Technology in the Classroom

I'm really interested in ways that we can incorporate technology into the classroom. Perhaps it's just a pedagogical fad to explore the vagaries of the Twitterati in the classroom...but I don't think so. (This article, which I have my students read, articulates the debate nicely.)

I realize people frequently express fears that the Facebook generation will not be able to engage in the sustained critical thinking that academic writing requires. Instead of decrying technology's ill effects on our students, however, I think that we should help students to use it effectively. We teach rhetorical situation, so it seems only natural that we should help our students to understand how the constraints of writing in an online environment effect the way that their message is perceived. Additionally, research (and my anecdotal experience) suggests that technology helps increase students' motivation to write. I know students don't have to be excited about a class in order to learn something, but it sure does make life easier.

So, in light of Joe's comments on borrowing, I thought I would share some ways that I've used technology in the classroom this semester, in case any of you deem them worthy of borrowing. I use  a blog to keep in touch with my students. I post activities, reading questions, articles I come across, useful links, and sometimes instructions for the next class period. I even post polls that students can respond to anonymously, so that I can get feedback about what I do in class. (The current poll is about how useful an in-class activity on evaluating sources was.) I know I'm not the only one in the department who uses a blog, so please share your experiences if you use blogging in other ways.

I have my students blog as well , not only so they can start to understand how to write persuasively in a digital environment, but also so that they can start to understand research as a conversation. I have my ENC1102 students divided into blog groups of about five students each, and they are supposed to read each other's posts and respond to each other's ideas. (Some do this better than others.) They learn to incorporate images, videos, and links into their posts to capture their audience's interest. We also talk about the similarity between hyperlinks and citations, so students can understand that a works cited page is really just a way of "linking" readers to other sources.

I've also used a Facebook page this semester to discuss good writing and constructs with my ENC1101 students. They posted responses about their preconceptions of writing early in the semester, and now we're using scholarly research to analyze those ideas and correct misconceptions.

My ENC1101 students were having a difficult time understanding the idea of argument as conversation, so I used ToonDoo to create a comic strip illustrating an argument they could make in their first paper. The first panel uses students' actual responses on our Facebook page, the second panel includes a quote from Joseph Williams to refute the students' ideas, and the third panel includes ideas from outside sources to complicate students' construct of grammar even further. After showing my students this cartoon, I tried having them draw their own comic strip in class to demonstrate their arguments...but I'm still not sure if that quite worked. Trial and error.

By hwayne | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

Finally, I've started to use Prezi to create presentations for my students. It's free, it's pretty simple (there's a quick video tutorial), and it's a more visually appealing alternative to PowerPoint. Plus, your presentations are stored on their website, and you can give your students the link so they can access them whenever they want. You can also embed your Prezis in a blog, like the one I have below on reading scholarly articles.

How do you use technology in the classroom? Please share your innovative methods in the comments!

How to Read Scholarly Research Articles on Prezi