Do's and Don'ts:  Tips On Teaching With Technology

• Do not let technology overwhelm or eclipse your teaching.  New innovations and resources are designed only to supplement quality instruction.
• Plan your use of technology well--when incorporating technology-based activities and resources into your course, always ask yourself:  "what are the pedagogical goals behind the technology?"
• Always run through your activity before teaching it--technology can be unreliable.  Always have a back-up plan in case in case of technical difficulties.
• Remain up-to-date.  Some Web sites change by the minute, so if you design a Web-based lesson, make sure the site is still there when you actually teach it.
• Become accessible, but not overwhelmed by e-mail. If you encourage students to contact you through e-mail, announce how often and when you will be checking your messages; be sure to follow through.  Also be aware that e-mail allows your students unlimited accessibility to you, so set a limit to your online availability.
• Take advantage of the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with others.  Visit--and encourage your students to visit--related Web sites in your discipline.
• Let your supervisors know of your commitment to keeping abreast of the newest teaching innovations.  Not only will this highlight your dedication to teaching, it may give you the opportunity to share your skills with faculty as well!

If you are new to teaching with the Web--or even if you're not--the following checklist will help you avoid any unforeseen pitfalls.  Special thanks to Kathy Kitts in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department for compiling this list!

1.  Find out to which classroom you will be assigned as soon as possible.  Some classrooms are not tech ready and require huge amounts of set-up time that you
     may not even have if there is another class in the room immediately before yours. Find out your room's schedule because even if it is empty the hour before, it
     might not be afterward. If it takes you 20 minutes to get out of the way the next class' Prof will make your life miserable and rightfully so!

2.  Get your own keys.  The line that the machine control panel will always be unlocked is... well... an actual lie.  Check to make sure that the key they give you
     actually works!

3.  Find out who actually controls the computer in the classroom.  Meet with this person and let them know what your software needs will be.  The software you
     install on the computer will be cleaned off if you do not request that it remain on the drive. Have back-up software on you at all times because your request will
     be ignored, intentionally or not, about 50% of the time.

4.  Assume that the network will be down and always have a back-up lesson plan.  This might mean having overheads of a website prepared in advance or an
     entirely different substitute lesson.

5.  As for evaluating time spent, it will take the student three times longer to do an exercise than it will you.  However, they will complete the project in about one
     tenth of the time it took you to physically prepare it in the first place.  Keep this in mind when deciding whether an exercise is worth your time and theirs.

6.  Just because it's "cool"  doesn't mean it is useful pedagogically.  For example, having a True/False quiz on your site for practice requires a lot of work when the
     students will only just be guessing.  I explicitly had my students in an astronomy class visit their textbook's corresponding website and evaluate it.  I made it worth
     five points on an exam to "encourage" participation.  14/19 students liked animations of complex ideas, 16/19 liked multiple choice questions but only if there
     were written explanations not just the answers and 19/19 (100% for the mathmatically-challenged) thought T/F questions were a waste of time because they, the
     students, were only guessing anyway.

7.  If in doubt, have the students evaluate the exercise in real time.  If it doesn't work... trust me... they will let you know.

8.  Always list your pedagogical goals first and then see if the technology can help you reach those goals. Ask yourself if the particular technology is a useful tool in
     that instance. Example, you want to build a bookshelf.  Will a mass spectrometer help you to do this?

9.  Verify that all your students have equal access to computers etc.  If not, change your plans or get them access.

10.  Make the exercise worth the student's effort by developing an appropriate evaluation process and be sure the student knows what will be expected.  For
       example, telling the students to browse your resource page is the same as saying it isn't important and you will not be graded on it. (Having said this, be sure to
       not overestimate the importance of a particular exercise, webpage etc.)