Manifesto concerning technology in the classroom.
(in the most random presentation possible!)
* Technology should never be used for the sake of using technology.
* There is a philosophy behind every piece of technology. Understand this and make sure it is identical to your preexisting teaching philosophy.
* You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. Similarly, you can build message boards, but you cannot make students participate. In both cases, you have to make them thirsty for the satisfaction of engaging in the activity.
* Never expect that students are digitally literate. It is a skill that must be acquired like anything else.
* Don't expect that students will get this training somewhere else.
* Being able to surf the web and correspond via email does not mean a student is digitally literate (even though even these small tasks are difficult for some faculty)
* IF you believe that education should prepare a student for the realities of contemporary society, you cannot ignore informational technology skills in your classroom.
* Technology is something that is integrated, not isolated.
* It should go with out saying (but sadly, must be said) that if you use technology, you should be knowledgeable enough to offer support for it to your students (I don't know how many times I've seen faculty use WebCT for a class and not even know how to use it themselves)
* The simplest solution is the best solution (this goes along with never using technology just to say you use technology)
* You must be prepared to stand your ground. Many students have grown to be accustomed to knowing more about technology than their instructor and will try to get out of assignments by feigning computer illiteracy. But know this: they probably spent more time getting the layout of their Myspace page just right than reading your assignments. If you're going to use technology, do not back down. Make it so they have to use it and cannot avoid it. Remember, this is a skill they are being taught. You would not let a student skip a paper assignment because their pencil broke.
* Using technology in the classrooms means designing classes with this in mind. You cannot and should not simply add technology to a previously designed class and expect it to go along as if nothing changed. The introduction of technology demands the reassessment of goals and objectives both in terms of modifying existing goals and objectives as well as formulating new ones.
* Using technology demands creativity. Never be content to use technology in the simplest way. For example, using podcasts to distribute a lecture? lame. You might as well just put up lecture notes. Using podcasts for students to broadcast assignments or questions? Getting warmer....
* Technology in many ways can and sometimes should upset the traditional instructor-student power relationship. Be prepared and be willing to accept this. For instance, the internet is inherently without a top down power structure. Trying to impose an authoritarian control on internet based applications in a class is futile. (why WebCT is not a favourite of mine, by the way)
* Technology can damage or destroy classes in terms of plagiarizing and cheating...only if the classes are poorly designed to start with.
* The use of technology is something that students will probably not be proficient at right away. You must build into your classes the notion that it may take some trial and error on the part of students to really be able to utilize technology. Do not bypass this! Just as you wouldn't ever expect a paper to be perfect on the first draft, don't expect students to be really good at using technology the first week.
(more later.)