Technology Day

Today there was a gathering of teachers and others from colleges and universities in the area to learn about teaching technology. It was gratifying to me to see that I am ahead of where most of the presentations were. With forays into blogging, vlogging, podcasting, video, multimedia websites and recorded course materials, I've already gotten my feet wet with most of these technologies.

A new one for me was "clickers" -- audience response devices similar to those used on TV shows to poll the audience for their votes. The software integrates with MS PowerPoint to show questions during a class and the students enter their responses on the keypad. The results are tallied and immediately visible to the class. This is a great tool for engaging the students and keeping them involved in the class. It is particularly good for allowing anonymous interaction as many students hesitate to speak up in class.

Of course, instructors can encourage participation in class by demonstrating that wrong answers are not an opportunity to embarass a student. Still, in a culturally diverse student population, you have those who will never participate in class because it is not something they are socialized to be comfortable with. That's why the anonymous clickers are so valuable -- students can offer ideas without risk.

John Mitterer, our keynote speaker from Brock University reminded us that we have always had teaching technology, everything from drawing in the sand to show and tell. It's not the tools that make the lesson, but how the instructor uses the tools.