High-tech teaching could be 'suicidal,' scholar says: 02/02

University educators largely extol the wonders of teaching through technology. But skeptics question whether something is lost when professors and lecturers rely too heavily on electronic media, or when interaction with students takes place remotely -- in cyberspace rather than the real space of the classroom.

Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, the Albert Guerard Professor of Literature, is one such skeptic. "I think this enthusiastic and sometimes naive and sometimes blind pushing toward the more technology the better, the more websites the better teacher and so forth, is very dangerous -- [that it] is, indeed, suicidal," Gumbrecht said, speaking at the Jan. 31 installment of the Center for Teaching and Learning's "Award-Winning Teachers on Teaching" series.

I agree with some of the points made by Professor Gumbrecht. Personally, I would hate to see face to face interaction with students disappear. I enjoy the 'sage on the stage' aspect of lecturing too much to see it replaced entirely by 'virtualisation' of teaching. That being said, I have no doubt that appropriate use of technology can be very beneficial to the learning process.

It's hardly surprising that critics of so-called 'high-tech teaching' cited in the article suggest that it's an inappropriate methid of teaching for arts and humanities subjects. Hmm!