Top Ten Suggestions for Using Technology in Teaching

Category: Instructional Strategies

1. Use Universal Design for Learning standards in developing your web site and iLearn pages; this means offering options for scroll downs, closed captioning and other tools to ensure each student has maximum accessibility.
2. Avoid overstocking Internet pages with too much information and design, so the learner can better focus on the essence of the material.
3. Ensure that directions are clear and stated on those pages where instructions on both using the site and completing an assignment are found.
4. Review the purpose and proper use of the technology with your classes at the beginning of the course, and monitor their success with the technology by frequently asking them about their experiences with the tool; integrate questions about the technology into student course evaluations, and use the data to make necessary revisions.
5. When using links, be sure that they are current and germane to the course.
6. Clickers can provide faculty with the means of gathering student data quickly, enabling them to gain immediate results that can be addressed in the subsequent lecture or activity. Clickers can also be used to survey students in order to get a sense of what is widely believed or how students might evaluate something related to the course itself. Check to see if clicker technology is available in accessible format for your classes.
7. Turnitin.com not only allows faculty to quickly detect many forms of plagiarism, but also can be used as a teaching tool for proper citation. Encourage students to check their own work before submitting it for credit. See the Turnitin overview on CTFD's web page.
8. Using e-mail to communicate with students can be overwhelming, especially if you're teaching large classes. Make clear the rules for email use and be diligent about checking it.
9. When using PowerPoint, avoid creating slides that are dense with narratives. Outlines, quotations, bulleted main points and illustrations—such as graphs, charts or pictures—can stimulate conversation and demonstrate abstract ideas. Ensure that the PowerPoint presentation is available online and that students can retrieve a printout of the program in hard copy.
10. Showing films or listening to music is a wonderful way to stimulate the senses and provide illustrations of key concepts. Using these effectively requires faculty to identify for students the outcomes of such a presentation, and to align their assessments of student learning to these outcomes.

Additional Resources for Using Technology in Teaching

• Bothun, Gregory. Instructional Technology in the Classroom at the University of Oregon. University of Oregon.
  http://zebu.uoregon.edu/tech.html
• Brooks, Susan and Blyles, Bill. Internet for Classrooms. 2000. http://www.internet4classrooms.com
• Furr, Grover. "From 'Paperless Classroom' to 'Deep Reading:' Five Stages in Internet Pedagogy." The Technology Source Archives. University of North Carolina. September/October 2003. http://technologysource.org/article/from_paperless_classroom_to_deep_reading/

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