Northwestern graduate students gathered at Kresge Hall on Thursday afternoon to learn ways to integrate the Internet into their classrooms as a teaching tool.
Franziska Lys, a lecturer in NU’s German department, presented “Networking or Not Working? The Impact of the Internet on Teaching and Learning” at the fall McCormick lunch lecture. She advocated relying on the Internet as a way to encourage independence in learning.
“Standing in front of students and lecturing may not be the most effective way of teaching,” Lys said. “The classroom will have to change so the focus is on learning and not on teaching the information.”
Lys suggested using the Internet for classroom communications, research and assignments. Face-to-face instruction may transfer knowledge, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that students are learning, she said.
Lys cited studies showing that college students do most schoolwork between midnight and 4 a.m. Use of the Internet allows students to study at times that are convenient and most beneficial to their personal learning styles, Lys said.
About 10 students and faculty members attended the lecture sponsored by the Searle Center for Teaching Excellence. The series of quarterly brown bag lunches began last Fall Quarter as a way to help graduate students and teaching assistants learn about successful methods of instruction, said Kimberly Lawler-Sagarin, Searle Center associate director.
“Our goal is to give graduate students exposure to our excellent professors at Northwestern University,” said Lawler-Sagarin, who organized this quarter’s lecture.
Last year 20 to 40 students attended each lecture. Lawler-Sagarin said the lower turn-out this quarter could be attributed to a change in location or weather conditions. The lectures are not publicized, but graduates and TAs received an e-mail about the program.
The series lecturers are chosen from Searle Center Fellows who received a Charles Deering McCormick Professorship or Charles Deering McCormick University Distinguished Lectureship award. The awards were established in 1992 with a $10 million gift from Charles Deering McCormick and are given to outstanding teachers and full-time lecturers. The fellows act as role models, present lectures and workshops about teaching, participate in seminars, and write articles for the center’s newsletter.
Lys earned her fellowship for ingenuity in teaching techniques and for work on interactive CD-ROM programs.
Most students stayed after the lecture to ask questions and speak with Lys.
“It was informative,” said Nikkia McDonald, a McCormick graduate student. “It was a bit impersonal because it was lecture style. I assumed it would be more like a workshop.”