By Robert Thornton If you want a teaching adventure, try using a computer in the lecture hall. I've been doing it since the fall of 1995, and I strongly recommend it. However, it's best to go in with open eyes. That's what prompted this account of what happened when I brought computers into the classroom. I began teaching with computers in the early 1980s, when I made some animated simulations for the Biology Learning Center. They were cartoons of DNA being copied, enzymes attacking bacteria, and so on. Those efforts taught me how much students like interactive, animated software. They also taught me how much time it can take to build courseware. It's easy to make lectures into colored slide shows. But to animate complex processes, I had to spend many hours at it. I didn't mind; I like that kind of work. If I were starting from scratch today, though, I might ask UC Davis' New Media Center for help. I also learned that many students love computerized self-testing. This is clearly one of the best ways to use computers in teaching. Years ago we put computers in the botany labs, with lessons on how roots work. One lesson had a quiz in which the computer drew questions from a test bank. The students devoured the quiz and asked for more. Today we are building computerized tests on many topics, with tutorials that are activated by wrong answers. It's a great way to learn. In 1995 the computer made its way into my lectures. That year's Distinguished Teaching Awards went to Web enthusiasts, who said anyone can easily put course material on the Web. They urged me to enroll in the Teaching Resource Center's Summer Institute for Technology in Teaching. I did, and I recommend it. Glitzy classroom presentations The institute taught me how to make Web pages, but that's not the main thing I got from it. The Web is good for subjects such as art and the social sciences where students can grow by delving for buried treasure in the multitude of Web sites. The Web is not so good at animated graphics and self-tests, the two things I value most in instructional computers. I was much more impressed--stunned, in fact--by the institute's glitzy classroom presentations. They were bright, colorful and active--a dazzling display of what can be done by projecting the computer screen in the lecture hall. Full of resolve, I set out to make computer animations for all 37 lectures in my fall 1995 biology course (BIS 1C). The easy approach would have been a few short animations on key topics in each lecture. But the lecture hall (1100 Social Sciences) canceled that plan. Its motorized screen descends at a ponderous pace to cover the whole chalkboard. When you finish projecting, it takes five minutes to regain normal room lighting. That made it impractical to mix chalkboard and computer graphics. To solve the problem, I chose to do every lecture entirely by computer. Weekend and evening work The work consumed every weekend and every evening. Adding to the workload, I had to borrow a laptop computer every day from Instructional Media. On a typical day I'd work until 1 a.m., sleep until 6, rise and polish the presentation, bike to the IM center, load the computer, dash to the lecture hall for the 9 a.m. class, then return the computer. I'd visit the student labs to talk with students and put the presentations on lab computers. Then I'd work on the next day's material. It was exhausting, but I ended the quarter with animated simulations on almost every topic in the course. After all that work, I expected a great payoff. I wasn't entirely disappointed; the students loved the animations. But they scored lower on the exams than ever before, and my own student evaluations suffered. Were the computer graphics so clear that students no longer felt they had to work at learning? Or did students lose a model for learning when they got all the graphics from the computer instead of watching me write and draw on the chalkboard? To address those possibilities, last spring I taught the course again with much less time for the computer. I taught in 2 Wellman, where the screen doesn't cover the whole chalkboard and the lights come up quickly. Exploiting those features, I spent 75 percent of each lecture at the chalkboard and limited the computer to animated simulations. The results were delightful. The students still loved the computerized material, and their performance improved to the pre-computer level. My own evaluations returned to normal and the students rated the course higher than ever before. Human and computer models best To me, this means the best teaching and learning come from a true partnership between human and computer, so the students see how a living scholar processes information and also see the colorful, animated graphics that computers do so well. Students need human models to develop their own skills. Computers can't substitute for that. If you decide to bring the computer into your lectures, be prepared for glitches. The Instructional Technology staff is amazingly helpful; they show you how to use the equipment and they come quickly if you call. But this is complex technology, and Murphy's Law applies. In every quarter, I've had one or two days when I couldn't make the equipment work because someone reprogrammed the controls or the projector blew a circuit or a connection came loose. Twice I had to cut a session short, and once I had to give an ad lib chalkboard lecture. You need to plan for this, and keep your sense of humor. Would I do it all again? You bet I would. This spring I have 2205 Haring as a lecture hall, which isn't computer-ready. But the IT staff has shown how we can make it work, and I'll give it a try. The lecture-hall computer is too valuable a learning aid to leave on the shelf. Robert Thornton is a senior lecturer in the Section of Plant Biology. The "Teaching at Davis" column, sponsored by the Teaching Resources Center, appears in Dateline UC Davis each quarter. Faculty members interested in contributing an article to the column should contact Professor Francisco Samaniego at 752-6050.