Questions to Consider

Will This Technology Expand Student-To-Student Communication and/or Collaboration?

• Research continues to underscore the importance of discourse in student learning. When students can communicate their ideas, their understanding deepens. Luckily, new technologies offer far more avenues for classroom communication than we’ve ever had before. Students can use their devices to write and edit digitally, compose photos or videos, or respond to polls. Unfortunately, the way we leverage technology in classrooms doesn’t always spark communication between students. In fact, sometimes it even blocks communication

Will This Technology Expand Possibilities For Student Choice and Creation?

• By expanding students’ access to new technologies, you can unlock learning opportunities that were previously unavailable. Now, digital technologies expand the topics that our students can investigate and allow them to share knowledge through multimodal compositions. However, in many classrooms, we’re integrating technology in ways that narrow students’ options for engaging and participating rather than widening opportunities for student choice.

Will This Technology Enhance Assessment?

• New technologies can provide access to large volumes of data about our students. Ideally, we can use this seemingly infinite information about our students to adapt our teaching to meet their needs better.

Will This Technology Create Opportunities for Critical Thinking or Problem-Solving?

• Reflection activities provide students with opportunities to track their learning and demonstrate their progress throughout the semester. 

• Peer review activities enable students to demonstrate communication skills by giving feedback on each other’s work, expose students to alternative perspectives, and allow students to question what they are reading.

• Discussion forums enable students to communicate with peers, answer questions that require both lower- and higher-level critical thinking, and analyze course content.