Synchronous Teaching and Technological Use

I have never taught a course using synchronous teaching techniques, but I have been a student and I have TA'd for courses that incorporated these things. From the student perspective, synchronous teaching was very useful. Not only could I see the professor as they were explaining, but I could also see the slides and markings that they made on each slide. Because these types of lectures were recorded, I was able to pause, go back and re-listen to a portion of the information that I didn't understand the first time. I really like incorporating this type of thing into the learning environment. Yet, from the TA/professor prospective, synchronous teaching made interactions with the students more difficult. You didn't get the face-to-face interaction like in the traditional classroom and because of this students had to reach out more to meet with us. Often, because more effort was required on the students' part, many just avoided having to contact the professor or TAs altogether. If students were to merely participate more, I believe that synchronous teaching could easily be incorporated and should be used within the learning environment.

Then, the debates that the second group made us participate in were a really nice way to get student participation and for their understanding to be known. I have to admit that when I first heard that we had to do a debate, I was a little less than thrilled. Yet, while going through the activity I realized what a good method it was to get students involved. Also, it really did make me think differently about incorporating different technologies into the classroom setting. I have never been really interested in learning new technologies, let alone incorporating them into my teaching, merely because I am not technologically savvy.... But by making your students learn and utilize the different forms of technology as they emerge, you would ultimately be helping them learn the techniques and technologies that they'll have to know for future work. In society today, technology has become the basis of many different fields, so why not keep your students up to date? If you make them learn a new technology, you are helping them learn how to learn and incorporate new ideas. Ultimately, you could be helping your students grow and be ready for the world of grown up jobs where they'll be expected to figure out this type of thing on a daily basis.

Flipping the classroom

Honestly, I don't really understand what "flipping the classroom" really entails. From previous knowledge, I believe that it incorporates the primary learning into an outside of the classroom environment. By this, I think that the majority of the teaching/learning takes place outside of the classroom and class meetings are then used to discuss the material students encountered.





Following the presentation on "Flipping the classroom", I have really come to realize how this setup could be beneficial to the students' learning. Between the video and then participating in the in-class activities, it has really become apparent that this type of teaching can be beneficial. I really like that the very dry information is primarily the student's responsibility. This allows for class time to be utilized to clarify any information, ask questions and to engage your students in activities that can be used to solidify the major concepts that the students need to know. With this methodology, the students will get the important information in more than one form, which can be very helpful to get a variety of students to learn.

All of my time with flipping the classroom setups has been successful so far, both as a student and as an instructor. If used carefully, I think that this methodology can continue to be successful.

Powerpoint, Prezi and Clickers, oh my!

As we've finished the class this week, it really got me thinking about using different presentation platforms when teaching a course, or just presenting in general. Unfortunately, I've only really worked with powerpoints, which do indeed have their place. Presentations using this type of technology can be very effective when teaching, especially when working in large classrooms. Powerpoint presentations are a great way to present specific information in a concise and straight-forward manner. Yet, many teachers end up relying too much on these. Instead of posting main points and using their explanations to support the information presented, they merely slap all and as much information on the slides as possible.

When it comes to Prezis though, I am very intrigued. This set-up gives you the same feeling that you get with powerpoint presentations, but you have the ability to make your presentation less linear. Similar to what Sherry was discussing in class, it is nice to have the ability to "jump around" if a certain question arises and you have a slide containing that material later. Prezis are very good looking presentation platforms that could be used in many different ways.