Inspired by researcher Jim Knight’s The Instructional Playbook, I sought an existing playbook that would resonate with my role as an instructional technology coach. However, I realized that most resources did not fully encapsulate the nuanced relationship between technology and instructional strategy, particularly in the post-pandemic era of heightened technology usage in education. Whether using CoSpaces Edu like I did or using options available through resources like Experiments with Google, there are many ways to bring these opportunities to our students. To provide a coherent vision, in our recent HER article, we propose “technoskepticism” as an organizing goal for teaching about technology.
This gap led to a collaborative effort with educators and coaches across North America to create a playbook that purposefully integrates technology with instructional strategies, enhancing my approach to teaching. When and how much you use technology depends on the subject and age you teach, as well as other factors. Less time on devices is recommended for very young students (per the American Academy of Pediatrics), and certain subjects require more use than others (e.g., computer science, coding, advanced math, etc.). You may wonder — and parents might, as well — about the effects of screen time in general. The Common Sense Media article “How Much Screen Time Is OK for My Kids?” can be a helpful starting point. Students could select any template and then had to work together to find the right objects and add animated characters with speech bubbles, audio, and more.
What Is Successful Technology Integration?
Tablets loaded with learning games and online lessons give children the tools to solve problems together. Meanwhile, cloud-based apps let students upload their homework and digitally converse with one another about their thought processes and for any help they may need. Blended learning is more than just using technology to supplement the classroom experience. Rather, blended learning requires that a significant portion of course material is delivered through online instruction using digital technology, combined with some face-to-face components. For example, students may complete lectures and homework assignments online but have in-person lab meetings.
So while phone distraction is a very real problem among students, educators should be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Even the evil smartphone can be a valuable bit of technology in the classroom when used correctly. Even smart projectors won’t be able to do much more than playing a video or slideshow without streaming from another device. There was a time when the only available method of storing information was in people’s memories. Information was passed down through oral traditions of songs, stories, or memorized lectures.
Send home digital citizenship resources and activities.
Number your devices and have students use the same one each day; this will streamline the time it takes to get started and help students learn to treat them responsibly. Teachers should ask their students to Google themselves and then think about what their digital record says about them, advises Delzer. “93 percent of employers now use social media in some way to either recruit or hire employees,” she explains. “That means if our students have a negative digital footprint, they might have just a 7 percent chance of getting a job.” To practice what they preach, adults should also Google themselves and reflect on what they find. “I started replacing paper newsletters with video newsletters in 2014 and never looked back,” she says. You may think technology is just a distraction, but it can help encourage active participation in your classroom.
Thanks to the always-on nature of technology, students can access online learning resources whenever they need to. These resources also have the ability to provide instructors with a sense of which students might need extra help. In and of itself, education technology doesn’t result in effective teaching and learning. It still requires a guide (the educator) and a purpose (related to the curriculum). And there is effort and strategy required to integrate it effectively into your course material.
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Students benefit from clear expectations and established routines that they can practice and master. In the case of devices, these routines should cover everything, beginning the moment students take the devices out. Depending on the age of your students, your policies and procedures are also an opportunity to enlist student voice and for students to have ownership over the way the class is run and its daily culture. Incorporate lessons for students that educate them on potential risks to their privacy, the dangers that those risks pose, and strategies they can use to take charge of protecting it. These lessons on privacy and security from the Common Sense Education K–12 curriculum can get you started.
Edtech, or education technology, is the combination of IT tools and educational practices aimed at facilitating and enhancing learning. The TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) framework lays out the knowledge that educators need in order to successfully integrate technology into their teaching. The TPACK website provides a large collection of free resources graduation ceremony in Baku for teachers and other instructional leaders. While K-12 online learning gains traction around the world (visit our Schools That Work package about online learning), many teachers are also exploring blended learning — a combination of both online and face-to-face education. Blogger Bob Lenz also gives us a snapshot of what blended learning looks like in the classroom.
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Those who need more time or extra help can practice outside of class with guided exercises or additional coursework. Here are a few answers to the question of how education technology has changed today’s colleges and universities , and reasons why educators should make the most of technology inside—and outside—the classroom. Many of the most rigorous projects are infused with technology from start to finish. Visit our Schools That Work package about project-based learning in Maine to read about a middle school and high school that are getting excellent results from mixing PBL with a one-to-one laptop program. Or read a recent blog by Brian Greenberg about combining PBL with blended learning.
When I revealed each podcast logo and host, the students were surprised at all of the different styles. I then dove into helping students design their own podcast and logo and create a brand for themselves. For some, it was uncomfortable at first, but with some guidance and collaboration with classmates, it didn’t take long for it to become something quite fun for them and me. Jacob Pleasants is an assistant professor of science education at the University of Oklahoma. Through his teaching and research, he works to humanize STEM education by helping students engage with issues at the intersection of STEM and society. Using an app called AudioBoom, Delzer’s students take turns recording themselves reading classroom books aloud.
Students could then examine the infrastructures involved in AI systems, such as immense computing power and specialized hardware that in turn have profound environmental consequences. A teacher could ask students to use their values to weigh the costs and potential benefits of ChatGPT. Most schools teach basic computing skills and many offer elective vocational-technical classes.
- You may wonder — and parents might, as well — about the effects of screen time in general.
- They are certainly more expensive than an analog whiteboard, and it still requires extra effort to produce content for them.
- Technology was no longer just a tool for substitution but a means for collaboration, creation, and learning opportunities that students would not have with paper and pencil.
- The ViewSonic Education Ecosystem blends hardware, software, and services to empower educators, enhance learning, and streamline operations.
- Inspired by researcher Jim Knight’s The Instructional Playbook, I sought an existing playbook that would resonate with my role as an instructional technology coach.
Pursue a master’s in education online or an instructional design degree from Walden University and uncover the impact you can have on your students. For example, most classrooms make in the last century or so assume a display of some sort at the front of the room. Until recently, it’s been a chalkboard or whiteboard, which also makes the room a good candidate for an interactive whiteboard of some kind. More portable than even laptops but with large viewing screens, tablets seem to be custom-made for education. They are very powerful research tools and may serve as a replacement for heavy, expensive textbooks. Their touch screens also allow students to interact with digital content more intuitively than with a keyboard and mouse or trackpad.
There is a common misconception that the integration of technology in the classroom can be a financial burden for school districts, but students do not necessarily need their own tablets or laptops to succeed with technology. The use of technology during whole-class instruction can foster student engagement for auditory and visual learners. Integrating simple technologies Power Points, games, internet homework assignments, or online grading systems can be difference makers in students’ growth in the classroom. Students can also supplement their learning by connecting with online groups and virtual communities in real-time, or by collaborating on group projects using tools such as wikis and cloud-based apps. And instructors can provide access to the course material (and additional resources) by setting up portals through learning management systems or providing access to course-specific software for each learner.
