Our Office of Instructional Development and the VP for Academic Affairs sponsored the event. This and related posts are for those who were not able to attend, or for those who were there and might wish to add their own comments.
I attended the morning Session D: “Electronic Pedagogy: Translating Teaching for the Digital Classroom.” The panel included “two veterans and one novice” who discussed their mistakes, ongoing challenges, and victories in embracing “new methods and mediums to reach their students.” This post strives to touch on only the highpoints and neglects individual credit. Also, (with the exception of Bill) since most of us do not enjoy reading long Blogs the following is meant to give you both the flavor of, and the key points from the discussion and Q & A.
First, teaching with technology is different than teaching without:
!!! STRIVE TO BE VISUAL !!! and focus on what you want students to be able to do.
Books can deliver content, but we need to facilitate learning.
IT’S ABOUT LEARNING MORE THAN TEACHING!
Let the goals drive the choice of technology, rather than the other way around
= technology is for LEARNING
not for circus & bells sideshows
the technology should be transparent—almost invisible
Accordingly,
avoid using up synchronous time
with asynchronous content and process (see Finkelstein).
POWERPOINTS are not presentations . . . what you say and what happens in the class is THE PRESENTATION!!
Simply using technology to lecture is still only lecturing:
it’s a trap to look for (technological) THINGS to help students learn. Instead, EMPHASIZE INTERACTION!
Talk to Richard Van Eck about how to be more effective (and more efficient!) with
DISCUSSION BOARDS!!!
Finally, if you do nothing else today consider talking to OID about setting up an SGID. Why wait till the end of the semester to get feedback from students? Find out what’s working and what is NOT . . . NOW while you can still make changes.
Thanks for your patience with this somewhat unconventional post. Also, please avoid the conclusion that the session was simply a series of platitudes. Actually, like most worthwhile discussions of pedagogy, this session left me feeling somewhat embarrassed about what I thought I had been doing right, but also hopeful about how I can become more effective (and efficient!) in the ways that I can facilitate learning as a leader in the classroom.
Teaching Thursdays 