Presidential Address: Humanistic Teaching and Technology

Abstract

Because the theme of our conference is "Teaching and Learning," tonight I will talk about what it means to be humanistic teachers. I have three goals. First, I will revisit what constitutes humanistic sociology. Second, I will address what it means to be a humanistic teacher. And, finally, I will consider how technology and the organizations in which we work subvert our efforts to be humanists in the classroom.To get started, let me give you a little background that helps explain my interest in this topic. I taught my frst class as a new doctoral student in 1980. I had taken a seminar on university teaching and I spent a lot of time thinking about what I would do in my relatively small class of 60 students. I decided to use the technology that was available at the time because I had learned that some students are more visually oriented than others and because I thought it would help to ''viviv' the classroom (Goldsmid and Wilson n.d.). In addition to using the chalkboard, I added films, handouts, and transparencies to communicate sociological ideas--something that I continued to do after I took my first job as a professor. Over time, I have incorporated other technologies into my classes as they have become available because of their potential to facilitate learning.When I moved to the University of North Dakota in 1988, I was forced to make some changes. Instead of small introduction to sociology classes of 40-60 students, I was assigned a mass class of 240 students. So instead of meeting in small, rather intimate classrooms, this class meets in a wide, multi-tiered lecture hall. Because of the size of my class and the configuration of the room, it is not realistic to hold discussions; that activity is reserved for weekly discussion groups. However, I can ask questions, encourage students to ask me questions, solicit examples from them, and use student volunteers in simulations. I do these things because they help engage students in their own learning.* At UND, discussion occurs in weekly "labs" or discussion groups. I have eight discussion groups of 30 students, which meet once per week and which are run

Rejoinder to Perspectivity and the Activist Potential of the Sociology Classroom

“…those who are reluctant to embrace technology) to integrate technology into their classes and reports of how much students like multimedia presentations (Tiemann 1999). Unlike humanist reflections on teaching and learning like the one by Hill Collins, these authors pay little attention to the alienation that typically results in classrooms governed by technology and institutional constraints.…”