USM embraces latest technologies
When University of Southern Mississippi graduate student Jeffrey Varnado was taking thermal physics, he downloaded several podcast lectures from a physics professor teaching the same subject at California Institute of Technology.
“They were using the same textbook,” Varnado, 22, said, adding he carries his laptop everywhere and would listen to the Cal Tech lectures to supplement his Southern Miss classwork.
“It’s very useful when professors latch on to that, but some might resist it,” he said. “If podcasts are available, I’ll download them.”
Soon, Varnado and the rest of the student body could have access to podcasts produced by Southern Miss professors.
The university is in the midst of a cross-curricular effort to incorporate the latest technologies into its classrooms. From podcasts to interactive online classrooms to multimedia presentation systems, the university is exploring technological avenues that could change the way students learn and professors teach.
The university in the spring plans to begin using a program called Horizon Wimba, an interactive online classroom with features that allow students to raise a virtual hand, watch streaming video, PowerPoint presentations and more.
And 40 classrooms across campus now include a presentation tool called Sympodium, that incorporates PowerPoint, Internet, notation, advanced projection technology and other features.
Many of these innovations stem from the way students themselves are already using new technology on their own time, said Sheri Rawls, director of the Southern Miss Learning Enhancement Center, the campus clearinghouse for faculty looking to incorporate technology in their teaching.
A stroll through campus demonstrates just that - dozens of students move from place to place with MP3 player earbuds dangling from their book bags. Students that don’t have the expensive devices have access to the campus’ fully wired computer labs, where they can download and listen to podcasts. Some cellular phones and personal digital assistants double as MP3 players as well.
“Podcasting is the big, popular thing right now, so it seems like a natural way to get started,” Rawls said, adding that officials plan to survey students to find out how many own MP3 players, personal digital assistants and other devices.
Universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford, the University of California at Berkeley and many more already have years’ worth of podcast lectures available for download on iTunes and other online environments, and Southern Miss is working to stay current with the trend.
Rawls said the spring semester will mark implementation of a raft of these new technologies, but some faculty have already put some in place.
Technology education professor Steve Yuen is leading his students into the technological future by example. He said it is often the faculty who need to catch up with the students when it comes to technology.
Tools like MP3 players, personal digital assistants and Internet-capable cell phones “are ubiquitous,” Yuen said.
“Adults and professors, I call us ‘digital immigrants,’ because a lot of this is new to us and we have to learn it and accept it and overcome barriers,” he said. “But these kids grew up with these technologies; they’re the digital natives.”
Face-to-face
English professor Michael Salda records his lectures for World Literature, then uploads them onto his class Web site for students to download.
About half of his students have downloaded a podcast, and 20 percent said they downloaded and listened to virtually all of them, he said.
But that does not mean students are skipping class in favor of sitting at their computers and listening to podcasts while eating Wheaties in their pajamas.
On the contrary, Salda said, students are using the podcasts to enhance the classroom experience - and being able to listen to lectures again helps them prepare for exams.
“The podcasting doesn’t seem to have an impact on attendance,” he said. “I’ve been stressing to students that this is a supplement to class, not a replacement - it’s something to use when they need to.”
Most professors interviewed agreed that these innovations would not render the traditional classroom obsolete.
Many cited the fact that students learn differently - some absorb material better through visual presentation, while others prefer aural learning. And nothing quite replicates the human interaction achieved in a face-to-face classroom.
But certain subjects just don’t translate well to the online environment.
Sophomore forensic chemistry major Andrea Bradley said she needs the tactile laboratory environment to learn her specialty - and she likes being under a professor’s watchful eye.
“I’m the type of person that needs to see it, that needs you to explain it to me,” Bradley, 19, said. “I need you breathing down my neck.”
Interacting online
But for distance learners, Horizon Wimba promises to bring the online classroom environment to life.
Foreign language associate professor Bill Powell plans to be among the first faculty to use Horizon Wimba, which he said will enhance distance education for the graduate students he teaches - most of whom are kindergarten-12 teachers from across the nation who are pursuing Southern Miss master’s degrees in teaching a foreign language.
“Wimba gives us the opportunity for live, spoken interaction,” Powell said. “We can help them improve their spoken language proficiency with the aim of making them better foreign language teachers.”
The program does not discriminate against students without high-speed Internet connections, he said - anyone with even a dial-up modem can use it.
Cost worries
But despite the fact that many young people relish new technologies, not all students own MP3 players and other devices, senior speech pathology major Alicia Moffett said - and she worries the expectation that they do could increase the cost of a college education.
“We’re living on a budget,” she said. “I hope this doesn’t mean they’re going to start adding more fees and upgrading tuition for this.”
Fees are already applied for simple class Web sites, Powell said, adding some professors are unconvinced about the value of the new technologies.
“There is resistance and rightful dubious concern about this mode of instruction, but that may be argued in any new technology,” he said. “Faculty at a certain stage think, ‘Why learn this if students’ needs are being satisfied in traditional settings?’ - maybe you don’t need all these bells and whistles.”
Meeting halfway
Still, it is clear technology in the classroom is a reality at Southern Miss and beyond - and that faculty and administrators are trying to harness student interest in technology to enhance education.
“Students are used to getting content in different ways,” said library sciences professor Liz Haynes, who plans to incorporate podcasting into her courses soon. “We need to meet them in the middle - not go all the way to their side of doing things, maybe, but they shouldn’t have to come all the way to our side either.”