Workshop attended: Incorporating Technology in Teaching
Workshop Date: 05/09/2019
Description
In this workshop a group presentation and exercise was applied to different student tables. The exercise was designed to prompt students to rethink what constitutes as teaching tool and how to use technological tools wisely and for the greatest effect.
Unfortunately, many uses of technology have a poor reputation as teaching tools. However, often the issue lies on the bad use of the technology rather than its limitations. Additionally, technology often does not perform well as a substitute for more traditional teaching tools, instead, it works better when used to complement traditional tools.
Knowing how to use new tools to enhance teaching is a key skill for a teacher to have, specially in our era, where technology evolves so quickly. The exercises in this workshop helped us to build a solid basis to use when choosing whether and how to incorporate technology in our teaching.
Artifacts & Rationale
Activity sheet from the seminar
Worksheet for Reflections and Applications for Teaching and Learning
The activity sheet was used during the seminar to design and plan a way to incorporate technology into the classroom. In it, we were asked to design an use of technology for a large classroom (around 75 students) that meets twice a week. My team decided the learning context to be an introduction to earth science course.
The activity guided us to create a list of two to three commonly misunderstood concepts and choose a type of technology to work with.
We chose a collaborative text editor platform (e.g. Google Docs) and our learning objectives were:
- Understand the between Climate and Weather;
- Climate change does not always imply warmer temperatures (e.g in certain regions, it may create harsher winter conditions);
- Global warming has positive side-effects (even if the negative ones outweigh them).
We chose the collaborative text editor platform for it allows students to take notes together and in real time, while at the same time, it does not require conversation or close proximity, so it keeps the disruption to the classroom at a manageable level.
By allowing students to write their notes together, the notes are written from the perspective of the learner in their own context, which makes revisiting the material easier. Students may also grow a sense of community as the notes are shared and improved upon by other students as well.
One of the challenges is that there must be a large enough number of students who understand the material well enough to proofread the material. This is akin to the peer instruction method, but in a more traditional lecture environment (not a flipped classroom).
As with any teaching method, formative assessments are essential to evaluate learning progress. For this exercise, we considered allowing students to take notes in groups, and at the end of the lecture, students would peer review each others notes and point out any mistakes or misconceptions present in the notes.
Reflection
In the seminar, each team was assigned a teaching “tool” and was tasked to design an activity that incorporated the tool. After this initial exercise, teams were assigned a longer exercise, in which an activity that incorporated some technology was developed.
One aspect that I found interesting in the seminar was that, in the first exercise, many teams were assigned tools that are not commonly used for teaching (e.g. a stapler). That team devised an activity to study levers and how one can gain significant mechanical advantage by pressing further from the fulcrum point. I found that this was a very creative and effective use of the stapler. The exercise opened my eyes to the possibility that many useful tools can be overlooked when designing an activity. Moreover, the effectiveness of a tool largely depends on how well the instructor is prepared to use it.
At the same time, the exercise showed me that the fact that a tool works well in a particular occasion, does not mean the tool is suitable for many or most occasions. For instance, large auditoriums might benefit from slides or image project and some other form of voice amplification, while in smaller classrooms, more active and engaging activities can be used, like computer programming exercises or calling students to solve problems on the board.
Particularly, in the first activity, first we were handed tools, then we were to find a suitable use for it, which is the opposite of backwards design. The principles of backwards design state that first the desired outcomes should be considered, and the last step should be the design of the activities and instruction. This means the choice of tools should not come before the desired outcomes are set. The second exercise followed a more practical teaching design procedure, in which the context of the course was considered first and and the appropriate technology
Good examples of use of technology can be found in the use of “clicker” devices in Peer Instruction, as shown by Dr. Bennett Goldberg. Another example is integrating computer programming exercises in a lecture, students are able to practice new concepts immediately, rather than having to wait until a later assignment. This also allows students who might have misunderstood a concept to get immediate feedback and self-assess more accurately.
If technology is used inadequately, it will often yield results that are inferior to those achieved through well administered traditional teaching techniques. New technologies have great potential in the classroom, however, many remain underutilized as careful consideration must be taken in order to benefit from them. A good instructor will stay alert to new tools made available for them, and when appropriate will take advantage of them.