Technology Integration in the Classroom

Questions for Teachers Regarding Technology Integration in the Classroom

1. How do you use technology in the classroom? What are your favorite tools to use? Why?

Zack Rearick: I use technology primarily to create a visual component for my class to engage students who learn more effectively visually than aurally. My favorite tool to use is Prezi because it provides me a way to visually organize and present my lecture materials. I don’t use Blackboard, Desire2Learn, or anything of that nature.

Jessica Temple: I have students submit all essays and reading responses online through my school’s classroom management software, and I grade them online. I keep my gradebook and attendance in this program as well. This is my favorite tool because it is already integrated with the school’s system, so I don’t have to worry about importing any information. The information I need is all there. I also know that the IT department on campus can help me or my students if we have issues. It is easy to see at a glance what is coming up, what I need to grade, who didn’t turn something in, etc. It also makes it virtually impossible to lose a paper, and students can always access my comments without having to keep up with a physical copy.

I also use images and videos (often author interviews) in lectures to add context to our discussions. Because students are so used to visual media, I think it helps hold their interest to have images or videos to supplement texts. I am currently teaching a composition course themed around digital music, so we watch a lot of music videos and listen to different types of music. I try to print as little as possible, so I also show example texts or give quizzes or in-class assignments on screen rather than on paper. And I do not print out syllabi or assignment sheets. It’s all online.

Alex Winninghoff: I use Prezi all the time. I also create videos for my students to watch at home as a sort of flipped classroom approach. Occassionaly, I am able to use the school’s iPads for my students, but this opportunity is rare.

2) How does the grade level that you teach affect the type of technology you use?

Zack Rearick: Teaching college level courses gives me free reign in the kind and amount of technology that I can use. I don’t find myself restricted by either the availability of the technology I want to use or potential objections to my doing so by either my students or my supervisors.

Jessica Temple: My students (college, freshman mostly) have grown up with technology and use it for nearly everything they do. They expect tech to be used in their classes, and sometimes know more about various programs and apps than I do.

Alex Winninghoff: The school itself affects my use of technology more than the age of my students. If my school had more resources, I could do more in my classroom.

3) When you are lesson planning, how to do incorporate technology into your plan? Is it something you do very consciously, or is it something that comes very naturally? What are some things you try to keep in mind when incorporating technology?

Zack Rearick: Incorporating technology into my lesson planning is an intuitive process for me. Some lectures naturally lend themselves to a technological component, whereas for others are sufficient without it. When I consider whether I not to use technology in a lecture, I ask myself whether doing so is related naturally to the material. If it isn’t, then it can be distracting.

Jessica Temple: It usually comes naturally for me, though sometimes I notice that I have been lecturing a lot in a certain class. When that happens, I do make an effort to find something online that I can use to do some of the talking for me to change things up a bit.

Alex Winninghoff: I use Prezi for almost every lesson. I also often make videos for my students to watch at home. It comes very naturally to me as a way to communicate information effectively.

4) Do your students like when you incorporate technology? Do they ever give you feedback on your lessons that you use to improve in the future? Have they ever taught you something about technology that you did not know before?

Zack Rearick: My students in general seem to like when I incorporate technology, although a few do not. The ones who do not have told me that darkening the room to use the projector, a necessity when using Prezi, makes it difficult for them to take notes. A few others have said that technology use can make it hard for them to concentrate because they are not used to it. I had never used Prezi before I taught Composition, and one of my students was actually the person who suggested it to me.

Jessica Temple: Yes, I think students expect and appreciate technology use in the classroom. I don’t get a lot of feedback specifically on technology, but in general, I try to use feedback to improve future classes. I have learned several things about technology from my students. One that stands out is Prezi. I first encountered it when a student used it for a presentation, and I thought it looked so much better than Powerpoint! I use it instead now, and often find Prezis that others have already made that I can use as well.

Alex Winninghoff: My students prefer it when I incorporate technology because they find lectures boring. They do not tend to offer much help on the subject though because learning is often far from their minds considering their home lives and the sad state of the school.

5) Have you ever planned a lesson that required technology and then had the technology completely fail on you? What did you do? Do you often have a back-up plan when a lesson requires technology?

Zack Rearick: I am actually in this boat this evening. I have a Prezi prepared for a lecture I’m giving tonight, and I know that the computer in the classroom is inoperable. I found this out the hard way earlier in the year when I tried to use it. I had to improvise then, although I think I still got my message across. Tonight, as a back up, I will print out my Prezi and write the most important information on the board, although it will not be as comprehensive as it is in the Prezi.

