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[Student voices] "Good." [Laughter] "Beautiful!" "I really - end-stage liver." "So...."
[Rob Porter with student voices in background] How many different ways can we come up with--can
you list--that a liver can become infected? You can either draw it with arrows or you
can just list one, two, three, four, five. [Student voices] "It’s definitely by blood
so that’s when you get your anabolic showering." "Form of damage? Like trauma." "That’s infection."
"I think so, yeah." "Trauma." "Cirrhosis is where you get that--fibrosis
in the nodules." "Yeah so--" "Probably. I would think." "Like the figure."
[Rob Porter with student voices in background] Take another minute. But we’re not done yet.
With a different color, would you show me how the bile--what’s the movement of bile?
[Student voices] "In the other direction, isn't it?"
"You can change it to green, how convenient." [Laughter.]
[Rob Porter with student voices in background] See if you can get a different color and demonstrate
that for me. [Student voices] "Ours is Christmas colors."
"Ours is anatomically correct. It has blood in red and bile in green." "Blood in red and
bile in green. That’s pretty awesome." "We’re doing good."
[Rob Porter with student voices in background] This is my veterinary pathology classroom.
Students are engaged. There is active discussion and banter - during lecture! How did we get
here? Let’s go back a few weeks earlier. [Harp music]
The veterinary students appear bored and distant today. Many of them have been missing class
as well. They indicate that they learn better by reviewing powerpoint slides and reading
notes from the class. However, many students still claim that didactic
lecture is valuable to their learning. [Rob Porter with student voices in background]
So in summary there are four types of vagal indigestion, which is decreased function of
the vagus nerve, cranial nerve ten, and ultimately this can affect the function of the abomasum
and forestomachs in the cow. So, are there any questions? Is anyone listening?
Bueller? .... Bueller? [Crickets chirping]
What do millennial students need? They prefer a variety of learning methods;
They do not typically value information for information’s sake…learning outcomes
and activities must be relevant and practical. They need a rationale for what they are learning:
“How is this information useful to my career as a veterinarian?”;
They prefer less formal learning environments; and
They prefer to work in groups and to interact with their instructors - they enjoy it when
their instructors show interest in them. My dilemmas in the lecture room include
Is lecture really necessary? Do I understand the millennial student?
Do my colleagues care about this issue? [B minor cello music]
So, what is my role as an instructor? Someone who fills the students’ brains with
facts and figures, to be spewed out on an examination, and later forgotten?
Oh, I can’t handle that pressure!
[Piano music with tap dancing sounds]
Am I an entertainer? Someone who uses visuals, humor, and music to maintain student engagement?
[Football announcer, crowd noise] Or am I a coach who mediates the learning
process and then watches it unfold? Maybe I’m a little bit of all these things.
Millennials seem to like to work in groups, and use of group learning methods seems to
work in my pathology lab. For example, I have students work in groups
to create three-dimensional models of intestinal and respiratory diseases, allowing them to
exhibit their creativity along with their understanding of the topic, not just to me
but to one another. Can we apply this model of group learning
in the veterinary lecture room? First, students must prepare in advance – there
is accountability. Students must interact with the instructor.
And Students should be able to teach each other.
How can technology help me to accomplish this? I introduced portable electronic whiteboards
called Mobiviews. We used these to provide brain breaks during lecture – a brain break
is a planned interruption in the lecture so students can look at the lecture topic in
a different way. Four students are assigned per whiteboard prior to lecture. Students
are required to attend class or risk loss of points. This is important because they
are responsible to their group-mates. The teams of veterinary students work off
their specific whiteboard image that is projected on the screen at the front of the lecture room.
A maximum of nine whiteboard images can be projected at one time. After three
to four minutes of discussion, the instructor steps in and highlights one or two of the
best answers. So a team knows that their responses will be shared with the entire class - there
is accountability. This gives the instructor the opportunity to analyze and discuss a particular
selection of answers, providing instant feedback to the class.
The Mobiviews, as opposed to iClickers, allowed us to ask more challenging questions than
just multiple choice. And Mobiviews provide a format for teams of
students to work together to express their ideas and concepts of pathology. Examples
of this are Circling the lesion in a histological section;
Listing the outcomes or causes of a particular disease; and
Piecing together the stages of a disease process. Our instructors are comparing student engagement
in lecture with and without electronic whiteboards. [Harp music]
Now we are back to where my story began. The instructor must be willing to reduce some
of the lecture content to provide time for whiteboard brain breaks, and students must
be held accountable to come up with some of the information on their own, while teaching
each other. So – are the electronic whiteboards working?
We made some assumptions but found that Not all students are technology-savvy;
Not all students want to escape from lecture; Not all students appreciate conversation instead
of lecture; and Not all students can be satisfied with the
same teaching approach – that’s why there is both chocolate and vanilla ice cream.
But – Many students do enjoy working with the Mobiviews.
Many students enjoy the interactive concept in the classroom.
Many students appreciate the chance to stop, think, and discuss what is being presented
in the classroom. Many students enjoy the opportunity to discuss
and answer questions that require higher-level thinking. That type of learning makes an instructor’s
effort worthwhile. My use of the electronic whiteboard is a work
in progress, but an end-of-term survey of 100 veterinary students indicated that
75% of the students enjoyed the use of the Mobiview brain breaks to replace time that
would be used for lecture. And, what I find significant is that
85% of the students think that the use of the Mobiview allowed the instructor to pose
more challenging or thoughtful questions compared to the use of iClicker multiple choice questions,
and 89% of the students thought that instructor
discussion on each Mobiview question was helpful in understanding the material presented on
that day. And that’s a good start.
[Piano music with credits]