PEDAGOGY > TECHNOLOGY AND TEACHING II

The Relationship Between Technology And Teaching

Good teaching does not always need to include technology, but it often does. Technology can be a wonderful catalyst for rethinking an entire course or a single concept. In the process of reviewing specific teaching goals, the possibilities of appropriate uses of technology can become integral to the innovation process. The content and learning goals will inform the selection of the technology tool, and the tool itself will open up new teaching and learning possibilities. It is this iterative process which inspires instructors who think hard about their teaching to explore the potential of technology without becoming overwhelmed by the need to change an entire course all at once.

Unfortunately, technology cannot "save" a badly developed curriculum or "rescue" a poor teacher; indeed, it may exacerbate an already poor situation. It is advisable, therefore, for instructors to discuss their concerns about their teaching with a peer or a faculty development consultant at the Office of Instructional Development before undertaking a "technology cure."

The first step to infuse technology into instruction is to start with teaching and learning goals and then to select the most appropriate technology to achieve those goals. Using technology for its own sake can be a frustrating experience for instructors and their students, often with little instructional value derived from what can be enormous on-going investments in hardware, software, and time.

Having established instructional goals, an instructor can then review how technology has been used by colleagues and departments elsewhere to enhance a specific topic or course. Often it is possible to use or adapt what already exists, adding small innovative changes over time. The decision to develop a new module is best made as a joint decision with other colleagues who teach the course, or may make use of the module, and with local support staff who will likely have the job of maintaining the software and supporting its use.

The tools selected should be supported by the departmental or divisional technology support centers, readily available to students and widely used in undergraduate instruction at UCLA. Motivating students to invest in, and learn how to use a tool for which they see no long-term application will be difficult. If specialized software or hardware is required for a course, it is critical that the department provide sufficient access, training, and support. Students may require additional motivation to learn to use these specialized tools unless they quickly experience learning efficiencies.

Integrating technology in instruction will be achieved most easily if the technology part of the curriculum is developed in collaboration with local (departmental or divisional) computer support staff. The ramifications of taking an independent route can be a costly investment for instructor, student, and support staff. Many resources at UCLA are available to help faculty at the local level. Many departments and divisions provide consultation and support for instructors to develop web pages and other types of digital materials. There is also a wide array of technology services provided by four campus-wide organizations.

Communications Technology Services which operates the campus backbone and remote access services, and supports Bruin OnLine.
College Library (see University Libraries chapter) which offers instruction in Internet access, use of the on-line catalogues ORION2 and Melvyl, and critical thinking about information resources.
The Office of Academic Computing which offers high-performance computing services, a visualization lab, and software licensing services.
The Office of Instructional Development which provides a broad range of technology services described below.

Computer Resources For Students At UCLA

All UCLA students have access to computers on campus through various computer laboratories in the residence halls, in departmental computer labs and in Powell Library. The Schedule of Classes http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/schedule lists locations of computer labs. UCLA students are also all given free e-mail, Internet access and space for a web page, and may purchase a suite of communication tools, called Bruin OnLine, which includes electronic mail, a World Wide Web browser, and other software. Ideally, instructors can, therefore, assign computer- or Internet-based assignments knowing that all students should have the access they need. Not all students live on campus or in Westwood, however, and some students who live off-campus and work part- or full-time may only be on campus long enough to attend classes and may not have computer access at home. Moreover, there are often significant lines of students waiting to get into computer labs. In both the course syllabus and on the first day of class, instructors should make their expectations clear regarding student access to and use of computers and the Internet.

In addition, instructors should anticipate that students will have vastly disparate knowledge of computer and Internet technology. This means that some instruction of this technology is likely to be necessary in any course that relies on it significantly, if learning is to be maximized. The College Library http://www.library.ucla.edu offers introductory courses in Internet technology every quarter; instructors who will be using the Internet in their courses should alert students to the Library course schedule (or even require attendance at one or more of the courses) as well as provide additional instruction as appropriate.

My UCLA

The amount of information on the web can be bewildering to students who may have a specific goal in mind (for example, finding out when the mid-term is scheduled for a course) and may be under time pressure due to access constraints (from home or a lab). The College web site, http://my.ucla.edu , provides a customized single point of entry for students, giving them a list of all their current course web sites, as well as information about student services, their academic progress, and so on. Using their "My UCLA" page, each student can quickly link to the homepage for each course in which they are enrolled. A guest login has been provided so that non-students may also view an example.

