Core Competency 3: Incorporating Technology in your Teaching

Core Competency 3: Incorporating Technology in your Teaching

Description of Core Competency

'Learning is seen as essentially a social process, requiring communicaiton among learner, teacher, and others. This social process cannot effectively be replaced by technology, although technology may facilitate it.' (Bates & Poole, 2003, p. 35)

We are encircled by technology in our day to day life and therefore, the classrooms are no longer an exception. If you want to follow 'Vygotsky's sociocultural theory' in present context, you have to have incorporate technology in your classroom set ups, in instructional methods, and above all, all the student centered activities. Even before the pandemic, most of the STEM classroom set ups was 'Chalk & Duster' and at best use of multimedia projector and of course, traditional lecture based. It is not possible to pull students from their digital everyday life out and set them to analog classroom and expect to meet the learning objectives. Technology transforms classrooms into more interactive, student-centered, and customized to individual students’ learning styles. The word 'Technology in classroom' does not limit only to use of computer, iPad, or outdated overhead projectors rather integration of digital content into lessons, interactive whiteboards, gamified learning applications/simulations in college level, shared online activities and so on. The use of appropriate figures, audio, videos, animation and simulations (as applicable) helps students dive deep into the core concepts in all means and helps them to gain mastery on the subject knowledges. It is comparatively easy to use simulations to help students understand 'Thermodynamics' rather than doing tonnes of maths. Moreover, use of zoom or other video chatting options, different social media (facebook/twitter/slack) enable educators to be more effective communicator and students get opportunity to disscuss their assignments/class lessons. In order to meet the learning objectives, an effective and interactive learning environment is a must and integration of technology empowers educators to do so. Many learning technologies and tools boost a teacher’s ability to engage students, as they facilitate access to a multitude of resources and interactive activities. 

But using technology in different types of courses or for different kinds of learners, several issues and challenges can arise. Such ase

• Access and Equity: Not all learners may have equal access to technology or reliable internet connections.

• Technical Competence: Students and instructors may have varying levels of technical proficiency which can impact on effective learning.

• Engagement and Interactivity: Onlie or hybrid courses may present challenges in maintaining learner engagement and fostering interactive discussions.

• Adaptability and Flexibility: Technology evolves rapidly, and different courses or learners may require different technological tools or approaches.

Therefore, it is challenging for educators to ensure that all students have access to the necessary technology and support, adequate training and support to develop necessary technical skills, staying updated with emerging technologies. Future educators can meet the challenges by ensuring best uses of the resources available within the institutions, explore all the opportunities i.e., training, resources and make them available for the students, keep up to date with time with a growing mindset. 

Workshop and Seminar List

"Certification in College Teaching Institute: Incorporating Technology in Teaching"

• Date(s): May 12, 2022

• Offered By: Michigan State University

"Colleges of Online Learning Academy (COLA): MultiModality - How to adopt a multimodal lens with your future educational experiences"

• Date(s): June 10, 2022

• Offered By: Michigan State University

Artifact(s) - Workshop materials

Material Developed (During Workshop)

Technology integration means incorporation of devices like computers and tablets, smartboards, different social media platforms etc. in daily classroom activities as well as school managements. Successful integration helps educators to achieve curricular goals as well as keeps students more actively engaged in their activities such as HomeWorks, assignments, projects etc. It will eventually help a teacher to facilitate thought provoking ideas for problem solving; keep them focused on particular problem because of time constraints, keep track of individual contribution in group works on real time basis. Therefore, the evaluation will be authentic, and the learning will be relevant. Publishing works in shared documents will enable students to learn how to present findings of projects to the audience and also helps facilitators to guide to use most suitable format (graphs, flowchart, ppt presentations) etc. This Spring (2023) I enrolled in Computational Chemistry course where we had to do lot's of simulaitons as assignments. We had a slack groups where we discussed slightest problems we faced. The instructor waited for someone to heads up. I found this one very helpful and eventually turned into an open digital computational forum to talk about our problems that we were facing. If we were in wrong track, then the instructor came forth and talked/helped either in slack group or during the class. Therefore, I found what I had developed a year ago very effective for student engagement and to achieve overall course objectives.

Interpretation/reflection on what you learned and the impact on your teaching

What skills and techniques did I learn that will help me become a better educator?

The term ‘Technology’ in teaching does not mean devices that is related to computer and information technology rather even a piece of paper can be termed as technology in teaching and learning if we can make the best use. Before the workshop, I thought about computers, laptops, tablets, smartboard, overhead projectors as technology but had no idea how to use different social media platforms to engage students in a constructive and productive way. I was surprised to see the use of twitter as an integral part of course work. Now, I know how to use different social media platforms, chat groups, shared documents to engage students more effective and efficient way.

What things am I still uncertain about regarding this topic that I need to investigate further in the future?

There are some game-based learning programs for K-12. I have six years old, and I can name a few of them such as Monster Math, Prodigy Math etc. In each of those, kids learn math by playing video games. Those are very interactive and keep my daughter engaged for a long time otherwise that can’t be possible. I am not sure if that will lead her to some sort of game addiction and eventually switch from learning games to some other forms of games. I need to search if there is any study existed that can tell if these types of interactive game-based learning are ultimately responsible for game addiction or not.

How can I apply materials from this session to my own class to enhance the effectiveness of teaching and learning?

As a stem educator, my focus is to keep students engaged as much as possible in the most effective and efficient way. Therefore, materials from this workshop will help me to choose carefully and effciently technology that can be available to all of the students and explore all the available resources to ensure it. And chat groups of different social media provide me the platforms to monitor and facilitate activities of my students for problem solving on real time basis. I will try to take this to the optimum level so that they can build up collaborative nature, ensure active participation and not to out track from the problem.