Connecting with People and Resources
Teaching with Technology Interview
SIMONE LAUGHTON

Abstract:
Technology has the potential to make our lives significantly easier by connecting us with students and other colleagues, and improving our access to resource materials.  However, there is also a downside as the sheer volume of information that can be accessed through technology can be challenging to manage.  For over 20 years Graham White has gradually incorporated different technologies that fit with his own teaching style and that support his research.  From course management systems, email, and the Internet, he has woven together a technology tapestry that makes sense for his teaching style and research needs.  Truly, teaching with technology is not about the latest gadget or the most innovative widget.  It involves finding appropriate technologies and learning to use them effectively over time to foster connections with others and to provide access to the resources instructors and students need.

Main Article:

Graham White, Professor with the U. of T. Mississauga Department of Political Science discusses his experiences using technology within his teaching and research in an interview with Simone Laughton, Instructional Technology Liaison Librarian at the U. of T. Mississauga Library.

SL:  What were some of your earliest experiences/experiments with
technology?

GW:  I am a low-tech person inherently.  I've thought about a lot of the options that are available, but for better or for worse, over the years I have developed my own way and style.  So I try to fit the technology into my approach rather than me adapting to the technology.  I try to use the technology to improve what I do.  That's not to say that I haven't changed, because there are some things that I do that have changed because of technology.

Other than very simple email back and forth with students, the first serious exercise with using technology for me was WebCT.  I started using WebCT about 5 or 6 years ago, and now I use Blackboard.  I only use a very small proportion of the options and possibilities that are available.  I used WebCT and now use Blackboard for 2 — 3 different things.  One of them, which I think is really useful, is posting students grades so that they can check that we haven't made a mistake.  The students can check to make sure that we've entered the grades properly.  I also use web sites to post overhead outlines for lectures, and to post course-related materials.

SL:  How do you incorporate technology currently within your teaching and how has technology influenced your teaching?

GW:  I think you really do need to fit the technology into your particular style.  I've looked fairly closely at the astonishing things that other instructors on campus have done.  However, in many cases the technologies that they use would not be appropriate for what I do with my students.

I don't use PowerPoint, I use old fashioned overheads.  Partly it is inertia and partly it is because I want the students to concentrate on what I'm saying rather than being distracted by what is on the screen.  Typically for a 50-minute lecture I will have 3 or 4 overheads, and I may have a quotation or some statistics.  Usually the overheads include a set of bullet points that indicate the outline of the lecture.  I provide the overheads to the students through Blackboard before the class so that they can download them, re-space them, and use the overhead framework for their notes.  For a very long time I did not use overheads, I used detailed notes.  It took me a while to make this transition from detailed notes to overheads to happen, but now most of the time, except for very detailed topics that I speak on, I will just bring in 3 or 4 or 5 overheads, no notes.  I speak to the points that are up on the overhead and paradoxically that keeps me better on track than when I had detailed notes. It also makes my presentation more spontaneous and gives students a much clearer idea of where I am going.  Occasionally I will realize afterwards that I have forgotten something, but then the lecture is not primarily about conveying information, it is more important that the students understand the ideas I am trying to convey.  I think that this works much better in big lecture settings.

The other thing that I've come to use a lot more is the capacity to post materials on websites.  For example, for a seminar course you can include direct links from journals or government documents and post them right there to make them easy for students to find.

I have a reputation around campus as the guy who is always haranguing the students to read the newspapers.  I tell my first year students that they could probably pass the course by reading the newspapers faithfully every day.  I strongly encourage them to do this, particularly in the upper year and more specialized courses.  After Christmas I am doing a course on aboriginal politics in Canada.  I will routinely email links to newspaper articles to all the students.  I know that my encouraging them to read the paper has limited uptake, but when I forward the article link most of them are going to read it.  I find that enormously helpful, especially in courses like mine where unfolding developments relate directly to lecture topics.

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