Is classroom technology really an improvement?

One of the biggest problems I have had with school in the last 5+ years is the misuse of and overreliance on powerpoint and other "newer" technology.  Don't get me wrong, PowerPoint is a great tool for doing presentations that require visual aids, but that is not what it's being used for.  I've noticed more and more, though, that many teachers who use powerpoint rely on it as their only source of lecture material and hardly add anything.  I find it very frustrating when I go to a class with the printed slides in hand only to find that someone is going to stand in front of us for hours on end and simply read or paraphrase what they have already given us in advance.  That defeats the purpose of even attending these lectures, since the same knowledge can be gained by sitting at home and reading it myself.  The best use of PowerPoint I have seen is when either a very basic outline is put on the screen or even just the visual aids (photos, graphs, tables, etc.) are put up with no explanation.  That explanation should come from the instructor himself.

I find that I learn more from professors who use the "old fashioned" method of teaching, with just notes for themselves and a blank overhead projector.  They will often give us a very rough outline of their discussion with background information and figures too complicated to draw ourselves, but the bulk of the relevant information comes from their lecture itself.  That way, they can teach us something beyond what is in their outline or notes and we actually get something out of coming to class.

The overhead projector is really a useful tool and it is sad to me that the University is encouraging professors not to use it any more.  It can be written on directly as well as can be used to display figures printed on transparencies in advance.   The only thing that can go wrong is a burned-out lamp, which is an easy fix and doesn't happen all that often.  With computers, projectors and screens that automatically raise and lower themselves, laser pointers, and document cameras, there are too many components to go awry, which they often do.  To make matters worse, it is only once in a blue moon that a teacher comes along who actually knows how to plug their computer in and get the image to display on the first try, let alone troubleshoot projector or computer problems.  Most of them can't even get the microphone or lights to turn on properly.

There is one class that stands out in making me lose all confidence in its instructors.  The first lecture started more than fifteen minutes late because they couldn't get the PowerPoint presentation to display in full-screen mode on the projection screen.  After many reboots and a delayed visit from IT Services, they got it running, but lost more than a quarter of the lecture time and didn't ever cover the material that they had to skip.  They were literally unable to give the introductory lecture for this course without their prized PowerPoint presentation.  That really says something about their preparedness for the class and their knowledge of the material beyond what they had mindlessly entered into the slides.  For the second lecture, they tried to use audience response devices ("clickers") for pre-lecture questions.  When they finally got that working (after 15 minutes), they didn't contribute in the slightest to the discussion, and again, a large chunk of time was wasted.  Regardless, the material they did cover was all written on the slides, and nothing was added.  I haven't been to that class since the second lecture.  I just refer to the presentations they post on the website and haven't missed a beat with quizzes or assignments.  

Just one quick note about SmartBoards... 

They had just started installing these $30,000+ devices in classrooms as I finished high school, and one of my current classrooms is the host to a brand new one this year.  For anyone who hasn't had the honor of basking in this device's technological glory (that was total sarcasm, by the way...), it is basically a glorified white board that is connected to a computer.  Because the instructors don't know how to use them, they can't even write or erase with the special expensive pens.  When they finally get the pens to work, they are non-responsive and have the ability to turn even the best penmanship into chicken-scratch.  So rather than a white board that could be used to write and draw, we have this expensive and currently useless piece of metal and plastic that can't even do that most of the time.  So this is where our god-awful high tuition is going...  (Besides, in replacing the old white board, they left unpainted sections of the wall and unfilled gaping screw holes, so now that wall looks atrocious...)

PowerPoint has been more of a hindrance than a help except in the rare cases that a professor understands its intended use and how to utilize it properly.  The only thing accomplished by all this technology (except in a few exceptions) is a crutch that mediocre instructors can use to skate by, lecture after lecture, without really doing any more than reading something off a screen.  Why do we pay so much in tuition and devote so much time just to listen to these people read to us?  I probably sound like an old person, but let's just stick to the basics and stop trying to bite off more technology than we can chew.