Technology in the classroom? One professor's viewpoint.

• Author: Harris, David G.

Although most academics have joined the high-tech revolution in classroom teaching, I have not. Instead of using wondrous new tools in courses, I prefer the "low-tech," old-fashioned blackboard. Visual aids such as PowerPoint or even overhead projections impede my students' learning and my teaching ability, and unnecessarily consume my class preparation time. Working on the blackboard dominates any form of prepared projected presentation, because it permits a much higher level of integration across the material, involves the students more actively in developing their analytical skills, and is more flexible and spontaneous.

I am not a technology curmudgeon, however. I am very involved in high-tech computer operations and my tax research almost exclusively revolves around large datasets, mathematical modeling and econometrics (all of which require extensive computer usage). I have had a PC on my desk since 1981 and have been the "systems operator" ever since. Also, I regularly require my undergraduates to prepare and present spreadsheet-based solutions to tax problems along with sensitivity analyses. This semester, I am moving to a "high-tech" classroom with full Internet access, computers and screen projections, which I will use to discuss projects and alternative data resources. However, my only visual teaching aid during lectures will be the blackboard.

My tax teaching objectives are to help my students understand the relevant tax rules and the reasons for their existence and (more importantly) learn how to use these rules in making business decisions. I always emphasize the tax aspects of transactions, but knowledge of tax rules in a vacuum is useless. Career success comes from providing value to clients; value comes not from merely knowing rules, but from creatively applying them to real business problems. Working on the blackboard lets me link rules with business transactions in a way that a screen-projection-based presentation simply cannot do.

The primary advantages of this "low-tech" delivery system are spontaneity and flexibility. Even though I carefully prepare my lectures in advance, my delivery is an "on-the-fly" presentation of my thoughts and notes; thus, I am not locked into what I have written (as I would be with overheads or computer presentations). I usually teach multiple sections, and it is not uncommon for me to find that things are not working out as I expected. The class may be ahead of where I envisioned, or behind...