In earlier days of education, in “GURUKULA” system, the pupil stays with the teacher for the entire study-years. Then the next transformation occurred where the student has to go to the school at morning and return back at the evening, while spending partially a good time at home, and now we step into an era where the education demands no time bounds.
Anyone, anytime, anyplace learning has been monopolizing this decade.
The innovations in teaching kids using today’s technology and mobile devices are growing with time. Online education through various devices using different apps, tools and products
is not new to the world now. Here are some tips on how to integrate technology into the classrooms.
Collaborate and Share:
Connecting with peers, distant tutors at odd hours are never going to be a nightmare, taking the advantage of video or voice chat functions worldwide. Encourage use of devices to collaborate and share your teaching plans, via interactive video chat, multimedia content, presentations or real-time assessments. One can also use online documents, e-books, activities or worksheets for homework assignments and extracurricular activities. Which shows that to be a teacher and a learner in the 21st century
, one does not necessarily need a book, blackboard, and chalk in hand.
Keep an eye on attendance and grades:
Are you a school teacher struggling to keep track of the present/absent ratio for a big mass of students?
You can always use an iPad app
or an android app to keep track of student attendance. There are various applications for the grading as well, like Engrade and LearnBoost .The use of app or technology is all about the level of comfort, so you can always search for keywords like “attendance“, “grades” to find more of such applications. The one you like, and you are comfortable with is the one that will perform the job for you with ease.
Learning Should be Fun:
“Tell me, I’ll forget; Show me, I’ll remember; Involve me, I’ll understand”
Isn’t it fun for the student to have missions to be accomplished
rather than assignments to be copied and finished, or to have game mechanics like rewards, honors in return of some efforts in learning?
There are a various online resources, games in form of apps, and tools that are designed to teach various subjects in a fun and engaging way. Whether instructing them in the use of proper grammar, arithmetic, or even physics, games and learning programs are extremely useful tools for educators when it comes to teaching complex concepts. And students being comfortable with technology today will be more receptive to these tools, and enjoy deeper learning and retention with game-based learning and quest-based learning.
Technology as an aid:
Technology is not here to replace the teachers and traditional model completely, it is here as an aid to teaching and learning. You should focus on technology as a tool
for performing various tasks with ease. Using a Smart board, mobile device just for the sake of using technology and expecting good learning outcomes is not what is needed by schools and other educational institutions. They need to know the role of technology in education and learn to make its use productive and effective.
Whether 21st century educators
are using it for presentations, for short video lectures, or for storytelling one needs to monitor its impact on students and their learning. One needs to keep the focus on what is being taught and then introduce technology as a basic concept. You need to make sure that the devices themselves are not the focus — rather, concentrate on what they can be used for, and how they can help children build practical, real-world skills. Here is where role of edtech professionals come into play.
Connect with Friends and Family
Our first experience with Google Hangouts
would have been for fun with friends and family. For friends and family members who stay very distant from us, we can use Google Hangouts as a tool for video chatting with every one simultaneously. My experience would define it as fast, simple to communicate and fun. Also if a teacher has to meet up with the parents of her students, she has this option.
Many classrooms use centralized websites or social network platforms
as way for teachers to communicate directly with parents, and also for parents to stay in touch with each other and share information relevant to the class, forming a good rapport between teachers and parents.
Record Lectures and Notes:
A student somewhere in rural India is able to watch a lecture delivered by Stanford professor. They are the fruit of MOOCs
, a neophyte in blending education with technology. This allows the students who miss them to view programs later, or to be used as study review tool when it’s time for tests and quizzes.
Other benefits of the recorded lectures and notes includes and “Flipped Classroom
”. It has been effective in various parts of the globe. Kids can even take responsibility for different aspects of the recording process, learning valuable multimedia skills. Student’s learning does not end with school hours, in other words, even the process of creating or taping programs for archive can be a learning experience.
eBooks and Multimedia Content:
Is it possible for all the students to own all the prescribed, reference textbooks or even to borrow umpteen books from the library, or to carry the load with them all around??
Here comes the use of e-books. There are many benefits to using eBooks instead of real-life books that range from cutting down on costs to also being able to ensure material is up to date and having access to a wider range of reference tools. Multimedia content
is being shared across with students not only of your own school but also with others in different countries. This is the one of the application of technology. Letting you present information alongside video or audio clips that dive deeper into subject matter, or shows kids how various mathematical or scientific principles work in practice. There are online book communities that allow kids and teachers to check out books free of charge, share reviews, so eBooks can also be a very cost effective way of using technology to access a nearly infinite world of data.
Today technology has become omnipresent. It had been fostering and fortifying all the streams. Usage of right technology in a well confined domain to the apt audience can create miracles. So let us reap much advantage from it by uniting it with education. Share
your ways of using technology in classrooms, as there are so many other ways technology is making education innovative.