UCLA Homepages

The UCLA homepage offers access to a wide variety of campus resources and information. Its main menu provides links to Admissions and Student Services; Academic Programs' Health Sciences; Athletics; Campus Resources; Research; International Programs; Continuing Education; Alumni and Friends; and Libraries, Museums, and the Arts. In addition, the homepage links directly to the campus calendars, map, and telephone directory, campus news, and UCLA Store. The "Explore" site provides a virtual tour of the campus. New sites and features are added frequently to its extensive content pages. In addition, the College of Letters and Science, all of the professional schools, and every department maintain their own homepage.

Incorporating Computers Into Instruction: Some Easy First Steps

Careful thought is needed regarding the educational goals for incorporating media and computing technology into instruction. It is certainly true that the relative newness of computer technology may capture students' interest, but what other goals does the instructor have in mind? Many faculty believe that the Internet and electronic communication contribute meaningfully to an atmosphere of collaborative learning among their students, while others use them to give students a wider audience for their work, a sense of learning within a larger academic or social community.

Information technology enables various methods of communicating interactively. Used appropriately, computer technology should decrease rather than increase the distance between faculty and students.

Electronic-mail

E-mail can greatly expand students' access to the instructor. If they cannot attend office hours, or they have a question over the weekend, or they merely have a simple, straightforward question that does not require an elaborate answer, e-mail can be the ideal medium for instructor-student communication. It has been suggested that e-mail is also a much less intimidating means of communication for shy students. Particularly for faculty who do not give students their home phone number, e-mail can provide considerably greater access for students than merely holding two or three office hours per week. The course e-mail address is one of the vital pieces of information that should be included in a course syllabus. It is recommended that the course be assigned a separate e-mail address. Of course, including this address implies that instructors and teaching assistants will be regularly reading and responding to electronic mail.

E-mail allows three types of correspondence: one-to-one, individual correspondence with students; one-to-many correspondence in which distribution lists for the course can be used to send messages to all of the students; and many-to-many correspondence in which all of the instructor’s and students’ messages are automatically sent to everyone in the course. Instructors will want to make it very clear to students what type of correspondence should be sent to the course e-mail list (for example, all questions related to course content) and what is appropriate to send personally to the instructor.

Class web pages

All UCLA instructors are encouraged to create or augment homepages for the courses that they are teaching. The following types of information on a course homepage can increase the teaching and learning value of the page:

The course syllabus, schedule of assignments, and course policies and procedures.
Previous exams and essay questions.
Frequently asked questions (such as appropriate citation style for papers or examples of difficult problems) and their answers.
Selected links to other web sites that may be of interest to students in the course.
The e-mail addresses for the course listserv, course instructor and TAs for the course (it is recommended that these are course specific, for example, InstrBio3 or TA1Bio3, rather than the personal e-mail addresses).
Course reading materials. Instructors may scan materials into their homepage, in accordance with copyright restrictions, or work with College Library. The following Electronic Reserves web site will provide more information:

http://www. library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/reserves/electronic/dept.htm.

More copyright information is available through the Faculty New Media Center website, which tries to keep current on these issues: http://www.oid.ucla.edu/fnmc

Lecture outlines and handouts. Instructors are often concerned that if they give students too much detail, students will no longer come to lecture. On the other hand, an outline of the lecture, with key terms provided, can be an excellent tool for helping students to learn more effectively, and for modeling how to take notes and how to think like a professional in the discipline. In addition, handouts from the class that give questions to think about during lecture are known to enhance learning by focusing thinking. Both these resources can be put on the class web page.
Guidelines for thinking critically about the web. The web can be an intimidating resource for students. Unlike when an instructor puts a book on reserve in the Library, and, therefore, a student has some sense it has been refereed by the instructor or others in the field. In the case of the web, one of the most important aspects an instructor can model for students is how to think critically about the materials and resources found on web pages. A reference or worksheet that helps students "interrogate" a site can be invaluable in this regard. The Library also offers training on critical thinking about information resources and a specialist can be scheduled to meet with a class to provide training on this and other topics such as writing a research paper. See http://www.library.ucla.edu for more information about these and other related library services.

Comprehensive web-based tool packages

Some individual departments and divisions provide software for course web sites which bundles together many teaching support functions, such as electronic conferencing, e-mail, posting of syllabi and course materials, and course management functions such as on-line quizzing and on-line record-keeping. For example, the Chemistry Department has developed the "Virtual Office Hours" (VOH) package; many departments in the Division of Social Sciences http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu use the "ClassWeb" package, and the Humanities Division: http://www.humnet.ucla.edu and some departments in Life Sciences are implementing the "WebCT" package. Instructors whose departments have not yet implemented such software can achieve some of these functions using the course web site and electronic mail. It is important to consult with local support staff before adding new software because of the impact it may have on existing software, student access and support issues.

