This year I have the pleasure of teaching my Population and Community Ecology class in one of McGill’s Active Learning Classrooms – this one is touted as been quite exceptional, and I’m keen to put it to the test. Over the past 4-5 years, I have been teaching my quantitative ecology course almost entirely with chalk. In fact, I have actively argued about the value of teaching with chalk, and about a move away from technology can be beneficial to student learning, to my own teaching, and overall a very positive experience for all. Now I’ll be faced with this kind of environment when teaching my class:

A view of two of the group tables in the Macdonald Campus active learning classroom; each “pod” seats 12 students (in three wings), and each is colour coded, and linked and adjacent to a screen and whiteboard
One problem with the Chalkboard it that it doesn’t easily allow for ‘capturing’ the content from the board. Students need to write their own notes (which is good, in my opinion), but at times there may be specific equations, graphs, or other content from the board that they wished they could have captured, but failed to do so. The Active Learning classroom allows an easy way to overcome this – as the tablet/screen that is in the room has a smart pen, and acts like a chalkboard (or, rather, kind of like a smartboard, except that the instructor uses the screen at the podium in the middle of the room). I can therefore project this board, and teach as if I was using chalk, and everything I write is projected on one of the screens. The big benefit here is that I can save everything I write as a PDF (or other file type), and upload the notes to the online course management system. This approach still encourages students to come to class and take notes, but doesn’t put them in a position to rush with notetaking, and live in fear of missing something that I write on the board. Here’s an example from the first lecture (it’s a bit clunky, and I’m not used to writing on the screen yet, but hopefully will get more seamless as the term progresses):
Another great benefit of the classroom is that it allows a second screen to be projected simultaneously as the first screen – I am thinking of primarily using this second screen to project graphs or equations directly from the textbook, through the use of a very high quality document camera. This saves me from having to hand-draw graphs (I do this very, very poorly – drawing straight lines is NOT easy!), and will allow the students to see the very direct ways that the content relates to the course’s textbook. This photo below shows how this looks: in that example the textbook cover is projected on the left screen and some ice-breaking questions are presented on the right-hand screen.
I have been trying to transition my course into more of an active learning course, and set an active learning challenge last year. Overall I felt this was very beneficial, but the traditional lecture theatre (where I have taught in the past) is not conducive to active group work and student collaboration. I’m excited that the active learning classroom is ideally set up for this: the 84 students in the class sit at seven separate tables, each with 12 students, and the tables are designed into three wings of four students each. This is optimal for group work, and provides many opportunities for different sizes of groups. Next to each table is a whiteboard and screen, and each table can project (independently) onto their screen. Students then have many options to collaborate and work on problems. I’m excited about this, and look forward to having groups of students work on problems together, collaboratively. The interesting thing about this space is that it doesn’t seem that big, yet is a classroom that holds 84 students! It’s also designed so that the noise level isn’t overwhelming when students are working in groups.

Students writing out ideas/answers to some questions, with their groups (from two different groups – notice the different colours?)
I certainly have a challenge ahead: in order to fully use the classroom’s potential, and make it engaging for the students, I have to ensure the technology and space is used properly. I’m only at the very start of term, so I will certainly report back on the experiences as the course unfolds. That being said, the combination of the technology and design is really promising for an active learning environment for my ecology class. It may just lead to the abandonment of chalk for a smart pen…
Reblogged this on Teaching for Learning @ McGill University and commented:
Professor Chris Buddle writes an very interesting article on some of his experiences with one of our Active Learning Classrooms at Macdonald Campus. These innovative classrooms were designed to support exactly the type of teaching and learning Professor Buddle is implementing: interactive and engaging inquiry. We look forward to more reflections as the term progresses…
I’ll be interested in hearing how it goes over the course of the semester! And, yes, writing on those screens takes practice. At first, I felt like my handwriting looked like that of a 4-yr-old, but now students actually comment positively on my handwriting on evaluations. 🙂
Thanks for the comment! I’ll be sure to report back on how it goes! I’m cautiously optimistic.. but the real test will come around the half-way point in the class, as midterms approach, and as the novelty of the classroom wears off. Indeed, the silly screens are NOT easy to write on! I do hope the practice will help….
Reblogged this on Concierge Librarian.
Ooooooooooooooh YES ……this is the future and I am loving it…bye bye chalk dust!
I would love to teach in a classroom like this! So many of the classrooms I teach in are designed around the traditional lecturer model. I have yet to use the smart pen set up; do you find you lose some of the tactile feel of writing on a chalkboard/whiteboard?
Thanks for the comment! Yes indeed, you are quite right – I do miss the tactile nature of the chalk, but I’m slowly getting used to the smart pen.