Most Georgetown students are familiar with professorial attempts to shake things up in the lecture hall with “alternative” teaching techniques. PowerPoint presentations have become ubiquitous, and the occasional supplemental video is a welcome diversion from actual education. But all too often, such attempts at integrating media into traditional lectures fail to engage the average student, becoming exercises in tedium and information-age illiteracy. No one really thinks that Blackboard discussions are an exciting, Internet-era way to exchange ideas.
What professors fail to realize about media in education is that if your method isn’t “hip with the kids,” there’s no difference between talking and clicking through slides. As such, my proposal is that Georgetown’s faculty members put aside their square Blackboards and PowerPoints and explore entertainment-based teaching techniques.
For an example, history professors could exploit the popularity of Xbox games like Medal of Honor. Reading about the Battle of the Bulge pales in comparison to actually gunning down hostile goose-steppers in one’s own dorm room with period-accurate weaponry. The logical conclusion is to bring the console into the classroom. At the very least, attendance rates would skyrocket.
Government professors could tap into students by illustrating social movements with Lego dioramas. The experience of life under feudalist and fascist societies becomes much more poignant when the oppression of the citizenry is expressed by legions of small plastic men with pitchforks and castles made out of easily interlocking bricks.
Perhaps the best teaching aid for a generation weaned on Mr. Rogers would be the use of puppetry. Appropriate puppets are already available on the market thanks to the Unemployed Philosophers’ Guild, a company started by two unemployed philosophy majors (naturally) in Brooklyn. The Guild offers finger puppets of such staples of Western thought as Nietzsche, Plato, Shakespeare, Freud and Dickens. Even the School of Foreign Service can get in on the fun with the Axis of Evil box set (only $19.95!), featuring George W. Bush, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong-Il and Ayatollah Khomeini. Professors could also hand out the company’s “Nietzsche Will to Power Bars” to keep the class’ blood sugar level in good shape.
The only department getting short-changed on Guild merchandise is the Theology department, with merely a Buddha plush doll and a Lao-Tzu finger puppet available. But other companies have picked up the slack. Motorized biblical action figures are available at stores such as Urban Outfitters. Nothing inspires epiphany like seeing a six-inch-tall Job walk across a Jesuit’s desk.
Understandably, Georgetown’s faculty might be somewhat hesitant to adopt such teaching practices, untested as they are. But if Montessori schools tell kids to express their feelings by playing with blocks, college students should be able to get educated by doing what they do best: playing with video games and children’s toys. It’s good for us, really.
