Can technology in the classroom change the culture of teaching and learning? Could this culture be more democratic and give a voice to participants who in regular seminars would not be heard? Let us listen to Hannah Peter an exchange student from Canada who talks about a Classroom Response System she has tried out as a teaching assistant in lectures at RheinAhrCampus. Then we hear from a professor Jalal Kawash, also from Canada who has been using Classroom Response Systems for years. Finally, Tsegaye Misikir Tashu from Hungary talks about a tool for Automated Essay Evaluation where professors can leave the reading and grading of essays to a computer program. Should we be scared by such innovations in the culture of teaching and learning?
absolutely learnable
In our first category “absolutely learnable”, Hannah Peter from Canada who is both, an exchange student from Brock University in Canada and a course assistant at RheinAhrCampus explains what Classroom Response systems are and how they can change the culture and the teaching methods in the classroom. “How we learn” is as important as “what we learn” in the classroom. Hannah explains how new technology can help give students the confidence to “speak up” anonymously in a big group. She suggests ideas to change the culture of teaching by giving more power to the quiet and shy students.
absolutely teachable
In the second category “absolutely teachable” Jalal Kawash, also from Canada talks about the teacher’s perspective of making the classroom more interactive. He is very positive about including CRS in teaching but also warns that technology can backfire when we are not careful about how we use it in the classroom.
absolutely automated
In our final category ‘absolutely automated’ we hear from Tsegaye Misikir Tashu, from Hungary who talks about a tool for Automated Essay Evaluation which assesses, evaluates, and grades essays automatically without the professor even looking at them, by measuring how close the students get to the professor’s model answers. Is this a piece of educational science fiction?
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Our next show will be coming to you from Anne Fox in Denmark on 1 June.
Until then –
Bleiben Sie absolut interkulturell!
The host of this show is: Dr. Laurent Borgmann
Editor: Hari Gautham Somasundaram
Assistants: Marina Jimenez Martin & Asim Zaman