My teaching philosophy stems from many years of experience working in the classroom, first as a TA during my undergraduate and graduate studies and then through six and a half years teaching computer literacy, digital media, computer programming, and computer graphics with Georgia Gwinnett College. As a student, I had the opportunity to watch many amazing and wonderful teachers, and I took their best practices and incorporated them into my own pedagogy. As a result, my guide when teaching has been to ask myself, “If I was the student, would I find this approach effective?” If the answer is yes, I try it, observe the results, and refine it accordingly. Through this process, I have developed four principles that form the core of my teaching philosophy: first, students learn best with their hands; second, information must be presented to the student through multiple media; third, the instructor must consider the influence of students’ circumstances; and fourth, the class should encourage the student to learn not only the material but also broader life skills.
Students Learn Best with Their Hands
For any subject, there is no substitute for personal experience. We remember information better when we apply it in a concrete way than simply through abstract study. No matter how many books we read on cycling, we will never learn how to ride that bicycle until we hop on and try. Eventually, with enough patience and persistence, we figure it out, and once we do, the knowledge never leaves us. Even if it is another 20 years before we find ourselves on a bicycle again, once we are back on it, that knowledge comes rushing back to us.
In keeping with this philosophy, I run classes that are heavily project-focused, where my students are learning and applying knowledge in the service of creating working digital artifacts. I devote most class time to in-class exercises and project work time, outsourcing most of my lectures to video and keeping my students focused. More in-class work time means more practice applying the technologies and concepts under examination, and my students walk out with a working knowledge that is immediately applicable at home or on the job.
In-class project work time also allows me to work with students one-on-one. I can supervise student activity, answering questions and providing insight when needed. Each student can work at his or her own pace, and I can devote more time to those students who are struggling more without holding the other students back. Furthermore, students can turn to one another for help, a valuable resource that is often less available outside of the classroom due to such disparate personal schedules.
Students Learn Better through Multiple Media
Outside of hands-on learning, the instructor has to consider the different learning styles of his or her students. Various types of media cater to these different learning styles, and I try to use several of them to reinforce the information.
First exposure to new concepts usually begins with reading assignments–via either the class textbook or online texts–followed by video lectures. Some students learn best through the written word while others find it advantageous to have those concepts reinforced visually and orally. My videos are heavy on visuals and light on text. Text-heavy slides take attention away from the speaker, so they are more effective as a visual supplement instead of the centerpiece of the lecture. I use the slides to create visual analogies for concepts, to provide examples, to break down topics into their constituent parts, and to illustrate step-by-step procedures (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Example slides from various classes. (Top Left) I use kindergarten cubbies to discuss arrays in programming. (Top Right) I use the Obama Hope poster as a famous example of posterization. (Bottom Left) My breakdown of sound waves when discussing digital audio. (Bottom Right) The first of several slides that I use to illustrate the computer boot process.
Video is a medium that almost all students find entertaining since video can use soundtracks, transitions, and attractive visuals to reinforce concepts in ways that other media cannot. When discussing the types of animation, for instance, I play clips from familiar franchises: South Park, Avatar, Red vs. Blue, and various Disney animated films. When reviewing the history of the computer, I provide documentary clips that include interviews with famous people in computer science and real-time examples of how far the computer has come.In today’s world, most of my students are already media-savvy and do not know it, so I use the lectures to tie the concepts we are discussing into the technologies they have seen before. Rather than talking about video buffering as an abstract concept, for instance, I discuss the spinning “buffer” icons on YouTube and Netflix that most students already (frustratingly) know. Instead of giving a general description of VOIP, I ask my students to discuss their experiences with Skype.
Beyond the lectures, my assignments convey instructions both visually and textually. In-class exercises—which often serve as software introductions—have accompanying screenshots with almost every step (Figure 2), and I always include an instructor’s submission so that my students have a better understanding of the expectations. My projects include links to resources that illustrate the associated technologies in more detail, and these resources include various combinations of images, text, and instructional videos, allowing my students to choose the resources that best cater to their learning styles.
Figure 2. A step from an in-class exercise that introduces students to Blender. Here, I illustrate how to change the color of an object.
The Instructor Must Consider the Student’s Circumstances
I begin every semester with an anonymous demographics survey where I ask students to share a few statistics about their general life circumstances. (For instance, “Are you working while going to school?”, “How many kids do you live with at home?”, and “Is English your first language?”) This helps me paint a picture of my students outside of the classroom and allows me to adjust my teaching accordingly.
