Mark Laumakis

Mark Laumakis

Department: Psychology

School: San Diego State University

Product: LaunchPad for Scientific American: Psychology

How do you use LaunchPad? I use LaunchPad as the online backbone for my Introductory Psychology course which enrolls up to 500 students in each of two sections. I make extensive use of the LearningCurve quizzes in each chapter. These adaptive quizzes do exactly what I want them to do -- they demand more time on task for students who are struggling and they offer increasingly challenging questions for students who are excelling. LaunchPad is also the home of the state-of-the-art e-book, as well as rich simulations, demonstrations, videos and more, all of which I leverage during lectures to increase student engagement and learning. LaunchPad helps me teach better and helps my students learn more.

Any advice on using technology with students? Be purposeful and strategic in your use of technology. Do not use technology for the sake of using technology. Use technology to solve pedagogical problems. Use technology to improve teaching and learning. That's what good educational technology is all about.