Popular Culture in the Classroom: Using Audio and Video Clips to Enhance Survey Classes.

Abstract

STUDENTS OFTEN APPROACH history survey classes with a significant degree of dread. Nevertheless, at least one history class is required for graduation from most, if not all, universities, and most students elect to take survey courses to fulfill that requirement. It has been my experience that students rarely enroll in an American history class eagerly, because they anticipate a semester of lengthy lectures in large, impersonal lecture halls, and essay exams that test their comprehension of information that often seems distant and without relevance to their lives. Too frequently, students realize their worst fears in survey classes, and as a result, they are less than attentive during lectures. However, the increased use of technology in the classroom has opened a number of new avenues through which to reach an often uninterested student population. PowerPoint, in particular, allows the instructor to supplement his or her lectures with a brief outline, pictures, and in some cases, audio and video clips, and recent studies indicate that the use of such technology is on the increase in college classrooms.' The purpose of this article is to suggest a new way to use technology, particularly audio and video clips embedded in PowerPoint presentations, to more effectively reach students in American History survey classes. Texas Tech University allows its Ph.D. candidates to teach two sec-