Considering Classroom Computers

KUSHAL DAVE/YH

Gone are the days in which finishing a problem set required a long sprint up Science Hill to a distant departmental mailbox five minutes before a deadline; e-mail now allows many students to submit answers via a click of the mouse. Gone too are the days in which confusion over a lecture meant going to a professor's office hours or making an appointment with a TA; newsgroups permit students to join in debate with teachers and classmates from the comfort of their own dorm rooms. As Yale and individual educators alike take steps to incorporate technology into curricula, will virtual and multimedia learning outmode the textbook, the classroom, or even the professor?

These are the questions raised by various recent developments in the classroom, and they are brought into focus by the information technology (IT) portion of the Yale Self-Study Report, part of Yale's reaccreditation process. All areas of technology use on campus demonstrate significant growth, so that among other things:

• Academic Media & Technology (AMT) has a budget of $5.1 million and has 47 employees
• Information Technology Services (ITS) has a budget of $45 million and has 325 employees
• More than 400 (38%) of Yale's classes use AMT resources in some way
• There are 17,000 email accounts and 13,700 network connections
• There are 3,625 (82%) of Yale's undergraduates connected to the network
• There is 1 cluster computer for every 18 students

The report acknowledges, however, that the promising numbers do not tell the whole story. "Several intrinsic conditions make technology planning particularly challenging: the rapid pace of technological development and obsolescence, the false or premature promise of some new technologies, the difficulty of assessing the educational effects of any innovation, the high unit costs of deploying technology at or near the leading edge, and the substantial costs of providing increasingly sophisticated computing expertise and support," explained the report. "In this dynamic environment, the University must constantly assess its absolute and relative investments in innovation, generalization, and infrastructure."

Philip Long, Director of AMT, seconded the words of the report committee, co-chaired by ITS director Daniel Updegrove. "What is a measure of impact?" Long asked. "How can we tell if technology is making a difference in teaching and learning? Basic statistics describe what is happening but do not convey effect. To date, the clear measure of perceived effect is that instructors go to significant effort to use information technologies in their teaching because they believe it makes a difference "

Servering Ties

With the introduction last spring of the classes.yale.edu server, ITS believed it was providing the opportunity for many Yale professors to take their classes online in an organized, streamlined manner. Many Yale classes already had web sites scattered across Elsinore (www.yale.edu) and departmental servers, but the new server created a centralized location and a standardized format for professors to display online class materials. The server was designed to save professors the difficulty of building their own sites and spare students from having to hunt down the location of their classes' webpages.

At its inception last semester, only 20 professors placed class information on the server; today 154 classes make use of the server. On the whole, faculty and students approve of the idea of the classes server, but use of it is still not widespread, making the service less useful. Brenda Pai, MC '01, said, "I think the idea behind classes.yale.edu has merit, but in its present form, it links to hardly any of the classes with existing web pages, which makes finding class web pages just as inconvenient as previously."

Long suggests that the more important issue is making it possible for classes previously lacking web pages to begin using them. "Classes.yale.edu was our effort to lower the barriers for all interested faculty to post course web pages, news groups, chat sessions, share course materials, collect homework, etc." he said. "It was a way to empower interested instructors to help themselves - if everyone needed staff help to succeed, not many instructors would be using this technology!"

George Hall, Professor of Economics, posts class lectures on an Internet site that most of his students visit. But he posts this information to his account in the economics department and not to the classes server. He explains that it is faster for him to work from his own account because "it saves ... one step in the process."

Take Note

Hall is one example of initiatives taken by individual departments and professors to incorporate technology into the classroom independent of ITS's help. He has found that supplying lecture notes to his students in advance via the Internet has enhanced the classroom experience for himself and his students. "There are several advantages to doing this," he said. "Students can focus on understanding the material instead of trying to write down every word from every overhead. I can also cover material, especially math, much faster since students don't have to worry about copying down every algebraic step. Students who miss a class due to an illness or a game do not need to come to me to ask what I covered." He also adds that it helps students at the back of large lecture halls who cannot see the board, which initially gave him the idea to set up the online notes.

Hall acknowledges that certain students probably abuse his policy and think they can skip class with impunity. However, he stresses that his web postings complement but do not substitute his lectures. "Students pay $30,000 a year to go to Yale. If all they want is a web-based course, they could get that for a lot less elsewhere. But students are adults and can make their own decisions," he said.

Jeff Ratner, JE '01, is currently enrolled in Professor Hall's Introductory Macroeconomics class and is a fan of the electronically-aided approach. "I think Professor Hall's lecture strategy is very effective. It's much easier to concentrate on the lecture and understand the salient points when you don't have to worry about jotting down every sentence," Ratner said.

