How times have changed
Swinburne’s Dean of Faculty of Life and Social Sciences Professor Russell Crawford reflects on the past 20 years.
The year 1992 was very interesting for me - my first child was born and Swinburne, the place where I had worked for the previous eight years, was proclaimed a ‘university’ by an Act of the Victorian Parliament.
At that time I had already witnessed many significant changes in my job as a lecturer, not the least of which was that computers had become available at Swinburne.
My first desktop computer was the envy of all within the Department of Applied Chemistry. It had a 40MB hard disk drive, a VGA monitor and 1kB of RAM. It also had two disc drives - a high density 3.5 inch and 5.25 inch disc drive. It cost $4,100.
In 1992 I presented my lectures using the latest multimedia technologies available. These comprised of hand-written lecture notes on overhead transparency sheets displayed on a screen via an overhead projector. These notes were supported by explanations written with chalk on a blackboard.
I did try to make the lecture experience interesting, using different coloured chalks and marker pens whenever possible. Lectures went for an hour at a time. The students furiously wrote down as many notes as they could, often rubbing their aching hands (from too much writing) towards the end of the lecture.
Any questions students might have could be directed to me in person, in my office during my 'consulting hours’.
I presume the students studied at home while listening to music being played on a CD player, or perhaps when watching one of Melbourne’s five free-to-air TV stations.
From left: Russell Crawford with other Swinburne staff members in 1988
Twenty years later, the lecture experience has changed dramatically. Lecture notes are prepared in Microsoft Word format and lecture slides in Microsoft PowerPoint. They are routinely made available via the online learning system Blackboard before the lecture so students can load them onto their laptop or iPad for easy reference. As a result, the need to write furiously for hours at a time has been substantially reduced.
Many lectures are also recorded using Lectopia so that students can watch them at their leisure online, especially if the lecture clashes with their part-time jobs.
Questions of clarification are submitted in a matter of seconds via an email.
I presume the students now study at home while listening to music through iTunes on their iPhone, having a chat session while updating their Facebook status, talking with a friend on Skype, obtaining resource material from Wikipedia, watching music videos on YouTube AND watching one of Melbourne’s 18 free to air television stations.
I admire the 2012 student - they seem to be able to multi-task to a much greater extent than I could when I was studying years ago, in my silent room at my silent desk.
My only comfort is that in 20 years time these students, who understandably have no concept of their lives in a pre-digital age, may wonder how the students of 2022 can effectively study with so many distractions.
We’re celebrating the 20 year anniversary on our facebook page
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