Today’s students are more tech-savvy than ever before. It’s almost like they are programed to learn a different way than traditional past methods. No I don’t mean they are like robots, but they have grown up around technology, so multimedia, vivid images, video, instantaneous information, all of this grabs today’s student’s attention. Having technology in the classroom is not to replace a great teacher, but a combination of a great teacher and constructive classroom technology usage can result to great education. It simply makes sense to integrate technology in the classroom since it has become so integral to the world outside of the classroom and today’s students are accustomed to it.
Here are 6 ways to engage students with technology in the classroom:
1. Global Learning
Students can study abroad without ever stepping foot out of the classroom. With video conferencing technology in the classroom students are offered exhilarating educational advantages such as learning languages from native speakers, being exposed to other cultures, and making friends all over the world. Video conferencing can bring an exciting and invaluable experience to your students.
2. Multimedia
Multimedia can stimulate more than one sense at a time, and in doing so, you can reach all different types of learners and hold student’s attention longer. Giving students the ability to create and utilize different types of multimedia creates a more collaborative classroom and allows students communicate and actually apply what they are learning, enhancing the overall educational experience.
3. Video Streaming and YouTube
According to Visual Teaching Alliance studies, 70 percent of the population are visual learners. Therefore, explaining, giving examples of, and describing things in words isn’t always a very easy or effective method of teaching students. Use classroom technology and add a few YouTube video clips while explaining and suddenly you
will begin to see the light bulbs go off. You can use video streaming, short clips, cartoons, how to videos, raw footage, etc. to create a much clearer picture for your students. In the end you will have an educated and entertained class.
4. Replace Some Reading with Podcasts
Now I’m not saying you should replace all text reading with podcasts, I’m simply suggesting that teachers that want to mix things up and increase engagement with technology in the classroom could use podcasts in place of some of their reading material to break up some of the monotony. I remember in college, the only thing more mind-numbing than reading countless novels, was to then be forced to read extensive, dull analyses of those novels. My English literature professor decided to break up our repetitious reading assignments by mixing in a few podcasts which definitely kept more students awake and enabled more classroom discussions.
5. Classroom Gaming
Remember when you were young being told that video games are bad and will “rot your brain”, well now studies show video games can improve student learning. There are tons of educational games that allow students to apply and test what they have learned. Students can get motivated by challenging each other and if done on a mobile device, students are more likely to continue learning outside of the classroom. Using educational games is one of the best ways to use technology in the classroom to make students eager for learning.
6. Utilize Social Media
Social media is here to stay and educators need to realize that. Many teachers have learned to embrace social media and use Facebook, Twitter, and other types to generate discussions outside of class. I actually had one professor assign it as homework. He would give us a topic, we would research it a little, and then write a short post on it and comment on each others posts. This usually sparked conversation and debate that everyone participated in, not just the same 10 who always answered questions in class.
As technology in the classroom increases, the IT department needs to know everything about their school wireless network, what they can support and how they can plan their school wireless network to support devices of the future. If your school is ready to update your wireless network to support some of this exciting classroom technology, SecurEdge Networks provides planning, deployment and design for school wireless networks.
Contact us today to discover how we can analyze and optimize your current school wireless network to help you achieve higher academic success.