Cyber Babel

Yale has also taken steps to advance class-related technology with the recent establishment of the Center for Language Study (CLS). Founded in 1998, the mission of the new center is to coordinate and support all language programs at Yale, particularly by strengthening the use of technology in language teaching. Currently, Yale offers 54 different languages, but prior to the CLS there was no single campus-wide department to organize the teaching of language.

The CLS will operate two main facilities, a faculty development lab and a multimedia classroom in the basement of One Hillhouse Avenue. The development lab will teach members of the language faculty to use digital, audio, video, and web materials and integrate them into their classes. The lab will complement a similar resource in Rosenfeld Hall. The multimedia classroom, which will open on an experimental basis in the spring of 2000 and permanently the next fall, will be used for teaching students and will feature 28 student computers and one instructor computer. This room will facilitate the use of computers by students during class. The CLS was made possible by a two-million-dollar five-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and its funding will be continued by the University when the grant expires in 2003.

Director of Language Study Nina Garrett explains that cooperation with the newly-formed AMT. They will work together to "provide access to technology for all language teachers campus-wide," she said. Ms. Garrett anticipates installing specialty computer clusters where language students can take advantage of listening and speaking programs on the computer without having to worry about disturbing users of neighboring computers. She would like to see this type of equipment in every residential college but added that this is far off in the future because "managing computing for 54 different languages is a non-trivial task."

You Can CD Future

While Yalies often take it for granted that the textbooks they use in their classes were written by their professors, students in Jace Weaver's American Studies Class found themselves among the first on campus to study from their teacher's very own CD-ROM. American Studies 106, "Introduction to Native American Studies," relies entirely upon the use of a CD developed by Professor Weaver as a supplement to class lectures; no textbooks are used.

Professor Weaver is very excited about this innovation because of the tremendous degree of flexibility it allows him. "I believe that one advantage to using a CD-ROM is the sheer amount of material it can contain, far more than a book. The wide variety of media is also incredible—my CD-ROM has photographs, and even film, video, and audio clips. It can be used in the classroom and at home, and it gives students tremendous access to resources. If I want students to have looked at a series of slides prior to class, it makes it really easy," he said.

Catherine Davis, ES '03, is enrolled in Professor Weaver's class and supports the use of the CD-ROM, but she is also aware of difficulties produced by the technology. "I really like the CD-ROM because it allows us to use a lot of documents without having to carry around lots of books. The program does cause my computer to crash often, and if I didn't have my own computer in my room I might find studying frustrating, but as things stand overall, I like it," she said.

Long has mixed feelings about the use of CD-ROM's. "In general, web distribution will probably have a longer lifespan than CD; we like to see web materials delivered off of CD when that is possible. Some situations (e.g. interactive video) simply work better directly off CD using custom interfaces," he said. "We would hope to connect instructors with the technology most appropriate to their need with an understanding of future trends." Both the library as well as ITS staff are now working on improving multimedia capacity and investigating novel methods of delivery.

But Who Will Teach the Teachers?

Both Hall and Weaver say that they were not asked by their departments to use more technology in their teaching but came up with the ideas themselves. However, they both say that when they presented their proposals to their colleagues, they found widespread support. Hall adds that because different professors use technology in different ways, he thinks "a decentralized approach works best." Garrett echoes this sentiment, saying that the purpose of the CLS is to provide opportunities for technology use but not to force it upon anyone.

Antoine McNamara, MC '01, also reports the incorporation of technology into curriculum by one of his professors. He explained that in Computer Science 323, "everything is based upon the use of technology, from the actual subject matter of the course to getting our grades. We submit out problem sets electronically and a grading script generates our scores." Even final grades are issued by a computerized script. However, he said he does not feel that the class is impersonal because of the heavy use of the class newsgroup. Anyone with questions emails Professor Eisenstat, who replies and posts the response for the entire class's benefit.

Long recognizes that adoption rates will vary and are contingent on assistance from AMT. "Some areas are intimately tied to these technologies, e.g., molecular modeling, statistics and many more, so it seems prima facie obvious that technology makes a difference for them," he said. "Leadership on teaching and learning comes from individual instructors and also from the college and school deans offices. We work to partner with anyone who is interested within the limits of our resources."

Present(ing) Tense

Physics Professor Kurt Gibble, who teaches Physics 180, started using Microsoft's PowerPoint last year for his lectures. "I really like it," he said. "It's different. It's certainly different, and you have to acknowledge that it's different. The danger of it is that you can go very quickly, and that's also the benefit."

