TECHNOLGIES FOR
TEACHING AND LEARNING
Fall 2009
Pamela Gades,
Instructional Technology Specialist
University of Minnesota, Morris
INTRO
Here are seven principles based on research on good
teaching and learning in colleges and universities.
Good practice in undergraduate education:
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encourages contact between students and faculty,
develops reciprocity and cooperation among
students,
encourages active learning,
gives prompt feedback,
emphasizes time on task,
communicates high expectations, and
respects diverse talents and ways of learning.
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INTRO
While each practice can stand alone on its own,
when all are present their effects multiply.
Together they employ six powerful forces in
education:
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activity,
expectations,
cooperation,
interaction,
diversity, and
responsibility.
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COMMUNICATION
Encourages Frequent Contact Between Students
and Faculty
Email
 Forum
 Blog
 Wiki
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Establish policies for your course regarding usage
of the tools, and timelines for responding to
messages.
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TECHNOLOGY FOR COMMUNICATION
Email: timely email responses encourage contact
 Electronic journals: Students journal weekly and
reflect on their thoughts and feelings about the
class. The instructor responds to each student’s
weekly journal.
 Discussion boards: Encourage student
participation by sending them private email.
 Online office hours via chat or web conferencing
 Telephone/voicemail/text messaging
 Electronic submission of assignments
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TECHNOLOGY FOR COMMUNICATION
(CONT’D)
Use the Comment feature in Word (or Acrobat) to
respond to student work electronically
 Post your schedule online for students
 Use a course management system (Moodle or
WebVista)
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COLLABORATION/COOPERATION
Develops Reciprocity and Cooperation Among Students
Guidelines for encouraging meaningful participation in
online discussions:
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Learners should be required to participate (and their grade
should depend on participation).
Discussion groups should remain small.
Discussions should be focused on a task.
Tasks should always result in a product.
Tasks should engage learners in the content.
Learners should receive feedback on their discussions.
Evaluation should be based on the quality of postings (and
not the length or number).
Instructors should post expectations for discussions.
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TECHNOLOGY FOR COLLABORATION
Class assignments worked on in small groups,
but discussed openly through a discussion board
 “Jeopardy” type games using classes broken into
smaller teams
 Use course management system to create groups
and then use discussion boards either in private
group discussions or allowing anyone to read any
group’s discussions
 Use a discussion board for students to post rough
drafts of work that others can critique
 Teams collaborate on a group project via a
discussion board
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TECHNOLOGY FOR COLLABORATION
(CONT’D)
Teams use email groups to share & collaborate
 Structured WebQuests
 Web page construction by teams of students
 Chat rooms
 Google Docs or using Microsoft Word
collaborative tools
 Collaborative electronic portfolios
 Email Listservs
 “Continue class discussions online amongst
yourselves”
 Create group Blogs
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ACTIVE LEARNING - PROJECTS
Talk about it
 Write about it
 Relate it to past experiences
 Apply it to their daily lives
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Students should present course projects. This
often motivates them to perform at a higher level.
 They learn from seeing and discussing their
peer’s work.
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TECHNOLOGY FOR ACTIVE LEARNING
Create a set of practical projects and allow
groups to choose a project. These projects can be
presented in the classroom or a group Web site or
Blog can be assigned
 Interacting with animations, simulations, and
games
 Allowing students to research topics during class
using their laptops
 Playing video clips, or creating video clips to
demonstrate learning
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TECHNOLOGY FOR ACTIVE LEARNING
(CONT’D)
Extend research outside the classroom, students
then post findings to the discussion board or
create Blog or Wiki entries to report their
findings
 Analysis of real world case studies
 “Tour” a place via the Web
 Set up a video conferences with professionals in
the field
 Interact with online laboratory exercises
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TECHNOLOGY FOR ACTIVE LEARNING
(CONT’D)
Use in-class polling software to pose questions
and have students work in small groups to
discuss and agree on answers
 Student Response Systems (“clickers”)
 Assign students to use Twitter to post news,
links, and thoughts on course topics
 Use Twitter in class to display a class Twitter
site. Students post throughout the class period to
share thoughts and ideas
 Post lecture outlines on a course Web site that
students can use and customize prior to class and
record notes on during class
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PROVIDE PROMPT FEEDBACK
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Instructors need to provide two types of feedback:
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Acknowledgement Feedback:
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Confirms that some event has occurred. For example, the
instructor may send an e-mail acknowledging that he or she
has received a question or assignment and will respond
soon.
