High tech, high touch

Some people worry that technology will crowd out the human touch in teaching. But you're likely to hear another perspective from Gustavo Pellon, associate professor of Spanish.

"The technology here at Virginia actually fosters contact between the students and me," he said. "The only negative would be if students used e-mail and did not come in for office hours. E-mail primes the pump. ... Sometimes students feel daunted about coming to office hours, but they don't feel daunted by e-mail."

That e-mail contact can lead to greater participation. For example, one student e-mailed questions about an essay discussed in class, became interested in the topic and later came by Pellon's office for the first time, to further discuss the topic in person. "I tell my class, use the e-mail if you are reading and you see something you want to comment on or ask about. You will never interrupt me when you send me an e-mail message.

"One of the things that has transformed my life is the Instructional Toolkit," he added. The technical tools in this U.Va. academic resource have allowed him to be more responsive to his students. One Toolkit feature helps by creating a class roster that is automatically updated as students register. A Spanish course, required by majors for graduation, filled in the first few days of one semester's registration, with 54 students on the waiting list. Because of the Toolkit, Pellon was aware of the problem before registration had ended and was able to arrange for a larger classroom. This increased the spaces available from 35 to 74, insuring the majors could graduate.

Since the class was much larger than usual, and students are often hesitant to speak up in larger classes, Pellon made special efforts to encourage students to participate. And the Toolkit helped.

The roster feature made it simple to send impromptu e-mails to the whole class, with feedback or suggestions. In one e-mail, Pellon asked students to come to class ready to discuss five major topics in an assigned essay. The result? A noticeable increase in the number of students who participated in class--including many who didn't normally speak up.

In addition, students used the roster to contact each other online, asking questions and sharing impressions and ideas. This worked so well that students formed their own online discussion and study groups.

The Toolkit also includes templates Pellon uses to create a class Web site, with areas for downloaded articles and for relevant links. Links to newspapers such as Madrid's El Pais and Buenos Aires' La Nación are "good for the students," said Pellon, "allowing us to show students the living language" and to illustrate the differences between Spanish and Latin American writing. "We use the web to complement the texts," he said.

"These things are very very simple for a computer person, but for a teacher, they are marvelous."