How to teach higher education in a digital age

Teaching in a Digital Age: How Should Technologies Shape Our Learning Space and Pedagogical Practices? According to a recent YouTube video, a student today will read 2,300 Web pages and 1,281 Facebook profiles this year, and 8 books. He or she will write 42 pages for class assignments this semester, and more than 500 pages of e-mail. Having grown up immersed in technologies such as the Internet, iPods, PDAs and cell phones, most of today's undergraduates are "digital natives" and so enter our classrooms with different experiences, expectations and learning styles than previous generations of students.

This workshop will explore some of the challenges and opportunities provided by technology and the students who use it. Many of today's Web technologies can be powerful tools for creating effective, engaging learning environments, yet some argue that the use of such technologies in the classroom is problematic in various ways. For example, handling different levels of technological expertise or different access to technological devices on the part of different students may be challenging, as may a faculty member's own skill and comfort level with various technologies. To what extent are faculty responsible for learning about and using these new technologies, and to what extent should they (or should they not) coax students away from technology for certain purposes, such as increasing their attention spans, introducing different modes of learning, or just simply reading pages from a book? Join us for a lively discussion of these and other issues around the use of digital technologies in the classroom.