For many instructors, the power of educational technology is the ability to innovate or expand options for teaching. In addition to facilitating communication and presentation, instructors hope that technology can improve or enhance learning.
Your portfolio should include a detailed description of the innovation, along with the technologies used and screen captures whenever possible. Reflections of what worked or what needs improvement can also be added.
Types of Innovation
Any innovations used should be based on your teaching philosophy because you want to use the technology to support your teaching goals.
There are many areas to choose from, but some common goals and matching technologies are listed below. In many cases, innovations will require combinations of technologies.
Collaborative or Team Learning
- Communication Tools
- Joint document editing tools and wikis
Research or Problem Based Learning
- Access to authentic documents via links or uploaded files
- Add a Digital Humanities project into your class
- Communication Tools
- Journaling with communication tools
- Specialized Software
- Student Journals posted to Sites at Penn State
- Online Portfolios
- Media Commons
Increase Opportunities for Skills Practice
- Electronic games or puzzles
- Multiple online quizzes and exercises
- Incorporate specialized software into the class
Improve Discussion/Writing
- Student journals or commenting on Sites at Penn State
- Essays in Dropboxes
- Use chat, Adobe Connect (chat screen) or Twitter to have students submit questions during a lecture.
Improve Comprehension
Respect Student Diversity
- Provide visuals, audio (e.g. podcasts) or video for different learner types
- Provide multiple communication channels for different personalities
- Use surveys or discussion areas to learn student profiles
- Understand universal design and accessibility
Increase Interest During Lecture
- Quick electronic polls with Clickers in the classroom
- Show multimedia examples/experiments
- Use Doceri to annotate presentations live