Jessica Temple: This has happened a few times. Depending on what the tech was to be used for, I can usually just explain aloud instead of them being able to see the assignment or I can discuss the contents of the video we were going to watch. A couple of times, I’ve had to abandon the plan and just do group discussion instead. More often, I’ve had the situation where I’m teaching in a room that is not tech-enabled, so I have to re-do plans for that class. Sometimes I’ve brought a laptop or played things from my phone when the sound, rather than the visuals, were important. I’ve also passed my phone around to let students see an image or asked students to pull up an image themselves on their phones. (Almost all my students have smartphones and/or laptops with them.)

Alex Winninghoff: All the time. I always have a backup plan. We actually had the power go out completely one day, and the school required us to keep teaching. I could go on about how ridiculous that was for hours…

6) Do you see yourself incorporating more technology in the future? If so, what would you like to use?

Zack Rearick: To be honest, I have mostly resisted technology use for reasons like the Prezi catastrophe I mentioned above. There is something reassuring about knowing that all of the information you need for your lecture is in your head. At the same time, I know that technology will become more and more of a necessity as the world becomes increasingly reliant on it, so I can see that changing how much I use it.

Jessica Temple: Probably. As technology advances and more tools become available, I will probably incorporate the ones that work for me. I would like to have a paperless classroom, but I haven’t found a way I like yet for things like prewriting, peer review, and exams.

Alex Winninghoff: Of course! If more resources become available, I would love to use more technology.

7) Why do you like using technology in your lessons? Why don’t you like it? Are there specific kinds of technology or technological tools that are your “go to” choices? Are there any that you purposely avoid?

Zack Rearick: I like using Prezi because it allows my more visually-inclined students to learn effectively and because it provides all of my students the chance to interact with material that we may not have time to cover in class. As I said, the potential for technology to falter has made me hesitant to make my course too reliant on it. I purposely avoid Blackboard and similar technology because I find that few of my students benefit from it, making the increased workload for me not worth it.

Jessica Temple: I think it keeps students engaged. I think they are more interested when they have a variety of input sources, as opposed to reading from a book and hearing me talk, so any time I can incorporate sound, image, video, etc. into a class, I try to do it. I use lots of YouTube videos, especially author interviews or short historical documentaries for context. I can’t think of any that I specifically avoid. The downside of tech is that it doesn’t always work (though, students don’t always bring paper and textbooks to class, or sometimes even have the textbooks, so non-technology plans can have similar problems).

Alex Winninghoff: I like using technology because it helps students connect to material in interesting, relevant ways. I don’t like it because my school has so few resources and access to technology is inconsistent at best. As I said about, I often use Prezi and a flipped classroom approach. I don’t really avoid as much as not have access to a lot of tools.

8) How does using technology benefit your students? How does it benefit you as a teacher?

Zack Rearick: Using technology allows me to keep some of my students who may “zone out” during lectures engaged by providing them with a visual aid. It also helps keep me on track during my lectures when I ramble and gives students more information than I can cover during our class time. This makes my lectures more efficient while at the same time giving them a degree of comprehensivity that would otherwise not be attainable.

Jessica Temple: Using technology benefits my students by appealing to various learning styles and getting/keeping them interested in the topic discussed. It also gives them a wider range of ways to think about a topic and make connections to other areas of interest or study that they might not have made otherwise. As a teacher, using technology gives me more materials to draw from and connect to my lessons. There are millions of resources available online that would be nearly impossible to find or access by more traditional means.

Alex Winninghoff: It keeps them engaged. If I can get them interested in a topic, that really helps them learn, and technology often helps me grab their attention.

9) Is there anything else you think I should know about technology use in the classroom?

Zack Rearick: The amount of technology that is appropriate for a course depends more on the instructor than it does the material being taught. If you aren’t comfortable with technology, your students will know, and your lectures will suffer. Every instructor has his/her own teaching style. Find the level of technology use that is best for your style, whether it means using it every day or only once a semester.

Jessica Temple: I think I’ve already addressed this, but some level of technology use is expected by students today. As time goes on, our reliance on technology will continue to grow, and students will come to expect even more use of technology in school. Within a decade, I think it will be nearly impossible for a teacher to engage students without using technology on a regular basis.

Alex Winninghoff: Not all schools are equipped with the tools they need to be effective. Do some research and prepare yourself for whatever kind of school you end up teaching it.

10) Would you be willing to share a sample lesson plan with me that incorporates some sort of technology? This lesson plan would only be shared with my cohort for educational purposes.

Zack Rearick: I would!

Jessica Temple: I don’t typically write out lesson plans, but I’m sending you a slide show I did for a sample online class. It was intended to be used in place of an in-class lecture. (Obviously, this was before I discovered Prezi!)

Alex Winninghoff: Definitely! Take a look at my YouTube page for examples of videos.