Re: Appropriate technology; was: Scanning problems

[Doug Craigen <dcc@ESCAPE.CA>]

> > to convey (which was pedagogy rather than physics). I have seen
> > business types use Powerpoint this way too, but the visuals were
> > never very necessary, and their static nature would have suited
> > them well to prepared transparencies.
>
> > All these things boil down to the use of appropriate technology.
> > I don't need a G4 Mac to do most of what I do. I *could* use one
> > (and I do use a G3 in my astronomy lectures, to run Starry Night
> > Pro) of course, but the overhead and a few colored pens still
> > work well for most purposes.
>
> To which I can only add:  hear! hear!  Too often the medium obscures the
> message.

Ironically even though I make my living consulting, designing etc for
technology... I am much less taken in by it than most people I know. I
still don't have a CD player on the stereo and only recently surpassed a
20" tv screen.  As for physics lectures, I use chalk.  For
demonstrations I am far more likely to bring my guitar, a rubber band, a
sink stopper (makes a great spinning top), or skipping rope than I am to
bring in a computer.  Yes I have web pages for the class, but I find
very little call for bringing technology into the classroom.  However,
one of the questions on the student evaluations at the U of Winnipeg
(yes I'm teaching a class sessionally there again) has the students rate
how effective the professor was in using technological aids.  I suppose
I forego marks there in order to teach the way I know how.

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Doug Craigen
          Latest Project - the Physics E-source
          http://www.dctech.com/physics/