Investigationsvol. 4

The Classroom and Technology in Recent Times

A deep dive into the world of the changing classroom

—By Vyom Grover


When UM classes transitioned to Zoom during Covid, Neil Johari found the integration of technology into his classes both essential to his learning, as well as a hurdle. He mentioned that “within theory heavy classes, having access to technology to access notes and materials was extremely helpful,” but how in more “project based classes, the use of technology for such notes and the classroom” setting was either useless or an annoyance.

From paper textbooks and in person classes to online readings and virtual classrooms,  educational technologies are always changing. But has this always been beneficial? How have people improved or worsened in the classroom with the implementation of technological resources?

Johari mentions that the use of Zoom “helped [him] slow down or speed up pre-recorded lectures which allowed [him] to take notes that actually aided [him] rather than just scrambling whatever was on the slides.” Using Zoom during Covid helped him pace himself rather than try to catch up with everything the professor would throw at him. This experience gave him “an easier time with fellow grads as compared to some of the old timers,” increasing his ability to adapt to the newer environments. 

What exactly is the tech that we use?

The use of technology has improved the quality of education for many students around the world. In fact, Purdue University explains how with the accessibility of technology in the classroom, less affluent kids now have the similar resources and access to information as affluent kids. The article also speaks on the use of Google Docs to collaborate with other students and the use of classrooms online to “keep track of assignments and work much more seamlessly than the stacks of papers before.”

With the focus upon the University of Michigan, the common uses of technology in the classroom are Canvas, and Zoom. Canvas is a web-based learning management platform in which students can manage their classes and teachers can also update the assignments and send announcements. Zoom is an online conferencing  platform where teachers can give lectures and pre-record their lectures to upload to Canvas for future viewing. Many students use these 2 resources in recent times and with the increased dependency on them, the traditional classroom has been diminished significantly.

The advantages to tech

Educational Technology and Society by Albert Rof, Andera Bikfalvi, and Pilar Marques speaks about the advantages of letting Zoom based classes take place since the expansion of the classroom to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has given professors a wider audience and teaching reach. Alongside this set of classrooms it goes on to say how the pandemic has evened the use of these classrooms in conjunction with the other materials and forms of education that is provided now thus giving college students a more balanced curriculum. They also explain how the multimode learning system is more personalized towards the student thus giving them a better grasp of the concepts taught and influences innovation at one’s own pace under “contextual, organizational, and individual factors.”

Accounting Assistant Professor Dennis Oswald from a Michigan Daily article exclaimed that though the initial transition to Zoom during Covid was not ideal, he realized that an online environment could be more efficient and accessible for students seeking help outside of class. He wants to “continue office hours online in the future because it gives [him] the opportunity to reach more students.” Oswald also praised features such as the breakout rooms in Zoom had so that students could get to know each other better in class. 

Electrical Engineering Professor James Juett also paralleled these thoughts as he explained that students have expressed that they felt more comfortable with remote office hours due to their accessibility and convenience. In addition, chemistry professor Anne McNeil also expressed that though the online environment may have been an adjustment for the professors and students, the ability to incorporate more guest lecturers was an amazing benefit. McNeil said, “One of the biggest advantages to online learning, namely Zoom, was that it is much easier to get truly amazing, but busy people to guest lecture.”

Kevin Begic, a UM Alum, describes how Zoom allowed him to follow his lectures and content material at his own pace which gave a major advantage over in person classes. He mentions how the “online aspect greatly helped [him]”, “allowing him to explore deeper concepts that would’ve been missed in the original lecture.” He also mentioned his job as a software engineer at Amazon and computer science major made online work second nature, paralleling Johari’s experience. 

College in the Time of Coronavirus by Kelly and Columbus from the American Enterprise Institute argues that the implementation of online learning is beneficial overall even though the initial implementation may have been rusheds. Though colleges rely on auxiliary costs from students for materials, the new hybrid or online setting is the poised interpretation of the future. They mentioned how “The hybridity of the classroom is essential to newer classrooms given the changing times.” They say that though online learning may not necessarily be the best medium to take information, the changing times and advancements that provide more convenience will add up to greater benefits than the costs.

Current UM Computer Science and Math junior Sudhan Annamalai also speaks on the benefits of his use of technology. He explains that since “[his] majors are dedicated to computers and math, thus the implementation of Canvas and pre-recorded lectures significantly helped him.” He exclaimed that the previous iterations of class “may have been difficult for him since the lecture would be much faster thus harder to catch up with.” His discontent with Zoom however is due to the extra distractions at home.

