts for my students, I’ve been on the Blackboard bandwagon nearly since its introduction at UC. I’ve happily and, I think, successfully employed useful tools like online-discussion boards in meaningful ways outside of the classroom, and my students can find fresh, and often interactive, online content on a weekly basis. I am gradually incorporating multimedia assignments in my curricula, am venturing into the world of podcasting, and have even converted my own professional portfolio into a snazzy digital experience that I can share with my students.

But I’ve found myself occasionally rebelling against the inevitable push to fully digitize the teaching and learning experience, and I think it has more to do with the lamentable absence of thoughtful interaction and our culture’s digitally impaired communication etiquette than the fact that I may be a little resistant to change my ways.

by Keith A. Crutcher, PhD

On the nature versus nurture controversy, I once heard someone say that all behavior is 100% genetic and 100% environmental.  Although mathematicians might argue the point, the essential idea sounds right to me. There is no meaningful way to separate these two influences on development, and any approach to education that denies the contribution of either factor is, in my mind, incomplete.  As an educator, I have no control over the genetic part, but I can influence the environment. 

I have been teaching off and on over the past 30 years using various formats and technologies but only recently embarked on my first trial of Blackboard for a class I taught this past summer.  I found myself using an electronic version of the old-fashioned slate chalk board I used when applying for a faculty position at the University of Cincinnati twenty-one years ago.

Once class began, one thing became immediately obvious—these students have, for the most part, grown up in a digitized world with ready access to more information than any generation before them.  They are Facebook-savvy, Nintendo ninjas unphased by multiple-data streams bombarding them from all sides.  Need to find a recent paper on the internet?  No problem.  Assigned to generate a PowerPoint presentation in a couple of hours using images, and maybe ideas, “borrowed” from various web sites?  Just a few mouse clicks and then…voila! These are bright students, and, like all bright students before them, they have adapted to the current educational niche.  They can navigate a media ecosystem that would (and does) simply perplex their parents and grandparents (”Why is that little computer icon waving at me?”). So they are unphased by Blackboard or any other digital tools.