USING TECHNOLOGY AS A LEARNING TOOL İN YOUR CLASSES:

WHY AND HOW?

Pınar Özbek, M.A., Ed.M. Instructor, Academic and Life Skills (ALIS) Program

December 5, 2012

Workshop

This workshop aims to disseminate the knowledge gained from:

EDULEARN12 International Conference on Education and

New Learning Technologies organized by

International Association of Technology, Education and Development.

Attendance to this conference was awarded by

KOLT Teaching Innovation Grant in Summer 2012.

Agenda

• Role of technology in today’s higher education

• Methods to incorporate technology in in-class activities and homework assignments

Brainstorming

Brainstorming

• To what extent do our students use technology in their daily lives?

• To what extent do they use technology in the classroom? What role does that play?

• Why not use that potential for course purposes and turn it into an advantage?

Brainstorming

• To what extent do we use/have student use technology in our classes?

• How does/could that help?

– Improve participation?

– Improve student satisfaction?

– Engage uninterested students?

– Enhance learning?

Insights

• Use of technology is a rising trend in higher education.

NMC Horizon Project, a decade-long research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in higher education. (video)

Insights

• Using technology enables educators to reach diverse students by providing:

– multiple means of engagement

– multiple means of expression

(as featured in Universal Design for Learning Guidelines by CAST – Center for Applied Special Technology)

Insights

• Using technology can help counteract the following problems which are common in the generation we teach:

– lack of commitment

– lack of interest

– lack of motivation in the studies

Insights

• Using technology can help students: – learn new methods of communication and

interaction

– acquire new self-learning techniques

– develop abilities to express with clarity and assertiveness

A more significant, participative and collaborative learning

(As shown in the results of a research on a blended learning approach to a computer programming course in Mexico)

Insights

• Using blended learning approaches may result in: – higher performance

– higher grades

(As shown in the results of a study on a blended learning approach to a biostatistics course in the U.S.)

Insights

• Blending in-class and online learning approaches facilitate active learning as it is learner-controlled method.

Insights

• Mobile learning takes learning beyond the limits of classroom and integrates it into students’ lives, so that they can learn anywhere, anytime.

Insights

• In online learning tools, the learning data is recorded and can be accessed over and over again (ex. Lecture recordings).

• Peer-to-peer networks make learning more collaborative and student-centered.

Tips

• Use online forums for: – student discussion

– collaborative problem solving

(could be graded)

http://lt.umn.edu/environetwork/

May foster interaction among students taking different sections of the same course on an online platform)

Tips

• Provide an online platform where all course materials and resources are available. – Videos (documentaries, interviews, demonstrations,

TED talks...) ex. UMN Professor using shooting documentaries to

teach climate change and sustainability ex. TedEx video explaining a physics concept through

dance – Scholarly / news articles – Lecture slides – ...

Tips

• Use a Youtube channel as a learning environment for students: – Lecture slides with voiceover ex. UC Berkeley Psychology Professor teaching

neuroscience – Lecture recordings (does not necessarily reduce

attendance as found in Goethe U. research) – Other videos you may possess that support the course

objectives Resource:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_video_hosting_services

Tips

Tips

• Have student prepare audio or video recordings on class content to enhance:

– Practice

– Skill building

Ex. Communication videos in ALIS

Tips

• Use iTunes education apps

Resource: http://www.apple.com/education/apps/

Tips

• Provide feedback to student work using online platforms

ex. A smart phone app, called FacePaper, enables the

instructors to provide feedback to design assignments in Hong Kong Polytechnic University

ex. Turnitin

Tips

• Use social bookmarking – organizing and categorizing web pages for efficient retrieval

– keeping tagged pages accessible from any networked computer

– sharing needed or desired resources with other students

– accessing tagged pages with RSS feeds, cell phones and PDAs for increased mobility

– giving students another way to collaborate with each other and make collective discoveries

Resource: http://demo.delicious.com/discover

Tips

• Use Open Educational Resources

http://www.oercommons.org/advanced-search

Tips

• Use electronic voting systems

Herfordshire U., UK

Examples

• Running a hybrid leadership program 25% face-to-face and 75% online http://lephie.eu/manual/ (Maastricht U.)

• Geography students learning design using a virtual program (Goethe U.)

• Educational flash drive (U. Of Northwestern Switzerland)

http://www.imedias.ch/lernstick/lernstick_en

• Games provide opportunities for experiential learning (see video)

• MOOC (Massive Online Open Courses) video

Games

Games

Keep in mind...

Start with learning objectives

Combine face-to-face and online methods

Scaffold all tech methods with learning outcomes

Thank you for your attention!

Pınar Özbek, M.A., Ed.M. Student Center B382

T: x1058 E: pinarozbek@ku.edu.tr