Last week I attended the national SBL/AAR meeting in San Francisco, and went to two excellent sessions on pedagogy in undergraduate education. One particularly great paper by my colleague and friend, Dr. Erica Martin, was about the use of technology in the brick and mortar classroom. I have struggled with student distraction in the use of cell phones in the classroom, and am frustrated with requesting students to put their cell phones away constantly. After listening to Erica’s session, I have a new philosophy: if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Erica spoke about using technology, such as cell phones, in the classroom as a learning tool. Per her suggestions, yesterday I incorporated the technology Poll Everywhere in my undergraduate course The Bible and Its Interpretation at St. Mary’s College.
The idea is simple. I create a question (multiple choice or open ended) and students text in their answers on their cell phones. Their answers appear live on the screen. The result: students loved it. LOVED it. Yesterday I tried out just a very simple question: Read Luke 4:16-21 and give an adjective that describes Jesus. Some of the answers students generated included “powerful”, “confident”, “spirit filled”, “cocky”, “naive” (nice one!), “arrogant”, “man in charge”, “sassy” and “sexy” (no idea, but I’ll run with it). Students were able to see all the answers of their peers on the screens, and students without cell phones were still able to participate. Of course, I encouraged the old fashioned “raise your hand” approach for additional answers!
The major advantage was that students who don’t normally participate verbally did participate via their phones. Score! Did students learn more through this pedagogical tool? I’m not sure—time will tell as I incorporate it more into the classroom. Did students engage more in the class overall as a result of using this technology in the class? Absolutely, 100%. It put students in a great mood and they were more eager to look at the text to determine their answers.
Tomorrow I’m planning on incorporating more of Poll Everywhere to discuss Asian American hermeneutics and the Gospel of John. Stay tuned!
Lastly, what technology have you incorporated successfully in your classroom?