PR Studies

Are we teaching twits?

 What an excellent article and intelligent discussion in the Chronicle of Higher Education from the US (via Judy Gombita).

In the red corner is the admission that linear PowerPoint lectures are not engaging for students, who are already distracted by private conversations, laptops and mobile phones. So why not channel this energy positively and have the students post their questions and comments on Twitter?

In the blue corner is the case that higher education is not about cramming bite-sized chunks of digestible knowledge, but should be about understanding a process of thinking about problems. So students need to follow lengthy and subtle arguments without becoming distracted.

It's such as strong debate because both sides are right. To explain this, if I were teaching English or History I would insist on attention to the text with few distractions. But I'm teaching public relations - and multitasking and communications are key qualities.

Conceptually, two-way is better than one-way; engagement is better than just listening. Teaching is conversations, to borrow from Cluetrain, but for now I'd rather these conversations took place within the walls of the classroom. But I'm open to persuasion and may attempt my own experiment soon.

Comments

Are we teaching twits?

 What an excellent article and intelligent discussion in the Chronicle of Higher Education from the US (via Judy Gombita).

In the red corner is the admission that linear PowerPoint lectures are not engaging for students, who are already distracted by private conversations, laptops and mobile phones. So why not channel this energy positively and have the students post their questions and comments on Twitter?

In the blue corner is the case that higher education is not about cramming bite-sized chunks of digestible knowledge, but should be about understanding a process of thinking about problems. So students need to follow lengthy and subtle arguments without becoming distracted.

It's such as strong debate because both sides are right. To explain this, if I were teaching English or History I would insist on attention to the text with few distractions. But I'm teaching public relations - and multitasking and communications are key qualities.

Conceptually, two-way is better than one-way; engagement is better than just listening. Teaching is conversations, to borrow from Cluetrain, but for now I'd rather these conversations took place within the walls of the classroom. But I'm open to persuasion and may attempt my own experiment soon.