Comprehensive Class Enhancement Using Technology: Some Questions To Guide Instructors

Although the process of infusing technology into instruction may begin with a simple step, such as using a course listserv or electronic mail, it can grow to include a very broad range of information, tools, and software packages. The fact that all these technology options exist should not be viewed as a mandate or pressure to use them all. From among this array, an instructor can pick and choose appropriate technology to meet the teaching goals for a specific topic and specific course. What is important is that the components are accessible to the students and function coherently together. Local computer support staff can provide information about what technology is readily available to instructors and students, and will work with faculty who wish to use other tools.

Using technology in teaching is always a trade-off between the time and effort spent creating and maintaining it, and the educational gains achieved by using it. To ascertain whether a given technology is worth employing, an instructor needs to ask if a given technology is the best or only way to accomplish the desired goal. For example, developing a web site with links to relevant web sites and/or pages of text and graphics may seem worthwhile at first glance, but prove counter-productive if reading the text from the screen via a home modem or printing numerous pages requires too much of a student's time or money when compared with purchasing print copies. On the other hand, creating a simple animation to elucidate a difficult concept, and projecting it either in class or on the web, may serve to clarify it far better than could a static, two-dimensional image.

Thus, an instructor needs to first define the educational goals and identify any specific problems. Are office hours overcrowded or underused? Are there students who are too shy to meet face-to-face, or have schedules which do not coincide with the available hours? Perhaps using e-mail will facilitate broader communication between the instructor and students, while increasing communication among the students themselves. How will the extra load of reading and responding to postings be balanced with other teaching responsibilities? Similarly, a large class may contain a group of advanced students who tend to dominate in-class discussions. Creating a private message board for these students might give them a sense of importance and enable the passive students to participate more in in-class discussions. Yet, would monitoring these web-based discussions require more attention and time than an instructor can devote? These are examples of the basic questions an instructor might consider before using a new technology in a course.

In addition to approaching technology in terms of solving problems or improving targeted areas, an instructor can think about each of the major components of teaching a course and evaluate the impact of introducing technology to each of them. Below are three major areas of interest to instructors each with some sample questions to aid an instructor's thinking. There are, of course, many, many more questions to be asked and decisions to be made (which will in turn lead to more questions). Good sources of ideas and advice can be found in discussions with colleagues, librarians and technology support staff, as well as on course web sites at UCLA and elsewhere. References to such services and information can be found throughout this guide.

Course management

Using technology to assist in the administrative running of a course can result in some real time savings, as well as some new resource investments, and can have an impact on both the content and teaching of a course. Some of the decisions to be made are:

How can technology be used to create more meaningful assignments?
How can a course web site in combination with class/section listservs be exploited to distribute course information? What types of information are best delivered to the student via electronic mail, the web site, or printed handouts? When is redundancy of delivery methods necessary?
How can electronic access to accurate course rosters simplify the tracking of student progress by instructors, teaching assistants and students? What tools are available?
How can technology be used to integrate the lecture with the associated discussions or labs, or to help maintain consistency across sections of a course?
How can the components of the syllabus, lecture notes and reading materials be expanded to include access to new types of information (video, audio, real-time, remote, etc.)? What information formats are easy/difficult for students to access?
How does the purpose, use, and schedule of office hours change when on-line communication is also available? How can the workload be predicted and managed? How will TAs be affected?
How can technology be used to assist in both preventing and checking for plagiarism?
What elements need to be retained as the permanent record of the course and how does technology simplify and change the record? For example, if there is no longer a text for the course, how will students reference prior required material for future courses?
Which technology-assisted components of the course should be included in the instructor's teaching portfolio? How can scholarly teaching innovation be well represented and rewarded in personnel decision-making?

The Classroom

Technology can be used to seamlessly integrate teaching and learning both inside and outside the classroom. For example, an instructor can raise an issue in class which has appeared on the class listserv, weaving it into the class discussion. Careful thought about intended goals, coupled with on-going experimentation with mixing and matching these two contexts can often lead to innovation. A few of the issues to think about are:

How can technology influence student attendance and interest?
What is the best use of face-to-face classroom time? How can use of electronic information and communication change, supplement, or complement what happens in the classroom?
How can technology be used to improve the quality of information given in class?
How does participation in class change when lecture notes are provided electronically prior to class? Can students be expected to be better prepared, or to learn independently, material which was previously delivered in lectures?
How can the time spent in the classroom be better integrated with activities accomplished outside the classroom, or be better linked using technology?
How can technology be used to improve the way information is presented in class to increase comprehension?
How can student participation be stimulated by using technology in class?

