Core Competency 3
Incorporating Technology in Teaching
Workshop, Certification in College Teaching Institute
May 10th, 2018, MSU Union Ballroom
Description of the Competency
Technology has many advanced tools that can enhance the student learning process. But it needs experience on what tools to use that best correlates with the subject being presented.
Artifacts & Rationales
The slides presented in the workshop introduced several tools that enhance the use of technology that help students engage in the learning process.
Why the competency area is important for effective college teaching?
Students adapt very quickly to technology. Upgrading the learning methodologies to the up-to-date technologies will keep the students engaged and motivated to continue the learning process. This can significantly promote the educational process compared to relying only on the old teaching conventional methods.
What are the skills and knowledge areas involved in the competency?
- The availability of many helpful technological tools such as the test scanning, scoring, and student response systems
- Being socially present with the students like for instance having a twitter account
- The importance of the threshold concept which is a core concepts that once understood, transform perception of a given subject, phenomenon, or experience
Examples of how I would use what I have learnt in this competency in my future teaching.
- Promoting the use of online collaboration tools, such as Google sheets. This empower the students to work collaboratively on documents, and share ideas, texts, and images
- Keeping in mind the threshold concepts which are core concepts that once understood, transform perception of a given subject, phenomenon, or experience. Thus, before moving on and introduce a new concept, I shall make sure that the students grasp and understand very well the necessary core concepts. Testing this can be done in a variety of ways by asking the right questions, coming up with case studies that challenge their thinking and test their knowledge, or by exams/quizzes
- Advanced use of power point slides such as embedding animations, videos, and 3D pictures. This attracts the students and keep them engaged
- Asking questions through Clickers and smartphones are effective ways for instant polling which assesses students’ understanding and help instructors adjust pace and repeat specific content as needed