Making Connections: Technology and Interaction in an Honors Classroom

The adoption of educational technology tends to be based on the technology itself as opposed to the pedagogical needs it can serve—what we like to think of as a solution in search of a problem. In this paper we contend that appropriate application of educational technology to produce certain face-toface outcomes in a composition seminar can improve the student experience in the course. We frame our discussion in Mishra’s and Koehler’s TPACK theoretical framework (2006), where the quality teacher becomes the content expert who knows what to teach and how to teach to the novice learner while also understanding how a non-pedagogical technology can facilitate learning. Our discussion shows how we used online discussion to build a community of learners in a busy first-year honors seminar