Effective Teaching with Technology

A course entitled effective teaching with technology (ETT) has been taught to PhD candidates and postdoctoral students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) during the Spring semester of 2004, 2005, and 2006, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The course is supported by the NSF-sponsored Center for Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL). The course employs the three CIRTL pillars of teaching-as-research, learning-through-diversity, and learning communities as its basis. The ETT course introduces students to the idea that they critically evaluate technology options with the overarching goal of improved student learning. In this paper we describe: (1) development of this unique course, (2) operational experiences, and (3) student outcomes and effectiveness of the teaching-as-research approach to motivate future faculty (i.e. graduate students) to view teaching and the classroom with the same critical eye and scientific method that they use in their own research