In a time where digital tools and new technology are promoted in education, Carlo Rotella breaks from the norm to focus on a digital-free approach to learning.
Rotella is an author, essayist, and professor at Boston College. His discussion-based classes have two rules: everyone must participate, and no cellphones are allowed. In an interview with WSHU, Rotella said that the policy initially made them anxious. Students told him it was awkward and felt like public speaking.
“I think what soon happens is, because students, people in general, especially young people, are very adaptable, just switch to saying, 'Oh yeah, okay, that's my class where there's no devices,'” Rotella said. “That's the class where I get to be a human being doing the humanities, where I look people in the eye, where people know my name, and then that becomes what that class is about.”
Rotella’s new book is called “What Can I Get Out of This?: Teaching and Learning in a Classroom Full of Skeptics.” In the book, he chronicles a first-year literature course. Rotella provides insight into his teaching as well as students' perspectives on learning through interviews. The students' initial mindset is one of questioning. Through examining books, students learn to think critically, share ideas, and form a community through civil discourse.
“Part of my job as a teacher, and part of the reason to build a community in the classrooms, is that it should stop feeling like public speaking, and should start feeling like pulling your weight. I think that is the antidote for awkwardness, to say, Well, it's actually your job. You're not only free to speak in this class, but you are also expected to speak in this class,” Rotella said
The book addresses the skeptics of higher education. It delves into the value of higher education and the question of the "return on investment" from humanities courses. Rotella said he believes the course teaches students essential life skills. He said his students get the experience of being a citizen in the classroom, which is important job training.
“If you are being a good citizen in the classroom, you are adding value to the conversation. You're not just sitting there silently, but you're also not dominating in a way that prevents other people from adding value to the conversation,” Rotella said. “That's actually very good practice for the post-industrial workplace.”
The group discussions are meant for students to practice interpersonal relationships and civil discourse. He said having those in-person conversations is a better model for how to engage with other people. Students have a different experience when face-to-face. Rotella said if disagreements arise, students have to find a way to have an argument that is civil because they see each other every week.
“One of the many reasons why discourse online is so horrible and so now. Capacity is that there are no consequences. You're not face-to-face with other people. You're anonymous, or as close to it as you can get, and people don't feel the kind of compunction they would if they are seeing this person twice a week for 15 weeks,” Rotella said.
Rotella isn't opposed to technology in the classroom, but he believes there is value in developing skills outside of the latest technology. He also believes there are times students benefit from not using it. He asks them to turn off spell check and grammar check, to do their own work.
“Why spend any of that time practicing to be replaceable by AI, right? Why not spend that time developing your own jobs? And you can spend the rest of your life using AI for everything, but at least in this class, you have to do your own reading, do your own writing, do your own thinking, do your own talking,” Rotella said.
