Val’s roving reports: Teaching with technology

Author: Val Lawrenson SFHEA   Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching valawreson@uclan.ac.uk  

I’ve worked at the University since 2000 during which time a wide range of different technologies have come and gone. I’ve progressed from acetates, CD discs, pen drives to white board and now mobile devices! I am the academic liaison representative on the Technology Enabled Learning Team and part of my role is to bring an academics perspective to the discussions around the use of technology in teaching and learning. I’m always on the lookout for volunteers to talk to me about how they integrate technology and pedagogy.

This week I’ve been out and about talking to academics about the different ways they are using technology to support student learning. 

Greg Littler in the School of Health Sciences provided a great set of examples of how the Surface Pro and the applications it supports are really making a difference in his modules. Greg uses Relay not just for capturing lectures but also for recording student’s interactions in group work and practical classroom sessions. Recording student’s questions and his explanations and then uploading the clips to Blackboard means that Greg’s students have access to some really great learning materials.  

In lectures Greg makes sure he plans activities to last between 10 and 15 minutes. This means he can Relay them separately. Students like the opportunity to revisit lecture content, however, can get overwhelmed with the size of the recording “it’s a pain going through a two hour recording”. The short individual clips that Greg produces means it is a lot easier for students to locate specific content that they might be struggling with.  Although it is hard to say what the impact on learning is, we know that increased engagement with content is associated with academic success. This implies that Greg’s tactics will be effective at supporting student learning.  

Student feedback on the short audio recording is they “really, really like it” so it has to be something for us to consider.  

Greg’s top tips 

• Planning the session – Design activities for 10 min periods. The sections will then be easy to record. Nothing more than 15 mins! 
• Make a note in your lesson plan to act as a reminder i.e. when you will stop and start recordings. 
• Be sure to label each clip at the time of recording. 
• Identify a time in your diary weekly to upload recordings to Blackboard.  

If you’ve got something you’d like to share please do contact me.