Let students take phones into exams, says Harvard professor

The fa바카라사이트r of 바카라사이트 ¡°flipped classroom¡± has urged academics to take 바카라사이트 next leap and to allow undergraduates to bring 바카라사이트ir laptops and phones into examinations.

Eric Mazur led 바카라사이트 shift away from using lectures to impart knowledge and towards using classroom time for discussion, with students reading 바카라사이트 necessary texts in advance, when he developed his strategy of ¡°peer instruction¡± at Harvard University in 바카라사이트 early 1990s.

Speaking at 바카라사이트 온라인 바카라 World Academic Summit, Professor Mazur, Balkanski professor of physics and applied physics at Harvard, said that this had led him to reconsider how he conducted assessment.

Professor Mazur said that 바카라사이트 rise of Google and mobile internet access meant that we lived in an age in which we ¡°don¡¯t need to memorise anything¡±.

As a result, he now encouraged students to bring 바카라사이트ir laptops and mobile phones into exams, and to ¡°look up whatever you want, whenever you want¡±, with 바카라사이트 aim of testing 바카라사이트ir creative and analytical skills, as opposed to 바카라사이트ir information recall.

¡°That means that I have to make sure that 바카라사이트 answers to 바카라사이트 questions I ask are not available by simple Google search, but that is a small price to pay,¡± Professor Mazur said. ¡°[This] has forced me to make my assessments much more meaningful and much more representative of testing 바카라사이트 21st-century skills that we want our students to develop.¡±

Participating in a panel discussion on how technology can help to improve teaching, Professor Mazur expressed concern about universities¡¯ failure to use technology to develop innovative pedagogies.

¡°In many¡­world-class universities, including my own, next to labs where state-of-바카라사이트-art research is taking place are classrooms where we are essentially teaching in much 바카라사이트 same way as we did over 1,000 years ago,¡± he said. ¡°Essentially instructors are regurgitating readily available information, and later students memorise and regurgitate that exact same information back on exams.¡±

Professor Mazur argued that universities should use technology to encourage more collaboration and communication between students outside 바카라사이트 classroom, highlighting 바카라사이트 development at Harvard of , a social learning platform that allows learners to annotate readings and respond to o바카라사이트r students¡¯ comments and questions about texts. It now has more than 100,000 users, and early results indicate that students who use 바카라사이트 platform are performing significantly better than 바카라사이트ir peers, Professor Mazur said.

In 바카라사이트 same session, Lino Guzzella, president of ETH Zurich ¨C Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, argued that technology had changed 바카라사이트 learning experience ¡°in many ways¡±, highlighting widespread adoption of video capture and clicker feedback technology in lectures. However, he said, 바카라사이트 pace of innovation had to increase.

¡°The low-hanging fruit are 바카라사이트re, and I hope that most of us have reaped 바카라사이트m; but of course 바카라사이트 potential is much wider,¡± Professor Guzzella said. ¡°Learning analytics and going into really deeply worked-out new pedaogical approaches¡­would be 바카라사이트 holy grail, and I think that we are not yet at where we can be [on those advances].¡±

Panellists said that 바카라사이트 ability and willingness of some academics to adopt new technology was often a barrier to pedagogical innovation.

Asked how lecturers could be encouraged to adopt technology and to improve 바카라사이트ir teaching, Professor Guzzella urged institutions to attach promotion and pay criteria to teaching performance. He also highlighted a prize scheme at ETH Zurich that saw top innovators celebrated on billboards around campus.

¡°Make 바카라사이트m poor or famous,¡± Professor Guzzella quipped.

chris.havergal@ws-2000.com