Teaching with Technology
With so many technological resources available to TAs, it makes sense to consider making use of them to enhance your teaching experience both in and out of the classroom. There are a variety of ways to incorporate technology into your course, from illustrating lecture to creating web resources, and from emailing to grading. Furthermore, knowing as much as possible about the variety of technology available to you as an instructor is an asset as you apply for teaching jobs in the future.

Technology during Lecture
Some lecturers use power point and other forms of visual aids to accompany lecture sessions and illustrate or clarify complicated concepts. A well thought out outline on power point may help give a clear sense of order that students follow more quickly than presentations in other formats. If you prefer to give blackboard lectures, consider augmenting your presentation periodically with slides to help students “see” what they are learning.

In science or engineering courses, there may be software that students are expected to use for class (e.g. Maple, Matlab, etc.). Although students are expected to complete assignments using the software, it is rarely if ever used during lecture. This may give students a feeling of disconnect, as if the software they are using is an “add on” to the course, rather than a powerful illustrational and computational tool. Consider using relevant computer programs with a projector during lecture. A 3d visualization of a complicated shape, or a live demonstration of the computer being used to derive something relevant to the lecture not only helps to illuminate the example at hand, but also helps students to see the software as useful and integral to the course rather than an extraneous responsibility.

It is also possible to record class materials or lectures and make them into a podcast. Students can then download the podcast and have important class information in a portable audio format to review the accurate material after class. This alternate access to the lecture may appeal to students who already spend much time between classes working with their iPods and find this format a natural way to store new information.

Beyond this, there are many options to use technology outside of class. In an increasingly technological society, students already spend a good deal of time online, so integrating electronic ways to access course information can be an asset for encouraging students to keep up with material.

E-mail
Students are frequently overwhelmed with deadlines. While you do not wish to inundate students with excessive amounts of email, a weekly or biweekly update email sent to the whole class reminding them of upcoming deadlines may be a welcome addition to encourage students to keep up with class. If a question arises that may affect the whole class, having a course mailing list is also an easy way to distribute the relevant information in print. Rutgers facilitates creating a course mailing list quickly and easily. Visit https://rams.rutgers.edu/newlist_req_doc.html and choose “class list creator” to create a mailing list for your students. Depending on your classroom needs, you can build the list so that you are the only person allowed to post, or so that students can post notes to the list as well. Also, when students have an email from you in their inbox, they may be more likely to email you back when they have a question outside of class. If you wish to help your students be more comfortable with contacting you, this can be a good way to start.

Once you have established a rapport where students are willing to email questions about class, you may need to establish time limits. While communication with students is important, responding to email in detail can become time consuming. You may find it useful to save your responses to student questions, both to document your answers and to copy and paste answers to common questions. Furthermore, you may want to establish clear time expectations with your students for how long they may expect a response to take, such as “If you email me, you can expect a response in 24 to 48 hours”. Some faculty specifically choose to set a date and time when they will answer email for a class, such as “I will answer email on Wednesdays from 2-4pm”. By establishing clear guidelines for when you will answer email, students know exactly what sort of time frame to expect without becoming impatient. Then you are approachable but need not feel overwhelmed by a large volume of e-mail.

Using other web resources
With the ever-expanding wealth of information on the Internet, it may be useful to collect relevant links and other resources for your students. Developing a class website is a perfect place to store such information. A class website may include links to other instructors’ sites, a copy of the course syllabus, and websites that give helpful perspectives on course material. With scanners and other technology, you may also consider making material available to students that is not already online. Announce your class website to students early in the semester and remind them of it periodically as the course continues. A course website is also an excellent way to present resources for remedial material or enrichment material for interested students.

Perhaps the energy required to develop a creative website on your own seems time consuming. If so, an easy alternative is to use Sakai (http://sakai.rutgers.edu) Sakai is an online forum that allows instructors to build a web community for their students. You may still post links for students as on a website and you may make mass email announcements. Further, you may include a class bulletin board, chatroom, and other resources, all able to be set up with a few mouse-clicks. Using Sakai early and encouraging student interaction with the site often may help foster an increased level of out-of-class discussion and help build a community both in and out of your classroom.

Technology for grading
Finally, beyond enhancing the classroom experience and fostering out of class community, technology can help streamline your grading and grade reporting processes. Using excel allows instructors to tally and manage grades easily, and to glean more data about the overall performance of the class. Further, when grading, using the Internet can make it even easier than ever before to detect student plagiarism. If you suspect a student has cheated, you may copy suspicious parts of their work into a search engine and compare with the results. In both cases, learning to be comfortable with the technological resources at hand can aid in dealing appropriately with student work.

Some of these options may seem intimidating to the less technologically savvy TA. However, this does not have to be a problem. The Center for Teaching Advancement and Assessment Research along with the TA Project offer a series of Teaching with Technology seminars throughout the semester. Attend four such sessions and you will receive a certificate demonstrating your dedication to learning how to use these various resources. Descriptions of the individual workshops can be found at http://ctaar.rutgers.edu/ta.