A high percentage of my students are balancing jobs and family commitments with their education. Therefore, I know that my students will struggle to complete assignments on short notice, so I give them plenty of lead time so they can adjust their schedules as needed and set aside the necessary time to work. I assign large projects, for instance, at least four weeks before the due date, and I publish a calendar at the beginning of the semester with all reading assignments. For in-class assignments, I provide my students ample opportunity to make it up if they were absent for an excusable reason (for instance, a family-related matter).
In addition to life circumstances, the instructor must also consider the preferred learning environment for the student. For instance, some students work best with the commotion of in-class project work time, when they have the instructor and their classmates immediately accessible. However, others are more productive when they can work from the comfort of home, so providing extra lead time on projects and other take-home assignments gives them extra homework time. I also always hold office hours for those students who want to consult with me in a quieter setting.
The Student Should Be Encouraged to Develop Broader Life Skills
College students are learning and refining broad skills and responsible practices that will be applicable for the rest of their lives, skills such as critical thinking, analysis, synthesis, self-discipline, time management, organization, advanced planning, attention to detail, effective communication, and a willingness to ask for help and clarification. I structure my classes so that those students who put forth genuine effort and are proactive will be successful, and only those who are blatantly irresponsible will not be successful. My students thus learn the importance of personal accountability.
Much of this structure is in my assignment policy. Projects may be completed for 50% credit anytime between the deadline and the end of the semester, encouraging students to complete late assignments (and thus reap the educational benefits) while still establishing consequences for their tardiness. The effect is severe enough that, usually, my students redouble their efforts to submit all future projects on time. Also, I do not accept assignments submitted incorrectly online. Even if the student completed the work successfully, the end result serves as a valuable lesson in double-checking their work and paying meticulous attention to instructions, and they rarely make the same mistake again. In-class exercises cannot be made up without an excused absence, encouraging attendance and participation.
I also build opportunities for critical thinking and self-reliance into the assignments themselves. When teaching new software, I provide my students sufficient knowledge to complete the related projects through inference, trial and error, and deduction instead of spoon-feeding information. The in-class exercises serve as an introduction to the interface and some of the more basic features, and I then provide them with a list of resources and encourage them to continue exploring the software on their own. The exercises even include a step where I ask the student to learn and document a software feature not yet mentioned in class. There will come a time, I explain to my students, when you will be expected to learn a new piece of technology without the benefit of an instructor, so now is the time to discover how to do it on your own.
Beyond assignments, I find other ways to reinforce life skills. I give a lecture on proper e-mail etiquette (subject, greeting, spelling, grammar, etc.) on the first day and inform my students that I will not respond to improperly-formed e-mails except to advise them on corrections. Unfortunately, too many students have fallen into the habit of writing e-mails that read more like text messages. In the professional world, I explain, proper e-mail etiquette can make or break your career, and now is the time to get into the habit. Students become accustomed to this expectation as the semester goes on, and I find myself having to make fewer and fewer corrections.
I also encourage student collaboration. Although most assignments are individual efforts, I always allow students to consult with one another for advice and help. Rarely in the professional world do people operate in a vacuum. Collaboration and consultation is commonplace and a good habit to develop while still in school. The first day of every semester includes a getting-to-know-you icebreaker where students can become familiar with their neighbors.
Finally, I tell my students that I look at general patterns of performance in addition to numerical averages. Making mistakes is a part of life and an important learning opportunity, and I want my students to feel safe making a few errors if their overall performance in the class is exemplary. What matters in the end is that they’ve demonstrated that they have a solid understanding of the concepts and are able to apply them effectively.
Conclusions
I teach with a profound conviction that my students desire the utmost education they can get. Throughout my teaching career, I have continuously practiced and refined the four principles that form the core of my teaching philosophy, and my students have reaped the benefits. My teaching evaluation scores have remained consistently high with each semester, suggesting that my students and my supervisor feel my approach to education is extremely effective.
However, I do not mean to imply that either my philosophy or my application of it are perfect. I inevitably make numerous mistakes every semester, which I use as opportunities for further improvement. Teaching is a never-ending, evolving process, and I am consistently trying new activities and approaches to see how they work. Even when these efforts fail, the lessons I take from them make me a better instructor, and my future students are the ones who will reap the benefit.