Instructional Technology

There are several ways to find information about using technology in the classroom. If you are unsure where to begin, contact the Center for Teaching Effectiveness. We will help you find the appropriate resources and tell you who to contact.

Course management software:  WebCT
 
UD Resources:
Faculty Showcase:  A sampling of current teaching with technology efforts by faculty

Websites:
Adaptive Technologies and Distance Learning for Students with Disabilities
Adaptive technologies - to assist students with disabilities in their academic work
Universal design of distance learning courses - the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.  Additional resource.

Facilitating Interdisciplinary Team Teaching and Keeping Your Course Organized and Accessible.  A PowerPoint presentation on an interdisciplinary, team-taught class that used a conventional web site combined with student-created archives.  Presenter: Ralph Begleiter, Communication. 

Designing "Smart" Classrooms
Recently SCUP (Society for College and University Planning) and Datatel collaborated to publish a book ("Technology-Driven Planning: Principles to Practice") on the impact on technology on higher education. Dave Hollowell, UD's Exec Vice President, and Marge McDermott co-authored a chapter, "Planning for Classroom Technology", utilizing Gore Hall as a case study. The chapter addresses questions including how one succeeds in creating a space that inspires both student and faculty to teach and learn and how that experience can be enhanced through the use of technology. The chapter addresses these issues as well as discussing technology standards, levels of room technology and faculty readiness.

F-LIGHT, the free Flashlight newsletter: July 2001
          E-Newsletter for the Flashlight Program for the study and improvement of educational uses of technology.                                                                               In this issue:

  • Online Support Services for Distant Learners: Findings About Student Needs and Satisfaction
  • Online Collaborative Learning: Can Distance Enhance Quality (First in a Series on 'Asking the Right Questions')
  • "Assess How Much Technology Use Helps Education? Helps It How? A Taxonomy of Goals for Using IT"
  • WebCT starts the ball rolling: Selecting, Using, and Studying Web Course Management Systems
  • Upcoming: The TLT Group's Seventh Annual Summer Institute at Syllabus  (last chance for a Flashlight Workshop....)
  • New Flashlight subscribers
  • Have a Question about Educational Uses of Technology?

    • Learning More About Flashlight( free demo accounts), The TLT Group and F-LIGHT

    Teaching With Technology: An Annotated Bibliography
    This Web site is a list of print resources related to teaching online and instructional uses of technology; these are available for loan at CTE, 212 Gore Hall.  They include information on teaching, learning, and communicating online, Internet literacy for the novice, and vignettes by faculty who have used technology in a variety of ways to enhance learning in their courses.  Included in the bibliography is a list of University of Delaware faculty who have implemented various technologies effectively in their courses.

    Virtual Resource Guide for Teaching With Technology
    The UMUC-Bell Atlantic Virtual Resource Site for Teaching with Technology.
    This Web site is a resource for faculty seeking direction in appropriate ways to use Web-based technologies to accomplish key learning strategies. The guiding principle of this project is to go beyond technical skill towards a full examination of the teaching/learning issues in technology-enabled instruction.

    Toolkit for Teaching with Technology
    This toolkit is an attempt to put into one place all the information an instructor needs to use technology in the classroom. The novice user can assemble a complete array of tools to get started, including usage examples, contacts, techniques, free software, funding opportunities, and lists of resources. More experienced users can just pick the tool they need for a particular situation.

    Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as a Lever
    This article elaborates seven principles designed to help faculty members, departments, colleges, and universities examine individual behaviors and institutional policies and practices for their consistency.

    1999-2000 Teaching, Learning, and Technology Roundtable
    The TLTR has been charged with the following mission: (1) review the accomplishments and recommendations of the 1997 TLTR group; (2) assess UD’s current technological capabilities; and (3) determine future needs for online course management software and development programs to keep faculty up-to-date in technology-assisted instruction.
    The final reports from the 1997 TLTR, including the Executive Summary and reports of individual components (In-Class Applications, Distance Education, Faculty Development, and Library Electronic Resources) are available online.

    Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education (ITUE)
    ITUE has been created to promote reform of undergraduate education through faculty development and course design. The Institute Leaders encourage the effective use of active learning and technology in the classroom. ITUE maintains a web site that includes a calendar of activities as well as web-based course syllabi of courses taught by Institute Fellows.

    Division of Continuing Education
    The Division of Continuing Education provides educational opportunities for adults who seek to begin or complete college careers, to enhance professional skills, or to enrich their personal lives. For more information on distance education and video-based courses, contact their web site.

    The World Lecture Hall
    The World Lecture Hall contains links to courses taught via the Web by faculty worldwide. For example, you will find course syllabi, assignments, lecture notes, exams, class calendars, multimedia textbooks.

    ALN Web
    The Web of Asynchronous Learning Networks: Net Learning - Anywhere, Anytime. This Web site is sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. It contains online journals, discussion forums, product databases, online workshops, and much more

    Evaluating Web Resources (Widener University)
    While the Web has put millions of pages of information right at our fingertips, students often have a difficult time determining what is worthwhile and what is not.  This site has just about everything you need to know about how to evaluate web resources.  It covers advocacy, business, news, informational, and personal web pages and how to evaluate them.  It also walks you through PowerPoint presentations and provides a list of bibliographical resources.

    EDUCAUSE
    EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit consortium of higher education institutions that facilitates the introduction, use, and access to and management of information resources in teaching, learning, scholarship, and research.

    EDUCAUSE Quarterly
    A practitioner's journal about managing and using information resources on college and university campuses.

    Seven Principles of Effective Teaching: A Practical Lens for Evaluating Online Courses
    by Charles Graham, Kursat Cagiltay, Byung-Ro Lim, Joni Craner and Thomas M.Duffy
    The "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education," originally published in the AAHE Bulletin (Chickering & Gamson, 1987), are a popular framework for evaluating teaching in traditional, face-to-face courses.  The principles are based on 50 years of higher education research Chickering & Reisser, 1993). A faculty inventory (Johnson Foundation, "Faculty," 1989) and an institutional inventory (Johnson Foundation, "Institutional," 1989) based on these principles have helped faculty members and higher-education institutions examine and improve their teaching practices.

    Free copies of the faculty inventory are available at CTE.