The Influence of Instructional Technology Use and Teacher Immediacy
The article, The Influence of Instructional Technology Use and Teacher Immediacy identifies the components that help to aid in student success. The researches identified a four by two study that identified four factors of technology including none, minimal, moderate and complete use of technology. These elements were compared to level of teachers non-verbal cues such as closeness to students and reactions to misbehavior. For this student these ques were referred to as the level of immediacy. According to this study, the use of integrated technology and high immediacy provided optimal learning opportunities. As immediacy decreased, so did student affect or reaction to learning. As immediacy increased the attention and affect of students did as well. From this perspective, high involvement paired with a moderate amount of technology is an optimal setting for learning (Wiit, P.L & Schrodt, P, (2006). In a college setting, professors should be involved with learning, pacing the room and focusing on the nonverbal actions of students to gain and maintain their interest. Their high level of immediacy paired with the use of technology that was balanced with meaningful instruction helped students to retain most of the content from the classroom.
In my classroom, this was always a concept that I worked to implement vividly. While I taught at the elementary level and not at the college level as described in this article, there are several principles that can be transferred. The use of technology should be a tool to advocate proficiency, but it should not be a substitute for meaningful teaching and structured pedagogy. The use of technology as a substitute for teaching is unacceptable and should be used as a supplement for skills that have already been taught. For example, as a fifth grade math teacher I had to introduce students to the concept of complex word problems. These word problems included two to three steps to answer the problem correctly. To properly teach this skill, we reviewed the four operations that could be used in any math problem. The students were given an algorithm to remember the steps for problem solving (RUBIES). After the students and teacher worked on several projects together using a smart board to demonstrate, the students worked in groups to complete two problems. After the small groups had successfully completed two problems students would complete independent projects and have me review them. Lastly, technology would be further implemented further by assigning the students problems on Thinkthroughmath.com. In this lesson, basic teaching principles were implemented and technology was used to enhance the teaching and learning in the classroom.
References
Witt,P.L., & Schrodt, P (2006). The Influence of Instructional Technology Use and Teacher Immediacy on Student Affect for Teacher and Course. Communication Reports, 19(1), 11-15. Retrieved from Ebscohost
