Technology Finds Its Place in Classes

PRS Clickers, blogs, and even Google’s Android cell phone are all showing up in classrooms across Harvard’s campus. But many Harvard professors say that though the days of internet-free classrooms may be long over, nothing will replace face to face interactions in the classroom that are the foundation of Harvard’s Cambridge-style education model.

According to a recent article in the New York times, institutions are becoming more and more willing to pour scarce dollars into interactive technologies for the classroom.

Online institutions like the University of Pheonix, Devry, and even Harvard’s own Extension School offer convenient and relatively inexpensive online courses, to busy mid-career students looking to beef up their resumes.

Professor of Education Christopher J. Dede told the NY Times that technology could never match the “home runs” that human tutors can deliver. “With technology,” he told the paper, “we don’t aspire to home runs, but good solid angles.”

Many of his colleagues at Harvard agree that though technology can be a valuable resource—helping to foster lively discussions both inside and outside of the classroom—it cannot replace the experience of attending an institution of higher learning.

“If you could skip college and go straight to the internet, it wouldn’t be needed,” said Richard M. Losick, a professor of biology and head tutor in the Molecular and Cellular Biology department. “The Harvard experience would be missing.”

For years, undergraduate students in popular courses like Physical Sciences 1 have used a device popularly known as the PRS Clicker, which is used for in-class question and answer sessions—or often, pop quizzes.

The device was created in 1994 by

Physics Professor Eric Mazur who said that his aim in developing the device was to enhance rather than distract from the learning process.

Losick, who joint-teaches the undergraduate course Molecular Cellular Biology 52, is one of a number of faculty members who have embraced the clicker as a teaching supplement.

“I like seeing the class become raucous because students are discussing—going through what it took to understand the material.”

Applied math concentrator Michael T. Fountaine ’12 said that a Greek language class that he took in the spring relied heavily on a computer program that facilitated interactions with other students learning Greek at Stanford.

“We had blogs with running dialogue, online quizzes, and listening exercises, which were extremely helpful,” he said.

But don’t look for Harvard to send undergraduate courses online any time in the near future.

“Learning is a social process,” Mazur said. “Technology, if used properly, can enhance this process.”