Since Gibble does not spend time writing on a board, and since handouts of the slides save students the need to frantically copy down notes, he feels time is freed for interaction and contemplation. "You can create interactive demonstrations that you can work on during the lecture," Gibble said. "I think it really is a feature that you walk out of lecture not just thinking you understood, but feeling you understood it."

He adds that by using a radio mouse, he is freed from having to remain at the blackboard, which is several feet from the front row. "I think it makes a big difference," he said.

Gibble explained that response has been mostly positive. In fact, students were surprised to discover that they would have to start taking notes again in the Physics 181, the next class in the series. "However, there were five, maybe 10 percent who said that it goes too fast and that they learn much better by taking notes," he said.

The amount of work for making a presentation is greater than preparing a lecture, but it's a one-time cost. The process is complicated by the fact that PowerPoint was intended more for presenting lists of bullets than physics equations, and by the need to make slides for answers for likely questions. "It takes a lot of work. I got to using it through research talks, and it's a fairly standard tool in the field," Gibble said. "You really have to anticipate what the obstacles in the learning are. [But] you always have the blackboard to fall back on."

Gibble had doubts about the need to provide financial incentives for innovation. "I don't need more money," he said. "I need more time."

As far as classrooms, he didn't see much need for network connectivity or computers in the lecture halls, citing the lack of reliability when using the network and the equipment of others. "I think it's useless to provide a computer in the lecture hall," he said. "You really need to own a laptop."

The self-study lists only 19 courses as using in-class technology this semester. Last year, only 30 classes over both semesters are thought to have done so. Clearly, this area lags behind other venues of technology-assisted education.

Long offers a variety of reasons. "Classroom presentation lagging web/email use could be because there are barriers to classroom use or it could be because the benefits are less apparent (or real) than web/email use," he said. "Barriers to classroom use include the availability of classroom projection, instructor machines and software and faculty support/training."

Long detailed several steps that have been taken to educate and provide for faculty. In addition, renovations in Linsley-Chittenden included, among other things, providing network connectivity at every seat in LC 101. Projection systems were added to 12 classrooms this year, and improvements in infrastructure for classrooms will continue.

And A Couple of Clicks Away . . .

At Harvard University, reliance upon a decentralized approach also seems to be the mode of operation. "Until this semester, I have never taken a course that was very tech-dependent," Emily Wallach, '00, said. "Right now, though, I am in a class where we have reading responses that we must post on the Internet before a certain time each week, and this way you can not only get feedback from your professor or teaching fellow, but you can read all of your classmates' essays." She adds that while many courses have useful web pages, "it is mainly only the larger classes or the ones in which the professor or TF is really knowledgeable about technology."

Inclusion of technological advances into curricula has taken strong hold at Cornell University. Mike Zivin, '00, explained, "Cornell's new Johnson School of Management has a fabulous course called Entrepreneurship and Enterprise where one unit of the class is taught via teleconferencing by a professor all the way in California. It was a bit strange at first, but the camera moved in all directions so it seemed fairly realistic." He adds that technology can also greatly improve large lecture classes. "In Introduction to Psychology," the largest undergraduate class in the Ivy League with over 2000 students, use of the computer improved efficiency. "Exams were corrected using Scantron and scores were posted on the class website within an hour of the test," Zivin said.

While Yale already has some classes in which grades are determined electronically, we may have to wait a while for distance-learning classes conducted via teleconferencing. Garrett said that the CLS's vision for the future includes broadcasting Yale language classes to other universities around the nation, so that students at schools where fewer languages are taught can benefit from Yale's faculty and technology. However, she adds that this idea may not be realized for years to come.

Surprisingly, the numbers for IT in the Yale self-study are given no context—there is no comparison to other schools. However, there are very standardized figures comparing Yale's library holdings to those of others. Long explained, "IT is not sufficiently mature to date for us to know of a standard set of statistics which would provide comparison across schools on IT capacity."

ITS Ongoing

The report lists several areas for development of IT resources, especially in terms of staff, training and infrastructure. The report suggests that grants and prizes will encourage use of innovative technology among professors. Long also suggests that tighter integration into the student information system, known as Banner, may be a goal. "This is a definite goal for AMT and, I believe, for Student Financial and Administrative Services," he said. "Note that Classes.yale.edu already gets a feed of class information from Banner and this has been a significant advance over existing commercial course web page systems. We hope to build on that experience."

The self-study's bold language painted a mouth-watering image of the future: "In the classroom and outside it, on the network and in the wide variety of learning spaces that Yale creates for its students—from library reading rooms to residential college computer clusters and museum gallery space—faculty and students are coming together with information specialists and collection curators to shape vital new pedagogies."

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