Teaching Philosophy
Kelly Stack, Ph.D.
A few years ago a class of undergraduate UCLA students interacted through videoconferencing with a class of undergraduates at Tel Aviv University in Israel. Both classes were studying the relationship between the state of Israel and American Jews, and although their reading assignments had prepared them intellectually for the differences in perspective, it was clear that until the face-to-face encounter they had not really grasped the depth of the disparities. As the discussion progressed, they began to see that words like diaspora, zionism, religious, secular, had very different meanings in the two cultures. Their struggle to understand each other's point of view was exhilarating to observe. (read more...)
My involvement in the class had started over a question of funding that had threatened to derail the project, but it quickly became clear that the real danger to the project was the disconnect between two campus cultures: the academic and the technical. The professor cheerfully admitted to her own lack of experience with technology; this would be her first time in front of a video camera. While she knew she had to make some accommodations for the technology, her tolerance for it was low. On the technical side, my staff was desperate for details she seemed unable to provide. Even the number of students in the class and the room assignment were up in the air. It seemed nearly impossible to communicate the importance of precise, accurate information to planning for a smooth event.
As I mediated between my staff and the Jewish Studies professor, I encouraged our technicians to provide the professor with the context needed to understand the importance of the information being requested while cautioning them to limit their explanations to only the most relevant details. Although she needed to appreciate some of the complexities involved in order to make some adjustments to her normal preparatory process, I was concerned about overwhelming her, which might discourage her from continuing with the project. In the end, the class was a success and the technology supporting it had faded comfortably into the background.
Five Principles
The UCLA-Tel Aviv experience in many ways captures my approach to instructional development, which is guided by these principles:
- Technological solutions do not exist in a vaccuum. A thorough understanding of an instructor's goals and usual practices is required in order to make appropriate suggestions for integrating technology into teaching. This requires sensitive interrogation and active listening.
- Scope management is crucial to success. Incremental change is most likely to lead to long-term, sustainable change. Sometimes channeling enthusiasm toward achievable objectives is as difficult as overcoming reluctance to attempt minor modifications.
- Novices are easily overwhelmed. Carefully gauge and communicate only enough information to set context and cover relevant points. Provide reference materials and support resources for subsequent learning.
- Timing is everything. Take advantage of requests for help to gently push towards self-service through identification of existing resources, reinforcement of newly-learned techniques with supporting documentation, and reference to the broader context of the tool or system being used.
- Usability and accessibility go hand-in-hand with excellent teaching. A student's attention is a precious commodity, and unfriendly interfaces, bad lighting, substandard audio, and lack of organization are unacceptable distractions. Universal design - involving relatively minor attention to accessibility considerations at the beginning and throughout the instructional design process - pays off in teaching materials that are structured to accommodate not only people employing non-traditional methods to access content, but also are more extensible and sustainable over the long run.