1. Integrating low-tech technology into teaching what, when, why and how Alasdair Rae, Dept. of Town and Regional Planning

2. Here’s what I plan to do 1. Define “low-tech” 2. Talk about my rules 3. Provide examples of what I do – Give you some new ideas – Show you some student feedback 07624 806 527

3. 1. “Low-tech”? Definition: easy to learn and easy to use.

4. 2. My rules for ‘ e ’ stuff Avoid the George Mallory approach It must be time efficient Human beings need human beings Avoid unnecessary jargon Benefits must be obvious Feedback must be used to justify Try to make it look pretty

5. 3. Examples from my work 1. Teaching in lectures 2. Teaching outside the classroom 3. Teaching software skills

6. Basic PowerPoint issues… Teaching in lectures

8. Videos in lectures (and examples) The obvious: The not so obvious: The Swede: The others: Teaching in lectures

9. What do the students say? “the news film examples helped me understand the context of the policies” “ Alisters use of videos made the lectures more interesting” “ Alaisdir’s lectures made good use of videos” “ the videos broke up the lectures – made dry subjects less boring” Teaching in lectures

10. Examples from fieldwork Teaching outside the classroom The options? Lille 2009 blog…

11. Teaching outside the classroom

13. Software skills Issue 1: many disciplines use specific software that is unfamiliar to students Issue 2: this is often a key part of a module or a course Issue 3: it is often not ‘easy’ – to use; to look at; to get help on Issue 4: there is only one of me… Teaching software skills

16. Feedback and stats Typical comment: “I would have been totally lost without the videos – it must have taken you ages!”

18. The big ‘ so what ’… Enhanced learning? Efficient teaching? Enjoyable? Entertaining?

19. The big endorsement … “Alasdair is very good – he knows how we learn ” “Alasdair made an exceptional effort to make sure we all knew what we were doing”

21. Contact, links, ideas a.j.rae@sheffield.ac.uk My blog: undertheraedar.blogspot.com Link to this presentation – http://bit.ly/gIwr1H Link to the handout – http://bit.ly/gWZzKK