Integrating Technology
RSS from The Chronicle:
Challenges in teaching can take many forms, both mundane and abstract. The sites below address practical considerations such as organizing e-mail and developing course Web sites. Others tackle conceptual challenges such as plagiarism, copyright issues, and University policy. All can help faculty use technology in the most effective way.
Online Interactions and Communicaton
Engaging Students in Learninghttp://cms.psu.edu/
Enroll in ANGEL group for "engaging students" content. The ANGEL course management system can facilitate class activities that engage students in learning. The ANGEL group on "engaging students" (groups are similar to courses) has content that not only gives ideas that you can use in your own courses but also tells how to manage and assess these class activities.
Directions:
- Log on to ANGEL at http://cms.psu.edu/.
- Use the "Group Search" link in the left frame or the "Find a Group" link under "My Groups." On the "Group Search" screen, type the word "engaging" into the "Keyword Search" text box.
- When you see the "ANGEL: Engaging Students in Learning" group listed, select the "Enroll (no PIN required)" link. A message will display indicating you have successfully enrolled in the group.
- To list your groups, either select the "My Groups" link in the left frame or locate the "My Groups" section on your "My Profile" page.
- Select the link for the "ANGEL: Engaging Students in Learning" group to enter the group space. There you may select the content you would like to review.
http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/syllabus
This page contains suggestions and Penn State policy information about a constructing and using a course.
Building Teamshttp://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/teams
This Web site is designed to provide instructors with information about integrating team work in classes. It also provides "tech tips" that illustrate the ways in which technology can be used to enhance team work.
Using Cases in Teachinghttp://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/cases/
Case studies have been recognized as an excellent method to involve the learner in the learning process. This Web site was created to give instructors interested in incorporating cases into their curricula some basic information about cases such as what is a case, tips for writing a case, and links to additional resources and case repositories.
Creating a Learning Community: Mentoring Your Students Onlinehttp://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/mentor/
If you are frustrated with large class size and the anonymity of the lecture hall, use the Web to capture that one-on-one feeling in your large lectures or online courses by adapting your current "bag of tricks" to effectively mentor online. This Web site provides an overview of online mentoring techniques to guide, support, and enhance the student learning process, and the tools, techniques, and resources used to create and establish a rapport with your students online.
Creating Good Questions for Online Discussionshttp://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/online_questions/
If you find student discussions become interesting just as class is ending, or if you are concerned about the quiet students who get lost in the crowd, consider moving some of your class discussions online. Learn the best way to craft online questions that achieve specific learning outcomes, direct and enrich the discussion process, and provide you with an opportunity to give meaningful feedback to your students.
Creative, Effective Use of Threaded Discussion Toolshttp://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/discuss/
Providing a threaded discussion area is not always enough to facilitate subtantial student participation in electronic discussions. There are a myriad of ways you can enhance learning with asynchronous tools. Read about good examples of how discussion tools like CourseTalk-the Web-based discussion tool developed at Penn State-have enhanced the educational experience of students.
Email Tips and Strategies for Facultyhttp://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/etips/facguide.html
These tips provide methods to facilitate communication and help manage e-mail from and to students and others. Faculty may want to use some or all of these as course policies.
Student Guidelines for Electronic Communicationhttp://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/etips/stuguide.html
Many of your courses at Penn State will require you to use online communication. You will need to use e-mail to communicate with your instructor, your classmates, submit assignments or papers, discuss information online, and voice concerns. You may also be asked to use discussion or chat tools. The following guide provides some policies and tips your professor has adopted as basic courtesies for online communication. You may also wish to adopt these guides into everyday practice as they will help you present and organize yourself electronically.
Managing Course Data
Managing your "Electronic Briefcase:" Working with Computer Files, Course Materials, and Class Correspondencehttp://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/briefcase/
Faculty and Teaching Assistants, are you inundated with e-mail from your students? Do you lose track of great instructional Web sites, or misplace e-mail attachments and class assignments? Discover the best ways to manage all your electronic materials and correspondence. Learn how to process e-mail more efficiently, insert and extract attachments, automatically sort online assignments, organize your Web site bookmarks, and much more. Find out about additional Penn State services that support effective teaching and good class management.
