Teaching Philosophy in Information Technology
Dayong (Daniel) Sun
As an experienced software engineer and mentor, my teaching philosophy is based on the following concepts:
- Problem-solving: I believe teaching has to go beyond the fundamental content of the course to foster students to develop problem-solving skills. Information technologies are complex and tightly connected with each other in the real world. Students need sound problem solving skill to be effective in the information economy. Based on my own experience, I have included materials from different IT subjects in the course to prepare students facing real problems and to help them to think and solve problems beyond the fundamentals of the course. Students learn what we examine for. If we test for problem solving, they will learn to be better problem solvers.
- Communication: I believe teaching is communication. Effective communication not only improve the understanding between the teacher and the students, but also can prepare students ready for the real working environment where communication is always the most important skill. In the course I teach, I have designed different course projects, some need a group of students a few weeks to complete, and others can be done in the class room with smaller group. From the large projects student can learn formal communication method that includes planning, execution, monitoring and final presentation. They can also learn how to communicate with a group of people. The short projects can help students improve their oral and quick communication skill.
- Fun and humor: Teaching should be fun to get students’ attention. Students these days have trouble to concentrate in the class when there are so many distraction around them. Adding different activities into the classroom like group discussion, games, small team projects can be very beneficial. These activities can change the mind-set of the students in the class and avoid one way teaching. When I design the projects for the course, I like fun projects, for example, ask students to develop a video game.
- Applied Learning: Technology in today’s world changes every minute. Teaching today has to connect students with the real world. Students learn the most are those concepts that they can apply in their own lives. I have designed programming classes that includes many Web related technologies so the students can apply the programming concept and develop web page they can use everyday. This makes the learning more real and fun.
As a teacher, our own individual development should always be our long-term goals. We have to keep learning new technology and apply them in our teaching. I have continued to grow not only in IT knowledge but also in teaching skills. Plus my passion in teaching, I want my teaching to be challenging, real world experience and fun!
