IT and teaching

Key Findings: The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2007 (Caruso and Salaway, 2007)

What I found most interesting about this study was the correlation between the Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education and the five positive categories respondents identified about IT as an enabler of learning (p.13). For the most part, respondents agreed that:

- technology facilitates organization and control in the learning environment
- technology facilitates communication with faculty and classmates
- technology can make content more accessible, including class material and Internet resources
- technology in courses is valuable when directly linked to applications useful to future
employment
- technology is an enabler of learning when professors use it effectively

This list touches on most of the Seven Principles outlined in last weeks article.
With the exception of instructors who use IT poorly, who don’t gauge the diversity of technological literacy students have, and a few other barriers, the results of this study suggest that IT improves teaching and subsequent learning, to which for the most part I agree. Powerpoint is arguably an effective tool for presenting course material. This form of presentation typically utilizes a laptop, projector and Whiteboard. These are all beneficial means of presentation when used effectively. That being said, I think CMS applications make for a more organized and interactive course management system that benefits both instructors and students, but I feel that this particular technology is not significantly responsible for improvements concerning student’s attentiveness, engagement and desire to learn in the classroom.
This portion of the study also provides some insight on class discussion last week. The study’s findings stated that over 58% of students either agree or strongly agree that their instructors use IT well in their courses. I think students are comparing their responses for this question to their own knowledge on the particular IT used. If students know little about Moodle (only the basics: how to navigate through, download a syllabus, etc.), and see that their professor has used one or a few more applications than they know what is even for, they generally assume that their instructors are experts. It has become less frequent since my first year at Mac, but from time to time I also notice instructors having difficulties setting up the connecting cables and whatnot to get their presentation running. I think generally, instructors at Mac are really only adequate users of IT (with the exception of Multimedia profs, of course).
I feel that if instructors knew more about the tools they use to teach classes, we would see even greater effects from the use of IT in teaching.