Sound Pedagogy Drives Technology Choice

It is an axiom that technology should not determine how we teach, rather we should begin by choosing the method and mode by applying appropriate pedagogy. As my colleague Prof. Ray Schroeder explains in his instructional design site (https://sites.google.com/site/instdesignonline/), social constructivist approaches have been shown to be successful in online learning. Some of the major principles of social constructivism are:



The following are encouraged:

• Active learning (rather than passive learning)
  
• Interaction between and among students
  
• Opportunity for students to pursue individual interests
• Building a learning community
  
• Alternative assessment opportunities
• The facilitating of individual knowledge-building

Technologies can facilitate and enable those learning activities.

We select a technology with a purpose and an outcome in mind. Never use a technology just because it is new or cool.

As Ray says, "Providing tutorials on learning technologies is a bit like giving an ice sculpture as a gift -- the shelf life is not long." So, at UIS we focus on how to keep up with the changing array of technology used in our teaching.