Empowering Course Concept

The most valuable piece of knowledge I take away from this course is something that echos my own opinion but in better words. On the final day of the course, we talked about lesson design with regard to technology and our instructor, Steve Katz, offered three questions that he asks when deciding whether or not to use technology in some form or another, in his lesson.

• Will this improve student learning? 
• Will this make the class more efficient? 
• Will it help students be more organized?

If you can answer "yes" to at least one of these questions, then that particular piece of technology adds value to your lesson. As educators, we can at times get over-excited by a new lesson idea, teaching concept, or piece of technology that we think will be a "hit" without taking the time to evaluate its merits. Steve's examples from his trials and tribulations with his own classes provided valuable insight on the uses of technology in the classroom.

For myself and my classes, I think these three questions are a succinct method for determining the worth of not just the implementation of some form of technology in my lessons, but other teaching practices as well.