It's getting better

Now that I'm in my second year of college I'm almost finished with my general education courses. Thus, more of my schedule is devoted to my major and I have more fun at school. I've noticed that now I'm not at the bottom rung of my program that professors are putting more work into the 'experience' of their class. To explain, in my GrC 101 class (Grc = Graphic Communication, my major) the professor gave us a complementary copy of his book and put some very rudimentary PowerPoint slides online. Most of my freshman classes followed suit with a fairly simple textbook and the occasional reminder to check Blackboard for the Powerpoint.

While some of my courses still adopt that method, things are starting to make a noticeable change. GrC 331, for the sake of contrast, has no textbook. When my professor explained that no book existed that made him happy I got a little nervous. That all changed when we were given 5 amazing handouts that he designed himself before listening to a lecture that instead of having a deck of PowerPoint (or Keynote) slides was based entirely on class discussion, drawings on the board, watching his desktop via projector and various hardware examples that he had brought in. After 3 weeks of class every lecture has created a similar experience: active learning via the use of technology in the classroom.

Not to dismiss my experience in 101, it was a wonderful course taught by our hilarious and engaging department head, but this class is just more fun. More importantly, I will remember all of this. By our professor's work of creating his own support material I have exactly what I need to support the coursework. Because he is so adept with his Powerbook I go into lab already understanding how software works. By watching him use and explain different pieces of equipment in lecture I can recall why that gadget is so important (and so expensive).

I have carried a theme of "get online!" in other posts but after only 3 weeks in the course I can already see the benefits of technology in the classroom as a supplement to material. While I may have had to wait for a class like this because there is more material in a 300 level course than a 101 course, the evidence it pretty clear. It works. Maybe I can fish for comments here...does this hold true in other disciplines? Is the extra work of integrating more 'active' material worth the result in student participation?