Technology in Instruction

IDEALA Week 4 Activity

I am having a hard time knowing whether I use ed tech tools in my teaching.  In my current credit courses, I typically give a brief presentation via PowerPoint, followed by practice with online or print resources.  Students document their work on handouts, on which they can hand write or type their responses.  I have used our student response system (aka clickers) with my instruction.  I like to use clickers because (a) students find them fun and (b) the anonymity makes it easier to for them to respond.

In other areas of my library work, I have used a couple of tools.  I am a liaison to a Physics class that uses Google+ to organize their work for small group presentations.  Also, I recently used Trello as part of a library website planning exercise.  I was okay with Trello because it seemed somewhat organized, but I have yet to use Google+ in a meaningful way.

My final course activity and assignment deal with writing citations and annotations in which they summarize, evaluate, and reflect on the relevance of five sources of information.  At the moment, I intended for students to write or type an annotation for review with classmates.  I believe the idea of using an online tool, such as Google Docs or Moodlerooms Discussion Forum, would be beneficial for the in class learning activity.

1. Consider: Will this application/tool enhance, improve instruction or motivate learners?

The use of Google Docs or Moodlerooms Discussion Forum could improve instruction in a few ways.  First, it will ease the small group discussion because students can easily review and comment on their classmates' work without having to crowd around one computer.  Second, having this material online will benefit students when they accomplish a similar task in their homework.  They will be able to access good examples of citations and annotations as often as necessary.

The use of Google Docs or Moodlerooms could improve student motivation.  Having their work posted online means all classmates can review and comment.  I am hopeful this form of peer review will encourage students to do their best work.

2. Review learning objectives for the lesson or module.

In my last post, I did not set learning objectives for this activity and assignment.  However, in my first post (date September 20) I did set some significant learning goals that would apply to this activity.  Using online tools could certainly support students' abilities to meet these goals:

• Then students would examine these sources of information based on criteria such as authority, accuracy, and purpose.
• Students can realize they are not alone in an academic environment. Professors, librarians, tutors, and peers are available and willing to help them succeed.
• When it is a more extensive project, students should understand how long it might take to accomplish this project and they should have willingness to take these steps.

Being hesitant about educational technology, I do not see a strong connection between my thoughts above and what I skimmed in the NMC Horizon Report > 2014 Higher Education Edition.  I believe there might be elements of cloud computing and collaborative learning.  Other than those possibilities, I am just fine if other emerging technologies are not a part of this lesson.