A Teaching With Technology certificate, granted by The Graduate School, provides evidence of effective and innovative use of technology for teaching.
Employers want and need to hire personnel who have strong technology skills and who can make decisions about appropriate use of technologies. Students who have technical skills not only can improve their teaching effectiveness and efficiency, but also will greatly sharpen their "edge" in the job market.
The Graduate School signs the certificate. Approval of your work comes from your academic department.
Any Penn State graduate teaching assistant can participate. If their academic department does not currently have a department representative, we will encourage the department to designate a person.
First, identify yourself to your department TWT representative who will provide any additional departmental requirements or alternatives.
When planning a certificate program, all students should reflect on their current level of expertise. If basic computer skills are needed, start there. Build skills gradually. As skills increase, you can create a Web site as a beginning portfolio. Consult the step-by-step process guides at this Web site.
Each department has or will have a TWT certificate representative. In addition, on their own students may want to identify a mentor within their department who can advise on appropriate content and technology use within the discipline.
Send a message to the TWT program at twtc@psu.edu. We will ask you for the name of your department chair, then contact your department to request a TWT coordinator.
The process can take as many semesters as needed to complete. A possible sequence is to learn appropriate technology skills before you teach, teach your courses with technology, then build your portfolio based on what you did in your course.
No courses are required to achieve a certificate although students may learn many of the technology skills during credit courses, internships, or mentoring programs. Informal seminars, Web sites, and online tutorials are also excellent sources for learning. See the Get Trained page for a list of available resources and suggestions of technologies you may be interested in.
The TWT portfolio is a Web site with links to the various elements of a TWT portfolio including a teaching philsophy, course description and examples of how technology has been incorporated into your teaching. See the Portfolio Requirements for more information and Completed Portfolios for example portfolios.
A TWT philosophy is your personal statement about the benefits of effective use of technologies for teaching and how technology use fits into your future work and life.
There is no minimum or maximum size or number of elements in a TWT portfolio. Your portfolio can be simple or flashy, depending on your skills and how you want to represent yourself.
In cases in which a portfolio is not approved upon the first submission, students may make revisions and additions and resubmit during a following semester.
Your Penn State Access ID and personal Web space will be available for 6 months after graduation. Prior to leaving Penn State, you may want to copy your portfolio to a CD or DVD so that you can easily reconstruct it at another location.