Reading Time: < 1 minutes In this episode Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles continue to talk about technology integration, this time focusing on helpful mental models for educational technology best practices. Check out the episode to hear about the planning cycle model and how Backward Design illustrates those principles. Podcast links Show Notes Building mental models can help educators approach using technology in their courses. One such mental model is “the planning cycle” which begins with identifying needs and determining whether they are real needs or felt needs. Once the real needs are identified, SMART goals can be created based on those real needs. After goals are established, it’s…
-
-
Canvas Updates: Publishing and Unpublishing Content in Modules
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canvas is updating how content is published in modules – and simplifying the process for publishing/unpublishing multiple items in their June 17 release. Previously, instructors would need to set the published/unpublished status on each module and each item within a module. So, if they wanted to unpublish an entire module to work on it, they would need to unpublish each item individually, then republish each item when they finished. Now with this update, the status of an entire module and its items can be changed at once! To use this new feature, click the drop-down publish/unpublish button for a module. You’ll see three items in…
-
Transform Your Teaching: The What, the Why, and the How of Technology Integration – A Conversation with Dr. Miller
Reading Time: < 1 minutes In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles welcome Dr. Chris Miller, Senior Professor of Biblical Studies at Cedarville University, onto the podcast. Dr. Miller has been integrating technology into his teaching for decades. Check out the episode to hear about the results he sees from his students because of integrating technology as well as the shifting landscape of student needs and learning habits. Podcast links Show Notes From his years of teaching, Dr. Miller recognizes that his students’ needs change from year to year and from class to class and adapts his teaching based on his observations of his students. He recognizes that…
-
Canvas Updates: Accessing SpeedGrader for New Quizzes
Reading Time: 2 minutes In its May 20 update, Canvas has made it easy to access SpeedGrader for a New Quiz. Previously, you’d have to find the New Quiz in the gradebook or in your “to-grade” list to get to SpeedGrader. Now, you can access it through just about anywhere you can access a New Quiz in Canvas – including inside the build pages for the New Quiz itself! From Canvas modules or the Quizzes/Assignments pages, click the three dots for the quiz and select “SpeedGrader” from the drop-down. From both the New Quiz overall settings page and the “Build” page where you can edit the quiz questions,…
-
Transform Your Teaching: The What, the Why, and the How of Technology Integration – The How & Accessibility
Reading Time: 2 minutes In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles continue to talk about the “how” of tech integration, but they discuss it from the perspective of accessibility with Lauren Eissler–User Experience Designer and Editor for the Center for Teaching and Learning at Cedarville University. In their conversation, they define accessibility and discuss best practices for making more content accessible to students. Check out the episode to hear more about how structuring written content with headings, captioning videos, and using alt text can help your students in their learning. Podcast links Show Notes Before digging into how to effectively make content accessible, it’s important to ask: “what…
-
Transform Your Teaching: The What, the Why, and the How of Technology Integration – The How & SAMR
Reading Time: 2 minutes In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles discuss the “how” of technology integration and the practical framework SAMR. Check out this episode to hear about how instructors can utilize this framework to integrate technology with their courses. Podcast links Show notes SAMR, an acronym for the four levels of technology integration, was created by Ruben Puentedura and is a practical framework for technology integration. According to Puentedura, substitution is the lowest level of integration; redefinition is the highest. Substitution and augmentation are seen as methods of improving learning tasks. Modification and redefinition can lead to transformed learning tasks. Research has shown that educators…
-
Transform Your Teaching: The What, the Why, and the How of Technology Integration – The Why
Reading Time: < 1 minutes In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles discuss the “why” of technology integration and how it directly relates to servant teaching. Check out the episode to hear how effective technology integration can improve student engagement and help them understand content better. Podcast links Show notes Technology integration directly relates to servant teaching—it’s a great way for us to prepare our students for their future. We can demonstrate proper technology usage and practice through our instruction. Our goal should be to impart wisdom and to help students work through the proper use of technology and develop 21st Century skills. Using technology effectively serves students…
-
Transform Your Teaching: The What, the Why, and the How of Technology Integration – The What
Reading Time: < 1 minutes In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles discuss the “what” of technology integration. They delve into the definition of technology integration and best practices, using ChatGPT as their co-pilot. Check out the episode to hear about enhancing teaching and learning through appropriate technology integration. We would love to get your feedback! Please fill out our survey to help improve our podcast and serve you better. Podcast links Show notes Webster’s definition of technology is expansive. For the sake of our series, we will be limiting our discussion to the use of electronic hardware or software in educational settings that enhance the learning experience.…
-
Transform Your Teaching: The What, the Why, and the How of Technology Integration – Introduction
Reading Time: 2 minutes In this episode, Dr. Rob McDole and Jared Pyles introduce their next series on technology integration. Check out the episode to hear about using technology as a teaching method to enhance a student’s understanding of the content rather than just integrating it for its own sake. Additionally, we would love to get your feedback! Please fill out our survey to help improve our podcast and serve you better. Podcast links Show notes Early on as a teacher, Jared started exploring how technology integration could be used in his classes. He discovered that embracing technology integration allows both students to engage the content in a new way…
-
Turnitin Adds AI Writing Indicator to Similarity Report
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s no secret that ChatGPT’s popularity is growing. And plagiarism detecting tools are aware of that – and the need to adjust their offerings to help identify when student work may have been supplemented or entirely created by AI. Turnitin recently announced that it will now display a score to instructors within the Similarity Report to indicate what percentage of a paper is highly likely to be generated by AI. Turnitin is quick to say that their detection isn’t foolproof and the percentage displayed “should not be used as a definitive measure of misconduct or punitive tool.” The AI percentage is presented to inform instructors and…