Managing Grading Electronically with Excelhttp://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/gradebook/excelgrades.html
Faculty and Teaching Assistants, are you keeping student grades in Excel, but wish you could find an easy way to divide the student number soyou can post grades using just the last four digits? ...or convert number grades to letter grades using a single function? ...or even convert a file to HTML to post your grades on the Web? The information from this seminar can help you to do all of this and more.
Scholarly Challenges
Cyberplagiarism: Temptations for Students and Tactics for Teachershttp://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/cyberplag/
With papers and essays available to download for free or for fee from more than fifty term paper mills on the Web, students may be tempted to violate our policies on acadmic integrity. This Web site is designed specifically for faculty to get an up-to-date overview of the problem, to learn how technology can help you if you suspect plagiarism, and to learn the steps you can take to ensure the academic integrity of your students' written work.
Cyber-plagiarism Sites for Students:
What is Plagiarism?
http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/cyberplag/cyberplagstudent.html
How to Avoid Plagiarism
http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/cyberplag/cyberplagexamples.html
http://www.psu.edu/policies/digitalmedia/index.html
The correct and proper use of images, video, and audio is getting harder to understand as technology make sit easier to borrow such resources. For this reason, Penn State's Office of University Relations has created a brochure titled "Ethical and Legal Use of Digital Media at Penn State" that provides basic information about copyright and also points to other resources, within Penn State as well as external to the University, that can give you more information.
Student Privacyhttp://www.psu.edu/ur/privacy.html
Student privacy is an ever-present concern for all in the Penn State environment. This link provides you with information on privacy issues with which faculty should be familiar.
University Policieshttp://www.psu.edu/policies/
Penn State has several policies that apply to the correct use of the technologies that this University provides for personal and educational use. Such policies cover topics like guidelines for the proper use of personal web space, computer and software misuse, and computer and network security, through confidentiality.
Existing Web Teaching Resources
A Tour of Web-Based Teaching Sites: Humanities and Artshttp://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/ArtsHumanities/
This Web Page is designed to complement the Penn State C & IS Training seminar "A Tour of Humanities & Arts Sites". Take a look at some unique Web sites designed for the humanities and arts (literature, foreign language, visual arts, music) and review what constitutes "good" online material. Look at some of the issues to be considered when designing or choosing online materials for your courses. Explore learning environments that motivate and challenge students by immersion into authentic representations of real-world problems and issues. Sites will range from simple "static" pages to those featuring animation, multimedia, Flash, JavaScript, Java, and database engines.
A Tour of Web-Based Teaching Sites: Englishhttp://cac.psu.edu/ets/presentations/TLsites/disciplineEnglish.html
This page has links to sites which provide resources and information about enhancing the teaching and learning of English by using technologies. Sites will range from simple "static" pages to those featuring animation, multimedia, Flash, JavaScript, Java, and database engines.
Getting Content on the Web
Creating Accessible Web Siteshttp://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/accessibility
In many ways the Web is a great equalizer, yet users with disabilities who can benefit so much from this ubiquitous resource may run into electronic accessibility barriers caused by certain Web authoring practices or elements. This informative Web site will allow you to increase your awareness of the Web accessibility considerations, often very simple, that will help ensure that the largest possible number of users has access to the materials you share online.
Computing with Accents, Symbols and Foreign Scriptshttp://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/
If you are not familiar with putting non-English content on the Web, you are not alone. This Web site discusses some basic utilities for typing in languages besides English and some how-tos for developing non-English Web sites in the Penn State environment. It will provide an overview of W3C international standards including ISO-8859 character sets; special characters; Unicode; and practical means of encoding language materials including the use of fonts and image files. The web site also gives tips on how to type accents and other special characters in word processing and other applications.
Teaching and Learning: What research and experience tell us...http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/research/
This is a quick reference for faculty and instructional designers on current research and experience in the development of instructional materials, technology-supported teaching and learning, and interactive class activities.
Tips for Students
Student-focused links on integrating technologyhttp://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/student_tips.html
This Web Page is designed to complement instructor-oriented information on this page. This page provides a list of links pulled from this page that are specific to students. Instructors may want to share this URL with their students as a general information source.