Using Technology to

Improve Teaching and

Learning
Beth Cavallari
Acting Associate Director

Why use technology?

Interactivity
Content delivery/revision
Managing learning and resources
Collaboration
Communication
Sense of cohort
Variety of teaching and learning preferences
Formative and summative assessment

How does this help?

Allows students more control of their own learning
Allows lecturers to guide more, teach less
Allows student to build up knowledge, and become
part of the teaching process
Can provide some really engaging learning
experiences
Teachers can provide scaffolding and safety nets
At risk students can be identified more quickly
Collaborating can be very well supported

Students Experiences (1998)

We have excellent hardware and software but the
lecturers dont use it much for teaching. Some of
them put their lecture notes on the Web. (Multimedia
Student)

All Computing Science subjects have lecture notes

on the Web, but none of the other subjects use
computers at all, which is just as well because the
machines crash all the time. (Computing Science Student)

Students Experiences (1998)

I expected to have to use computers all the time. In
fact, we rarely use them, not even in subjects like
accounting, where we have to do everything
manually. (Commerce Student)

Students Experiences (2008)

Computer use is essential in all courses. We have
access to course notes, essays, past exams,
electronic journals, the course handbook and course
overview. We often use email to communicate with
other students, lecturers and tutors. (History Student)

Students Experiences (2008)

Blackboard, PowerPoint, emails and electronic
journals are used very effectively, but nothing very
innovative happens. There was some online
assessment in first year. (Commerce Student)
Smaller class sizes in Science meant less use of
PowerPoint than in some of my other courses. There
is very mixed use of technology, depending on the
skills of the lecturer. Some lecturers are useless and
upload the wrong files, or their files dont work.
(Science Student)

Students Experiences
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

Technology Development Cycle

Whats the problem?
Whats the best way of tackling it? (Can technology
help?)
Planning
Development
Testing
Evaluation
Improving

What can TEDI do?

CDs
Websites
Blackboard sites
Web-CD combinations
DVDs
Print
Planning, educational advice, Project Management

http://www.tedi.uq.edu.au/edResources/what-cd.html

CDs

Websites

Educational Design
To support use of the newer social websites
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/

MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/

YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/

Second Life:
http://secondlife.com/

Maintenance
How is it possible to maintain your technology once
youre involved in it?
How much time are you expected to put in?
How (and to whom) can you share this?
Shelf-life
Life of product/project after YOU

Cost

Warnings

Time to plan
Time to develop
Time to evaluate
Time to be involved
Obsession/addiction
Use of students private, social spaces
Authenticity/authority of web content

Authenticity of web content

Minke whale population is estimated to be:
a) 880,000 (Library of Congress)
b) 550,000 (Marine Mammal Research Program HIMB, University of
Hawaii at Manoa)

c) 760,000

(International Whaling Commission)