CSFS Educational Blog – October
Taking a Break from the Digital in Teaching Forensic Sciences
Dr Helen Tidy
I love to incorporate technology into my teaching, I am lucky to be part of an innovative team that explores the use of Minecraft Education Edition within the HE environment, I adore a good Padlet and Microsoft Forms are my go to for setting knowledge checks for students as well as a means to collect effective feedback. I am also lucky to work at the only Adobe Creative Campus University in the UK allowing me to explore Adobe Express in teaching: BUT, and there is a big but here, for all the technology laden teaching I undertake, I also love to go technology free, get out the pens and get back to basics……
It is important to consider why we need to teach in a variety of ways and manners, especially as it is a drain on ourselves to think of different teaching formats. It is all about inclusivity and reaching your audience, what works for one student will be the absolute pits for another. With the event of Covid-19 and subsequent drive for digital teaching, it is important to remember that this won’t suit everyone and the need to provide alternatives is acute. While many laboratory sessions were taught via fancy computer simulations during lockdown, I choose to develop some of mine into non-digital labs – I felt the need to allow students time away from the screen was more important than ever for both physical and mental health. My solution was to base laboratory sessions around the interpretation aspect of forensic science so students gained an understanding of the myriad of factors that can affect evidential strength. I wanted them to consider what it meant to find a red fibre, if they had bottle rather than window glass does that affect the evidential conclusion and what paint is actually the most common?
How did I go about this? I got my students out and about observing, counting and recording – all essential basic forensic skills. You can read more about it here but in essence I asked the students to look at their clothing and record colour choice, walk around their local area and observe painted window colour, examine their shoes for wear and damage as well as considering what quantity and type of broken glass they find in their local area. Activities like these engage the brain in a different manner to those digitally based and provide some physical movement away from the screen.
Students seemed to appreciate the change too with comments including:
It was definitely a much-needed break from digital learning. It helps to refresh the mind and eyes. One more PowerPoint and I may have needed a psych evaluation.”
“The information I got from the practicals I was able to retain much easier than what I have for practicals in other modules that have been online simulations. By having a
physical practical to do, it kept my more motivated to complete my work whilst at home! “
Although these practicals were done during Covid-19 times, they are just as applicable during the post Covid-19 era, asking the students to survey their clothing prior to a lesson on fibre interpretation helps to cement knowledge through the engagement in the pre-class task. Taking time in class to walk around campus observing and categorising broken glass (and yes, every campus will have some – especially around the Students Union bar area….) not only provides a usually much needed lecture break but allows students to apply their newfound knowledge of glass types to the test as well as feeding into discussion on the commonness of glass in forensic casework.
Little practical sessions like these are not the only way to engage students non-digitally, there are many and varied ones. One of my favourites is asking the students to Sketchnote something they have learnt. For those of you not familiar with Sketchnoting, it is a way of combining images and words to produce a visual representation of knowledge – think comic book drawing without the KaPow! You don’t have to be able to draw and, usually, Sketchnotes are private so it really doesn’t matter how horrendous the end result it; it is a way of you processing the knowledge you have learnt in an alternative manner in order to ultimately remember it better. I have been lucky in my Sketchnote journey being guided by the wonderful Rachel Burham, an avid and professional Sketchnoter – you can follow her blog to see examples of wonderful Sketchnotes. It might be worth adding here that mine are not quite so wonderful but still serve the same purpose.
My Sketchnotes, not pretty but functional!
Pre Covid-19, I asked students at the end of each class to Sketchnote something they had learnt in order to help with remembering information for their upcoming exams, you can read more about how this went here.
The ironic aspect of all this non-digital teaching and learning is that ultimately the digital did creep its way back in as a means for recording what the students observed, be it through a Padlet of glass found and labelling of its type (this made an interesting discussion in class as many were mislabelled) or a Microsoft Forms form collecting survey data (which then kindly makes it into nice little pie charts for your use in teaching) – I told you I adore a good Padlet and Microsoft Forms are my go to.
Please do get in touch if you would like to know more – H.Tidy@tees.ac.uk or @ForensicHelenT
Dr Helen Tidy is a Principal Lecturer in Learning and Teaching Teesside University, she also teaches forensic science at undergraduate and postgraduate level. She worked as a Reporting Officer for the Forensic Science Service specialising in fibres, footwear marks and glass evidence.
Please note the contents of this blog represent the views of the author and not The Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences. If you would like to write your own Learning, Teaching or Training blog, please contact Dr Helen Tidy (H.Tidy@tees.ac.uk).