Suzanne Eckes, an Assistant Professor in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies department, faced a common problem, one that many professors face. Several times a week, she would face a lecture hall of 100-plus students, a distractible, diverse group armed with laptops and iPods and cell phones, and attempt to capture and retain their attention.

While her lectures were thoughtful, persuasive, and filled with important content, she realized she wasn't fully engaging the entire class. She was hoping, also, for more interaction from the students, who were generally very passive. One advantage she had in this struggle for attention was that the classroom she taught in was equipped with a computer, a projector and a large screen, which was visible to all of the students. Like most professors, she used this setup to project her Powerpoint slides. She did her best to make them more than just a collection of bullet points, incorporating images and photographs where appropriate. But still, she thought she could do more.

Her next lecture was on Brown vs. Board of Education, the landmark school desegregation case. This important event in our nation was unfortunately, generally hard for her students to relate to. She wanted to make this period more accessible to her Gen Y students. She remembered that she had a videotape which had footage of the era. “The clip,” Eckes states, “did a nice job demonstrating the difference in resources between white and black public schools pre-1954.”

While she could have just popped the VHS video into her classroom VCR, Eckes didn't want to have to deal with fastforwarding and rewinding the tape, and dealing with the fragility of the medium. She came to our office and we assisted her in capturing the clip in digital form and providing her with a Quicktime clip that she could play along with her presentation.

“After we discussed state resistance to the Brown v. Board decision, I showed a short clip that featured the Little Rock 9 at Central High School,” Eckes states. “When the discussion moved to the present day resegregation of schools, I had a newsclip explaining how some public schools are more resegregated today than they were in the 1960s. I never use more than 5 minutes of video clips during a 1 hour and 15 minute lecture. Even though the amount of time is actually short, the clips effectively compliment the lecture and other interactive activities. Although the video clips are a very minor part of the lecture, the students really enjoy them. The clips not only directly relate to the lesson, but they help students visualize the current controversy.”

This is just one of the many technological innovations that the staff of the Instructional Consulting office has assisted faculty members and associate instructors in implementing. Why not come visit us today to discuss your pedagogical and technological needs?