As overhead projectors and chalk boards approach their expiration date, the College of Education is preparing its students to use new technological resources in classrooms — and in different types of mediums.
This semester, Punya Mishra, an associate professor of learning, technology and cultural programs, is the lead instructor for a course in teacher education that is being taught online for the first time.
Mishra has done research on technology in relation to education since the early 1990s.
“We have students who are in Colorado and in Japan who would have not been able to get a degree from MSU without this,” he said. “The reach of MSU has changed in a dramatic way, so how you define who is a Spartan may be someone who has never stepped foot on this campus.”
As new tools are being offered online, several different options are possible, Mishra said.
“It’s going to be work on the instructor because it requires restructuring the way you teach a class,” Mishra said. “You have to be willing to find a new way of explaining — you can’t just use your 25 PowerPoint slides anymore. Instructors have to become quicker on their feet and more creative.”
Researchers debate back and forth as to the value of PowerPoint in the classroom, he said. Alone, PowerPoint is a projection device, but it’s useful when you combine it with other technologies, such as audience response systems, he said.
It’s a nice way for the instructor to get feedback and know if the information is sinking in,” Mishra said.
“One of the things research has shown is that teachers are very surprised by things they thought students had understood,” Mishra said.
“Technology really gets at whether students are getting the concepts that are being covered.”
Tiffany Worthy, an interdisciplinary studies in social science senior, said using the audience response clickers have sparked conversations and created a better community within the classroom.
“Technology enhances classroom instruction, and it helps engage the students and capture their attention,” said Worthy, who works in the MSU Center for Teaching and Technology.
One-third of the students in the online teaching class are not from Michigan, said Anne Heintz, a doctoral student who also teaches the class.
With the discussion board, she said she is able to get a sense of background knowledge the students are bringing to the classroom, questions the material is raising and how they are connecting the lessons together.
“The online class allows the instructor the ability to see how each and every student is engaging with the course material,” Heintz said. “This is something you may not have time for in a class of 30 students.”
Joe Freidhoff, a doctoral student, is an instructor for the course Teaching with Technology.
The course covers different technological tools education students can use within their classrooms.
He said businesses are looking for people who are proficient and comfortable with using technology.
“There is an expectation by many adults that kids are just going to know how to do these things on their own,” Freidhoff said.
There are a lot of different technologies that are talked about in class, Freidhoff said. But these technologies change all the time.
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“The biggest value is just having more practice and continuing to learn all of these different technologies so when you tackle the next, you have a little larger skill set to apply it to,” he said.
