Do professors need to completely transform their teaching methods in order to reach this new generation of crocodile students?
Let's be clear: I am not calling for a radical, systematic transformation. Professors should change their methods step by step, keeping their eyes on the ultimate prize of improving students' learning experience. What's more, change doesn't necessarily require digital tools.
If your students act like passive consumers, switch to group projects. Assign something different and digital. Rather than an essay, for example, have them make a scrapbook with photos, videos and text.
Carole Blaringhem, law professor at the Université Catholique de Lille, created radio and TV shows to teach legal concepts. At Paris-Diderot University, bioinformatics students were asked to print 3D proteins to help them understand the effects of different medications. At a time when learning centers and fab labs are cropping up everywhere, the sky is the limit.
How can we help students to learn better?
Get them involved in problem solving. Assign medical students a clinical case supervised by a teaching assistant. Don't think that flipped classrooms will solve everything. Students won't cover the material before coming to class if they don't have any incentives. They won't learn much that way. You have to quiz them in class and grade them on the material you assigned them, just like in the old days.
How can we help schools to change?
The teaching transformation will only succeed if both the school administration and the department heads throw their full weight behind it. You can't count on the professors who are passionate about experimental teaching methods, whether digital or not, to do it alone. Both professors and school administrators need to get involved.
Professors also need to keep students' career goals in mind. If a professor tells me that her students lack motivation, I ask her whether or not she is teaching with the right careers in mind.
