This is a topic I put a lot of thought into (present tense). I see technology handled so poorly in the classroom, even by fully qualified instructors who should know better.
Mathematics
My mathematical training was done between two schools (but mostly BYU). The BYU math department always came across as very anti-technology to me, except finally in a partial-differential equations class in which the professor used Matlab to demonstrate Fourier series. But that was it. Throughout the program, no mention of software packages, numerical methods, even calculator tips.
I understand the aversion many mathematicians teaching students feel towards letting the students use too much technology at the expense of not learning the material. But it’s not a very practical standpoint when taken to an extreme, as in where no calculators are allowed to be used in the class, ever. You’re going to use a calculator in any real-life situation, or something more powerful. You may as well learn to use it from the beginning.
Any student worth his or her salt will use technology as much as possible to facilitate the exercise of his or her skills, and engineers will try to utilize the mathematical tools as much as possible so that they can focus on the other portions of problem-solving.
(On a side note, where on earth are engineers supposed to learn how to do proofs? I basically failed a mathematics class several years ago, because the tests consisted of six or seven proofs, which I have never been trained to do. I’ve since learned to do proofs by contradiction, but that’s it.)
Also, the utilization of visual demonstrations will help most students understand the point better. I used Mathcad to help my brother understand what a derivative was.
Demonstrating the derivative with Mathcad
After all the confusing explanations he’d had in class, seeing me plot (and actively change!) the function, and being himself able to interact with the program, helped him immensely to grasp the nature of the rate of change with respect to a variable.
Presentation
I’ve also been following the Zen model of presentations, in which simple but powerful slides are used to effectively convey information. What should the relationship of this style be to engineering?
I actually picked up Al Gore’s book, An Inconvenient Truth, and thumbed through it a few weeks ago. I was amazed at how well he could use images to promote his story. Whatever I may think of his premise, I cannot for a moment challenge the artistry that went into selling it. How can we use graphical storytelling like that to transform science and engineering education?
I realize that most engineering lectures are a data dump, and that most engineers never have and never will receive any formal training in design. But there has to be a better way to go from seeing mainly this*:
to something like this, supplemented by knowing the above:
I suspect that perhaps a set of handouts/notes different from the actual slides, with more information on them, could solve this. I do remember being completely turned off by long lectures of equations and text, even though normally seeing such things in a textbook turns me on. I guess part of the problem is that it places a greater burden on the teacher and his assistants to prepare two such sets, and to ensure that they correspond well when updates are made.
I don’t know that there’s much hope to change any of this soon. I’ve thought about taking some engineering education courses, trying to work on the problem (and maybe writing up something that can help allay it), but for now, my task consists mostly of observation of what does and doesn’t work, and why. As any of you go into higher education, remember to reconsider and reexamine how technology can help you get your message across to you students more effectively, and how it can help them complete their tasks better.
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*With apologies to Dr. Wheeler. Both of these are from one of his note pages, and I’m using them to make a point, not to criticize.
