A Discussion of “Bridging the Teacher-Student Divide: A Multimedia Approach to Reach Digital Native Learners”
I like to think of ways to teach that will make the experience more engaging for both the students and myself.
The crux of the problem is the gap between teaching and learning. Me standing there saying things to you does not necessarily translate into you learning.
Holbrook and Lean (2020) are addressing this issue but also focusing on what they call a teacher-student divide due to technology.
Essentially, the college students of today have been called digital natives because the online world has been an extensive part of their lives growing up. Good or bad, it means they relate to the world differently than their older professors.
They suggest a multimedia approach to bridge this gap.
Part of me agrees with the idea of trying to meet them where they are. But part of me is worried that it could come off gimmicky. Overall, I think the authors do share some ideas that are worth considering.
The Divide
They offer some statistics for Generation Z, the current college students.
- Their attention span is 8 seconds, down from Millennials’ 12 seconds
- YouTube is watched daily by 72%
- Nearly half, 44%, play video games daily
- And 58% agreed they are “heavily influenced” by social media comments.
The authors sum it up as “our students are steeped in digital technology, captivated by visual effects, and deeply concerned about what others think.” (p. 22)
The authors then note that the traditional lecture approach is one-dimensional, but since many current faculty were taught that way, it feels familiar and comfortable to the professors.
Thus the gap that needs to be bridged: professors who prefer lecturing and students with short attention spans not getting nearly as much visual input as they are used to!
Bridging the Gap
I do think there is something to this. And I am always in favor of trying to make things more interesting in the classroom, for both the students and the teacher.
Doing different things and using new materials keep me interested, which can only be an improvement for the students. If I am bored, how must they feel!
But it is more than being entertaining. We need to think through what the essential concepts we are trying to convey really are and then find ways to engage them to think about them.
My job is to create a good path for them to follow so they can learn.
Learning, as opposed to temporarily storing information, requires action from the students. They have to actively engage with the material and think about it.
Thinking critically is the key to learning.
Honestly, developing critical thinking is the key to college being a worthwhile experience. If K-12 is primarily about being told lots of factual information, then college is your chance to start thinking about why and how.
That is what employers want — people who know enough to function and can think enough on their own to solve problems.
Thus, I do not think it is the multimedia approach itself that matters as much as it is a tool that can be applied to encourage critical thinking, along with many others.
But given the facts about Gen Z above, a variety of approaches could only enhance the classroom experience.
Plus, a pure lecture-style does not translate well to online learning, which is becoming more common. And as Spring 2020 shows, you never know when you will be teaching remotely.
As the authors say,
To be truly transformative, learning should also include critical reflection and reflective discourse with other learners. (p. 22)
Multimedia Approaches
The authors gave some good suggestions that could be adapted across disciplines, although they teach management.
By multimedia they mean you can use a variety of resources such as
- Movie and other video clips because they find this more effective than TED talks, documentaries, or publisher-provided case-based videos
- TV show clips and commercials
- Songs with relevant lyrics
In addition to using a variety of materials, they suggest varying how you use them.
- You can assign them outside of class and then discuss in class how it connects to the lessons they are learning.
- You can watch them in class and then discuss.
- Or watch them towards the end of the discussion as a way to test their ability to find the concepts in the clip.
The authors do advise making periodic reminders that the material is not solely for entertainment. The intent is for them to learn to watch such things critically and recognize the material they are learning in class.
Pairing the material with discussion prompts that make them stop and think about what they just watched is the key.
Finally, one of my favorite suggestions concerned how teachers should find material to use.
On the one hand, they have said we need to include multimedia as a way to bridge the gap we have with these digital media natives.
But there is also the ever-present generation gap — how can we find what will interest them?
They include in their extensive appendixes an assignment form teachers could use to have the students find good multimedia materials.
Specifically, the assignment is to
Give each student five minutes or less at the beginning of class to present on a topic discussed in the previous class lecture…in one semester with 20 students each giving 4 presentations, 80 multimedia examples along with related non-textbook content will be provided. We suggest making notes on which media generate the most favorable student reactions and incorporate these links or references into future lectures. (p. 25)
I think this is brilliant because as the authors note, this is a great way to “keep pace with and remain relevant to our digital learners.” (p. 25)
Conclusion
Remembering a lot of information used to be an important part of education, but thanks to phones, anything you forgot can be Googled.
The ever-present phone keeps them awash in multimedia input: videos, games, social media, etc.
Using multimedia in the classroom makes sense not only because it keeps their attention, but it will help them be more critical consumers of all the information coming their way — honing the critical thinking skills they need.
References:
Holbrook, Jr., Robert and Emily Lean (2020). “Bridging the Teacher-Student Divide: A Multimedia Approach to Reach Digital Native Learners.” CBAR 15: 21–44
By Ellen Clardy, PhD on .
Exported from Medium on December 15, 2022.
