Doris Jones: “I found in my years of teaching that I actually witnessed the evolution of a smartphone. I think the use of a cellphone can have value. That value must be developed.”

October 3, 2016

On September 13-15, 2016 Doris Jones, a visiting scholar from the American University in Cairo (AUC) Department of Rhetoric and Composition, held workshops for AUCA faculty. Jones’s workshops examined a number of pertinent questions to thinking and pedagogy: What is action research and what are the implications of it in the classroom? What are the benefits of engaging learners in metacognitive activities, and what is metacognition, anyway? Can students acquire research skills and become good at it early in their studies? Additionally, she shared her experience incorporating cellphones and social media into her classes, and their potential utility within academia.

“I think the workshops were very engaging for all of the participants. I felt very comfortable with the discussion, because the participants were interested; there was clearly an interest in what metacognition is. After the workshop, I think the participants had something in mind they wanted to take away to their classrooms. In any workshop, you want takeaways: what value can a workshop give you? how can it further advance your teaching? your engagement with students? A takeaway can even be thinking more critically about how we’re teaching and not only the levels of improvement you are seeking. As faculty, we are always looking for ways to improve how we can connect with our students, looking to make a difference beyond the syllabus. And, I could tell, just based on the questions asked, that there is clearly an interest in reading strategies (be it metacognition or critical reading) at the higher educational level.

The workshop was about metacognition and small group reading strategies to engage freshmen year students with the importance of reading. As I found in my years of teaching at AUC, undergraduate students (and specifically freshmen) are not necessarily interested in reading. And yet, literature continues to espouse the critical significance of reading because it is so foundational for all learning. Pedagogically, I wanted to find ways to tap in to that. These workshops are my sharing with the audience how small group reading strategies using a metacognition approach can in fact be quite life-changing. And not only for students, but for opening up new vistas for teaching and learning in the class room. My second workshop focuses on why undergraduate research is important, what can we expect our students to learn vis-à-vis research by their second semester, how can we effectively teach students how to formulate research questions, no matter the theme that the class might project.

I think the use of a cellphone can have value. That value must be developed. There must be a way where we can see how our students in touch with them. I noticed that I will see their students’ smartphones before they enter the classroom. That smartphone is an appendage; it is their lifeline to the outside world. I began to notice that every student at AUC has a smartphone; that they placed strategically in front of them. I found in my years of teaching that I actually witnessed the evolution of a smartphone. Moving from the “blackberry” to the touchpad, to the ambidextrous use, to whatsapp, to all of these social media platforms that our students are so connected with. I took this evolution as a teachable moment. Instead of making the evolution of technology punitive for students, I thought why not use the evolution of these digital devices and ask the students to proactively use them for their learning. By doing so, my students were also aware of the fact that they must place their phone on vibrator, that they must place their phone in such a mode that it does not disturb the classroom. If they do receive an emergency call, if they need to take care of something, I am not going to punish them for getting up. I let them know the moment they arriving in the classroom, and it helps by approaching it in a way that you are aware of the technological age student are navigating. Their use of smartphone therefore can become a tool for learning, because then I will encourage them,” – said Jones.

Doris Jones’s visit is made possible through a grant from the AMICAL consortium and the kind contribution of AUCA. 

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