The dark side

With the great added benefits of the use of Zoom as a replacement for the in person classroom and the pre-recorded lectures to aid students to go at their own pace of learning, comes the hindrance of organization and the in person engagement of the classroom. 

UM Aerospace Junior Anshul Friedman-Jha mentioned how Zoom and Canvas have both significantly helped him in his engineering and computer science classes but that each class was different. He said, “because each class had a different structure, it was more difficult to maintain consistency with the online structure.” He also mentioned that as a freshmen, “coming into college with Zoom as the primary medium for [his] classes, it became very demotivating overtime since the personal connection was minimal.” He talked about how the growing pains of the difficulty of college and with Covid-19, caused limited interaction. It played into the model of making his experience worse with the use of Zoom and with the University’s over reliance on Canvas.

A study from Admiral Wilfried and his associates from the Computers and Education Journal in which they did a study with around 1600 professors from 59 different universities explaining the effect and use of online learning for the classroom as an example of their use of differing Technology Acceptance Models (TAMs). The study examined the differences and described the technological implementations as more “tech oriented” rather than “user oriented” which meant to say that the online platforms caused more stress on students and the professors as opposed to reducing it. This compounded with the screen anxiety and attenuation mentioned in the study led many students to perform worse in classrooms as seen by the study.

However, the negative shade of technology does not speak for the entire experience by all students. UM Neuroscience Junior Shriya Karmarkar speaks about her experiences with technology in college. She mentions how the advent of technology has helped her more than it has hurt her in class. She speaks about how “for students that may have trouble listening to a straight 90 minute lecture, like [her], it helps significantly,” since she said she could “watch the recordings on Canvas at her own pace.” She also mentioned the use of small pieces of technology called iClickers, which keep students engaged with the lectures. For her the flexibility of attending classes when possible but being able to catch up later due to unexpected absence is what she likes best about the evolution of the classroom. 

Like the positives, Shriya also mentions some downsides of her experience with technology. She spoke about how “with so much technology involved in daily learning, it’s extremely difficult…to spend time away and relax.” She also mentioned the strain and screen fatigue due to excess blue light that she faced personally during the Zoom period of Covid-19. Shriya mentioned how even though the use of Canvas and pre-recorded lectures aided her learning, the use of Zoom solely hindered ability to learn due to the distractions at home with the slow pace of the class and “the virtual wall” between her and the professor. She believed that Zoom “hindered the accountability in class and interactivity with the class material” as well, thus causing a less productive use of her time.

German department Professor Mary Gell at UM also describes the stress that the online learning platform Zoom has put on professors and students alike.“There’s so much to think about,” Gell said. “You have to rethink your whole course. That’s what can be so overwhelming, just thinking, how do I have this make the most sense for the [online] format?”

Brookings also mentions the difficulties that technology can bring to the classroom, specifically with Covid-19 in mind. The article mentions how change of the classroom to a more distant setting showed many that the schools were not in the stage to approach a remote classroom as of yet. The instructional core of the current schooling system was seen to be in the physical classroom with the teacher in closer proximity to the students. The article goes more in depth on how to adjust for a technologically based classroom for all schooling systems but also continues to explain how the current system was quite behind when it came to implementing the newer technologies such as, pre-recorded lectures, zoom use, online assignments, and more techniques as well.

The future and our realizations

Realizing that technology has not only penetrated the classroom but every aspect of almost every life in the western world is key. Technology affects many aspects of our life from the basics of calculations to social media to even our primary form of communication with peers now. The worldwide connection that the advent of technology has brought about to us from the original dial phone to the current day device that gives us access to the world at our fingertips, technology has evolved significantly.

Many classrooms were shaken up due to the pandemic of Covid-19 and this caused schools to take last minute measures to try and accommodate their teaching methods differently, however, for the majority use of Zoom, it ended up failing to an extent. Conversely, the use of pre-recorded lectures and the comparative overuse of Canvas turned out to be helpful for students especially at UM since all of their activities were in one place to be organized on their calendar as they saw fit. Anyways, the overarching conclusion shows that aside from a couple instances of inconvenience, that amongst UM students and professors the implementation of these 2 technologies has given a boost to their ability and accessibility to learn.

 

Photo by Sergey Zolkin from Unsplash