Thursday, March 26, 2015

The Impact of Technology on Teaching


Sara Sanchez Alonso

Technology infuses classrooms with new devices, such as iPads and tablet computers, and it expands course offerings with a variety of online resources. It also provides new ways to enhance student engagement through innovative instructional techniques such as the “flipping the classroom” model or “blended learning” opportunities. However, the introduction of technology into the classroom may pose important challenges to instructors: how can instructors find time to learn these new techniques while simultaneously trying to integrate them into the classroom? Will they need to rethink and redesign their course’s objectives?  

These are some of the questions that will be explored in this year’s Spring Teaching Forum (STF), organized by the Yale Center for Teaching and Learning, on April 24th. The discussions will revolve around the two-way interaction between technology and learning: first, how do learning goals shape the use of technology in the classroom? Second, how does this wide range of new tools enhance learning goals? In this post, instead of providing an answer to these questions, I will try to begin the conversation and motivate readers to start thinking about the topic. In particular, my goal is to make the concept of “technology” more concrete and accessible by presenting some ways in which new technological devices can impact the classroom.  

An online search for “teaching and technology” provides so many results, it can be overwhelming at first to choose where to start. The large number of results, however, shows that technology is already having a huge impact on our teaching, and it is worth exploring this interaction. Here are some of the ways in which we can start thinking about the impact of “technology” on teaching:

1. Collaborative Tools

Collaborative tools, such as blogs, wikis, Twitter or new platforms, such as “Piazza” provide new opportunities for interactions between students and instructors, as well as promote student-student interactions. Collaborative work, whether in pairs or small groups, increases learning gains, in terms of recall, critical thinking and application of concepts to new situations. With these new tools, teaching is not limited to class meetings, but active learning and feedback can happen outside of traditional face-to-face meetings. For example, blogs encourage online writings and threaded discussion groups, and the use of wikis, i.e. a webpage that anybody can edit, can help in creating group projects or group brainstorming.

2. Information Visualization Tools

Whether it is a small data set or complex data, technology offers tools that can help users visualize and structure information as well as analyze and manipulate that information in new ways.  One of the most common tools is Geographic Information Systems (GSIS), which allows users to manage and interpret geographically-reference data by showing the different patterns and trends. Another example would be JMOL, an online platform that allows users to view the chemical structure of molecules in 3D.

3. Flipping the Classroom

This new teaching approach consists of giving students a first exposure to the material before class and using in-class time for interactions that require understanding the concept through active learning activities. It does not require the use of technology, but tools such as online videos, podcasts and quizzes are becoming more prevalent in flipped classroom settings.

4. Tablet Computers

Tablet computers offer many possibilities for teaching. On one hand, they allow for better course management by providing gradebooks and annotations to mark up PDF files with highlights and texts. They can also enhance content creation in class through applications for concept mapping or music composition, such as “Mindomo” or “Symphony Pro”. Students can also use tablets as presentation tools with slideshow viewer applications, timers and or even digital whiteboards to draw or graph.

5. Online Courses

Despite the challenges posed by the lack of face-to-face contact and the additional prerequisite of computing skills, the number of online courses is growing. In addition, several online platforms have been created to support learning management online, such as “Sakai” or “Blackboard”. Here are several great websites with tips for creating an online course. Be sure to check them out!



There are many other ways in which technology can enhance learning, such as podcasts, and presentation software tools, but I hope this guide has served as a snapshot of the many shapes that technology in teaching can take. If you want to hear about the pros and cons of technology in the classroom and learn how to achieve a balanced technology-integration of your own, come to the Spring Teaching Forum on April 24th!

In the meantime, I want to close with a quote that I recently came across online:
Colleagues sometimes ask if a specific technology will enhance student learning. That’s a bit like asking whether a chalkboard or book will. Low-tech or high-tech, a tool’s learning benefits depend on when, where, how and why you use it.
- Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence, Carnegie Mellon

Have you used technology in the classroom? What was your experience? Let’s get the ball rolling on a great discussion! J

 

Thursday, March 5, 2015

What to Consider When Considering Flipping Your Classroom

Susie Kimport
 
Last semester, Fall 2014, I taught calculus in a flipped classroom environment.  Before every class, my students would watch short videos introducing the topics of the day and complete a series of online “prep-problems” for each video.  A few hours before every class, I received a computer-generated summary from our web platform of how my students did on these problems.  The hope was that I could use that data to better tailor examples and in-class activities to the topics with which my students were struggling.

This is normally how a flipped classroom is designed.  The basic idea is to take introductory material out of the classroom and instead use class time for hands-on examples and more interaction between the instructor and the students.   The main difference between my experience and that of most people who talk about flipping their classrooms is that I did not create or choose the videos for my students.  I was teaching as part of a coordinated course and it was our course director who created the videos two years ago.  This meant that I entered into the semester hoping to learn more about the flipped classroom and honestly, to be convinced that it could work, without having to invest a large amount of time into implementation.

While most of the things I noticed during the semester are specific to our implementation and our videos, I think the following three points are valuable to anyone considering flipping the classroom:

1.      Think about content. A pre-class video is another way to present material, just like lecture, demonstrations, or using props in class.

a.       There is some material that lends itself wonderfully to videos.  I loved the videos that meant I did not have to attempt (and fail) to draw 3D pictures on the board.  Many students spoke highly of the videos where the main goal was to derive a formula.

b.      But for the more conceptual ideas?  Videos did not cut it.  Yes, students could pause and rewind, but the explanation never changed.  This meant that some students came to class already extremely frustrated that “the videos didn’t teach [them] anything.” You may want to consider having an alternative explanation or teaching method on hand for difficult concepts.

2.      Think about the in-class experience just as much, if not more, than the videos. Before you flip a classroom with videos, you need videos.  In April, Simona Lorenzini and I will lead a workshop exactly aimed at creating this video content.  But once you have the videos, you have to use them!  The most important questions to ask yourself are:

a.       How do I gauge what my students have learned from these videos?  How can I leverage that to improve the in-class experience for all my students?

b.      How do I make my classroom as active as possible, so students stay engaged despite “learning” the material via videos?

c.       How can I make the constant transition between video and in-class and back again as seamless as possible?

3.      Just because students watched a video does not mean they have learned and internalized everything.  One selling point of the flipped classroom is that it removes some of the tedious lecture from class and therefore allows instructors to do more.  However, the students are not always as far along after watching the videos as you might hope.  Speaking from my own experience, I was often tempted to use the videos and prep-problems to justify (to myself) skipping some more basic examples. 

When I taught Calculus II without videos, I would do 3-4 simple examples in class with the students (let’s say level 1 or 2 for a scale).  If those went well, I would do a couple more complicated problems (say level 3 or 4 if they were really getting it). Last semester, one basic (level 1) example was in the video.  The prep-problems (usually) asked the students to do 2-3 level 2 or 3 examples.  Thus, it often felt natural to start class with a level 3 problem and then dive in to level 4 problems.

The problem with this: students often struggled through the prep-problems and (since they were online) sometimes got the correct answer without internalizing why.  Therefore, starting class at level 2 would have been a safer bet.  If that example goes off without issue, then slowly make your way up to levels 3 and 4.

Overall, I am happy that I tried the flipped classroom and would look forward to doing it again, though most likely with videos I picked out or created myself.  It is a different type of teaching and I think its value comes in how each person can adapt (or steal from) the concept to improve and critically reflect on their teaching, including taking those ideas back to a “traditional” classroom.