How do we select the right digital tools to serve the pedagogical purpose? What support becomes a necessity with the integration of technology in learning and teaching?
We need to put in extra work to manage and support technology so we can fully benefit from automation and access to educational resources. Note the kind of supports required to maintain quality access in each example of the pedagogy-driven technology integration:
Implementing Digital Technologies aims to improve learner engagement, making learning more memorable and fun (for example, using interactive simulations to illustrate complex subjects). This requires tech support to maintain digital objects locally, or may need creating an account, signing up, and logging in to access the resources for both instructors and students.
Personalizing Learning aims to provide a customized learning experience by adjusting the difficulty of tasks based on individual student performance. This may require professional development for teachers to understand how to adjust their teaching strategies.
Making Learning More Accessible aims to support differently-abled learners and bridge geographic distances. This may require training for instructors on accessibility standards.
Using Educational Technologies for Collaboration aims to facilitate group projects and peer-to-peer learning in remote settings by utilizing online discussion forums and collaborative tools. Implementing virtual exchange programs and online guest lectures from experts around the world to expose students to diverse perspectives and global knowledge may require training for students and instructors on best practices for online collaboration and developing guidelines for effective communication and teamwork.
Using Technologies for Immediate Feedback aims to help students understand their mistakes and learn from them in real-time by using online quizzes and assessments that provide instant automated feedback. This may require developing a repository of high-quality quiz questions and assessment tools, as well as training instructors on how to create effective online assessments.
Technology Enabled Resource Availability aims to allow students to review content at their own pace and revisit challenging topics as needed by offering recorded lectures and supplementary materials online. This may require setting up reliable hosting and streaming platforms, as well as providing training and consultations for instructors on how to manage the recorded material.
An overarching requirement includes ongoing centralized technical support at the institution level to address any network, hardware, and software-related operational, implementation, and security issues, as well as ongoing technical support for software updates and maintenance.
Now let’s practice identifying the necessary support for implementation of a digital resource for pedagogical purposes.
Instructions:
Select a digital resource or a digital tool relevant to your subject or a field of interest. This could be a content repository platform, a digital simulation, or a design learning tool.
Determine Pedagogical Benefits: Identify the pedagogical reasons for implementing the chosen resource.
- enhance engagement or motivation?
- support personalized learning or address diverse learning needs?
- improve accessibility for all students?
- facilitate collaboration or communication among students?
- provide immediate feedback to support skill development?
Identify Necessary Support required to implement the resource in teaching your subject area:
- What training will instructors and students need to use this resource?
- What technical support will be necessary to maintain the resource, or to ensure access to the resource?
- How affordable is access to the resource?
- What ethical considerations need to be addressed (e.g., releasing PII, data privacy, security)?
Share: Write a brief summary of your decision-making process, include
- URL of the resource.
- The pedagogical reasons for implementing it.
- The types of support required for successful implementation.
Publish your observations using the form below. Your message will be displayed with your peers posts. Read and provide feedback on other participants’ evaluations.
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