Information Feedback:
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provides information or evaluation, such as an answer to a
question, or an assignment grade and comments
Give them frequent opportunities to perform and
receive suggestions for improvement
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TECHNOLOGIES FOR PROMPT FEEDBACK
Assignments submitted electronically are easily
commented on and returned electronically
 Course management systems allow for easy
notification of submissions, which helps
instructors to promptly respond
 Email each student upon receipt of their
assignment, just to let him/her know that it was
received
 Classroom response systems (“clickers”) permit
immediate feedback
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TECHNOLOGIES FOR PROMPT FEEDBACK
(CONT’D)
Post on a discussion board to give encouragement
and feedback to students who are posting
 Electronic Portfolios: An online portfolio allows
the student to store selected papers and projects
and allows faculty to attach comments to those
papers and projects
 Email your students for announcements, to give
feedback on assignments, or to follow-up on
something from class
 Use polls or surveys to help reshape the course as
it unfolds
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TIME ON TASK
Time + Energy = Learning
 There is no substitute for time on task.
 Teach them effective time management.
 Allocate realistic amounts of time.
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Regularly-distributed deadlines encourage
students to spend time on tasks and help
students with busy schedules avoid
procrastination.
They also provide a context for regular contact with
the instructor and peers.
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TECHNOLOGIES FOR TIME ON TASK
Online submission of assignments helps the
students complete assignments on time
 Post all assignments on the course Web site
 Have students store all their work in their
network file storage space --- minimizes lost or
corrupted files
 Create online auto-graded quizzes and surveys
for students to test themselves and repeat as
many times as they like
 Create and assign WebQuests
 Online discussions and chats
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TECHNOLOGIES FOR TIME ON TASK
(CONT’D)
Recorded lectures or additional concept
presentations (podcasts or vodcasts)
 Provide hot links to articles and other readings
which means less time students spend searching
for materials in the library (also electronic
reserves)
 Post class notes online for student review (so
review of the material in class is not required)
 Use the online calendar tool in WebVista or
Moodle to help students plan and organize
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COMMUNICATING HIGH EXPECTATIONS
Expect more and you’ll get more.
 High expectations are important for everyone.
 Provide examples or models for students to
follow, along with comments explaining why the
examples are good.
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Provide examples of the types of interactions you
expect from the discussion forum.
 What to do.
 What not to do.
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Praise for quality work.
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TECHNOLOGIES FOR COMMUNICATING
HIGH EXPECTATIONS
Grade weekly online discussion board postings.
Give feedback as to what is an outstanding
response, and what is not.
 Provide a scoring rubric for every assignment,
posted online for students to refer to at any time
 Especially useful for group work are learning
contracts
 Post group results and finished projects online –
“meaningful audience concept”
 Post examples of exemplary work
 Provide weekly progress reports
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RESPECTS DIVERSE TALENTS
AND WAYS OF LEARNING
There are many roads to learning.
 People bring different talents and styles of
learning to college.
 Students need the opportunity to show their
talents and learn in ways that work for them.
 Students then can be pushed to learn in new
ways that do not come so easily.
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Allow students to choose project topics
Allow students to select a method for a project: write
a paper, create a video, present in class, create a web
site, etc.
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TECHNOLOGIES FOR RESPECTING DIVERSE
TALENTS AND WAYS OF LEARNING
Utilize WebQuests or multimedia presentations
as a way to infuse the curriculum with diverse
viewpoints.
 Offer students choices of activities according to
their learning styles:
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Simulated case studies
Videos
Computer-aided instructional packages
Articles, books, and Web sites
Oral presentations, demonstrations, multi-media
presentations, visual aids, audio aids, and more
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TECHNOLOGIES FOR RESPECTING DIVERSE
TALENTS AND WAYS OF LEARNING (CONT’D)
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Provide lecture slides and notes online prior to class
Provide a mix of communication media:
 Allow
students to use email to ask questions
 Some
prefer face-to-face interactions
 Post
 Use
everything online for 24/7 access by students
discussion boards for homework help, peer networking
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TECHNOLGIES FOR
TEACHING AND LEARNING
Fall 2009
Pamela Gades,
Instructional Technology Specialist
University of Minnesota, Morris