Katie Fulton

[#1]

Katie Fulton

Department: English

School:  Iowa State University

Product: LaunchPad forSpeech Craft

How do you use LaunchPad? I use LaunchPad in my flipped public-speaking course. I use LaunchPad’s Quiz tool, which allows students to be tested over material at their own pace as they master the content of each chapter. Students who want more practice with the chapter content in preparation for the required quizzes complete LearningCurve adaptive quizzes for extra credit. I also use LaunchPad as a way to engage students in higher-level learning outcomes in an online environment to practice skills like analysis and application. My favorite use of LaunchPad in my public-speaking course is to assign speech videos for analysis, and the Macmillan video library makes this easy with the variety of media available that are relevant and helpful examples for my students.

Advice on Using Technology with Students: Be willing to try new technologies, especially those with growing potential. Adaptive learning is one of the most promising uses for technology in education, and LaunchPad uses this technology to provide valuable opportunities for instructors to monitor student learning so that we can focus our efforts where they are most needed. Not only do tools like LearningCurve help teachers use our time and energy more effectively, but the same is also true for students as well with targeted content that meets the learner where they are at and adapts to their knowledge and needs.