Regardless of how worthwhile the class is, students still sometimes have higher priorities-classes in which they are struggling, as well as personal issues. If nothing else, an instructor can at least try to help students feel that they are truly missing something when they do not come to class. Above all, instructors should try not to take student non-attendance personally.

Using new media will wake up students when first implemented but, as with any other teaching tool, it can be overused or used inappropriately. There are times when the intricacies of boardwork invite student interrogation of the subject matter in a way that perfectly constructed slides do not. Also, if the technology being employed requires a great deal of low-lighting to be appreciated it is important to turn the lights up frequently and ask questions to help students stay engaged.

When one is poised on the brink of spending three hours learning PowerPoint, two hours creating a presentation, and an hour practicing with the machine, it might first be wise to spend an hour thinking about what excites today's university students, for example, having coffee with a group of students; surfing the Web looking at college student homepages; looking at an old high school senior yearbook; reading the Daily Bruin or student magazines. This is not about "dumbing down" material or lowering test expectations, but rather about bridging the gap-enticing students to ask questions the course can help answer. This is especially important if they are non-majors with no future classes motivating them to stay on top of the material. It often helps if the instructor can convey a sense of what attracted them to the field when they were a student.

Having thought through the issues, it may indeed become clear that a video or a computer presentation is just the way to communicate this excitement to students. Then the time required to learn to use the technology will be well spent.

Student Work

Much is written and spoken about customized, learner-centered instruction. While it is certainly true that the meaning and value of such educational goals can be debated, it is also clear that technology can help instructors offer a greater range of learning opportunities and types of information to students using technology.

How can technology help instructors assist under-prepared students?
Can technology be used to help students assess their own readiness for the course or for each new topic? Can technology be used to help students fill in the gaps in their knowledge or review concepts which are prerequisites for the course? What is already available?
How can technology be used to create more meaningful assignments?
What topics or concepts typically bore/discourage/mystify/cause problems for students? How can technology help change this picture by stimulating interest, providing practice, giving alternative perspectives, or including additional resources?
How can technology be used to link students to external experts and current research?
In what ways can technology be used to help students assess their own progress? Keep teaching assistants and instructors well-informed about student progress? Streamline the recording of grades?

Computer Access For Disabled Students

The Disabilities and Computing Program (DCP, extension 67133) provides adaptive computing support to all members of the UCLA community, including students, faculty, and staff with permanent and temporary disabilities. This computing support is provided in three areas:

Computer access.
Instructors who will be using instructional computing facilities and who have a student who may have difficulty using a computer keyboard, mouse, display, or standard height computer table should contact the DCP as early as possible. DCP staff are available to work with instructors and department computing support coordinators to help make instructional computer labs accessible to students with disabilities.
Information access.
Students with sight impairments due to blindness, low vision, learning disability, or orthopedic disability may have difficulty reading print materials or information on computer displays. This might include course reading lists, textbooks, class handouts, library on-line information systems, etc. The DCP works together with the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) and the Library to assist instructors in providing information to students in alternative formats (including Braille, large print, computer file, and audio tape).
Computer-based compensatory tools.
A student with a disability may have difficulty with tasks not typically accomplished with a computer, such as taking class notes, writing an exam, or reading a book. The DCP develops computer-based tools to help students compensate for their functional disability, including talking lap-top computers available for check-out, voice-controlled computers for writing, and reading machines for listening to texts. The DCP also supports a joint project with OSD that provides students with learning disabilities with selected class text materials on disk, and computer-based reading and proofreading software to assist them in their reading and writing.

The responsibility does not lie solely with these support services. Each instructor and TA also has an important role to play. The web is being used more and more frequently to provide access to instructional materials, to facilitate class discussions, to turn in assignments, to provide and receive feedback, and to obtain grades. Each web function, therefore, needs to be designed with the needs of disabled students in mind, and each service needs to have its "safety net" backup, so that unsuccessful access to the web does not lead to unsuccessful participation in the course. It is useful to remember that many of the features which enable equal access to the physically disabled student also help ensure access to the students with less than adequate technology (i.e., older computers, software, printers, and modems). For information about how to develop web pages which ensure universal access, please refer to: http://www.dcp.ucla.edu

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