BUCKLEY, DONALD. Department of Biological Sciences, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT, 06518. - The "Coverage Dilemma": Can we make room for learning-centered and inquiry-oriented pedagogies with educational technology?
Many faculty believe that they cannot compromise content coverage by
committing precious class time to the incorporation of powerful
teaching styles and inquiry-oriented content. However, we may be able
to use web-based instructional technology to transfer the authority of
learning foundational information to our students. These tools will
serve as "smart" home work assignments before class. They
will be smart in the sense that the web server can monitor student
engagement and notify the students and instructor automatically about
non-participation. These environments can provide interactivity to
foster active learning styles and powerful assessment tools to provide
real-time feedback, incentive systems to facilitate competency-based
learning standards, and diagnostic clues about individual learning
experiences and needs. This learning-centered technology will allow
us to move important lower-level learning processes out of the class
time and into the student's study time, making more room in the
classroom for powerful pedagogies and more inquiry orientation.
Key words: assessment, coverage, inquiry, learning, teaching, technology