Can you believe the calendar’s already turned to October? Wow, that first month of school sure flew by! We hope you’re deeply involved in eLearning so far this year as our top two posts in the latest Eduporium Weekly are all about learning with technology!
Thinking Outside the Box to Spice Up eLearning
If you are a seasoned, technology-loving teacher (which we hope you are), you probably spend a lot of time wondering how to make eLearning more exciting for students. And if you haven’t, we’re still going to tell you how you can! Of course, feel free to put your own creative spin on our suggestions and integrate any other learning technologies that you’d like. Here are some suggestions for how you can utilize some fresh eLearning methods that students will definitely enjoy and totally benefit from.
The first thing you want to do is grab their attention and remember that first impressions in eLearning are just as critical as they are anywhere else. In the same way as movies or books begin with something really compelling, make sure you’re doing just that in the classroom. Make use of your teaching technology—short videos accompanied by thought-provoking questions are a reliable way to accomplish this. Once you have students’ full attention, set clear objectives and frame them in a context that they can understand and, more importantly, identify with. Depending on your preference, this can be done by asking students to reflect (a ‘why’ question) or set a challenge for them (an ‘identify’ question).
At this point you’re probably consumed in awesome discussions and phenomenal STEM activities using your EdTech tools. There’s still more you can add, though! By stimulating student’s prior knowledge of subjects they can design activities within their frame of reference that cater to what they would like to learn. With students wholly engaged in their eLearning, as a teacher, it is important to continue to drive their performance. The best way to do this is to encourage them to apply their skills and knowledge quickly and check for retention. Providing meaningful feedback will also go a long way in ensuring that they have used their technology to its full potential. If someone fails to achieve their goal, no worries! Second chances are wonderful in eLearning as they provide students with visible examples of how to correct their mistakes. Happy eLearning!
Using Facebook for eLearning
There was a time when the word ‘Facebook’ was like a curse word in our classrooms. Any chance students got to log onto the Web in computer class was closely monitored by what seemed like three different teachers or teachers’ aides and you could forget about giving them their own Wi-Fi-enabled EdTech devices. In an effort to make sure kids stayed off of Facebook (and in earlier days, Myspace) during their valuable learning time, teachers would tend to keep a close watch on the pages popping up on the computer screens of their students. Now, however, Facebook has evolved from a mere distraction into what some would call an invaluable modern learning tool.
In an effort to put its negative association behind it, if used properly—and if teachers know how to use it properly—Facebook will be a useful eLearning tool for enhancing the learning environment both at school and beyond. One of the most important things is for teachers to realize that Facebook has become a modern form of educational technology and it is here to stay. After all, we are constantly encouraging 21st century learners to communicate and collaborate with each other using modern tools; Facebook is a modern tool and a real asset in today’s education. Unlike in the past, Facebook provides a gateway for communication both in and out of the classroom so that teachers can keep their students as well as parents up to date in real time. Facebook is also especially useful for classes that meet only once or twice a week. Teachers can post instant updates or important changes to what’s due so that no student shows up unprepared.
Beyond its on-the-surface advantages, upon closer review, there are many subtle benefits to using Facebook that actually enhance learning as well. For one, it can legitimately help improve language skills, especially in ESL students when they can see the sentences they are constructing and recognize how they need to be improved. It also provides an opportunity for bonding. When teachers connect with students through a medium they are comfortable with, teachers are essentially connecting with them on their level. This will result in a deeper connection and a greater comfort level between students and their new Facebook “friend.” Of course, Facebook also provides the opportunity for students to share their work instantly and receive feedback from those who appreciate their effort. But, what’s the biggest plus side? You guessed it: collaboration. Collaboration between like-minded people is the essence of social life and now more so than ever since we live in such a social world. Students can collaborate on projects with other students, with teachers and even with other schools while teachers can collaborate with fellow faculty, parents and educators from all over the world to gain new insights and ideas for learning. Bet you didn’t think Facebook could have such a positive effect in the classroom as an EdTech tool.
Social Media as an Overlooked STEM Tool
Social media is both a powerful teaching and learning tool, especially as we advance deeper into the 21st century. With so much focus being on children attaining a 21st century STEM education, there is a lot of effort (and rightfully so) made to engage them in hands-on science and technology classes to boost their exposure and comfort level when it comes to modern technology. One area of modern technology that isn’t always necessarily associated with STEM, however, is social media. While it certainly is undeniably a crucial modern-day learning tool, we don’t tend to think of it in terms of math, science or even technology, even though perhaps we should be.
The Internet, largely including the various social media sites, has provided a seemingly unending bounty of resources for today’s students. What seems to have resulted is a contemporary world of visual learners who are craving more and more digital content. Today’s children don’t learn in the same ways that their parents and grandparents did, so modern educating techniques have started to evolve accordingly—to better cater to what’s being demanded. New technologies, namely social media, have the potential to drastically increase student engagement and transform classrooms into participatory cultures. When it comes to STEM education, it is a participatory culture that maximizes learning results and what is social media if not participatory?
Not only is social media a tool for enhancing learning, it is a tool for sharing—sharing the importance of a STEM education. While one class may be using a site to engage in a collaborative discussion, another teacher may be following a chat that is stressing the importance of STEM and learning with technology. Social media is a multi-headed machine when it comes to STEM learning. Research shows that today’s generation gravitates towards sites that are fast-paced, information-rich and incorporate bite-sized pieces of data paired with visual stimulation. Does that not sound exactly like the social media we have grown used to? For STEM educators, this presents an important opportunity. Social media is a gateway for students to expand their creativity—the single most important trait needed to succeed in tomorrow’s complex world. The participatory nature of social media sites encourage dialogue, which can foster confidence in communication. There are even sites that will teach coding, provide STEM-based wisdom and spark ideas for real-world projects. So, yes, it’s true: social media is a force to be reckoned with in today’s STEM-focused world and has great potential to enhance education in the classroom. What it can also do, however, is continue the conversation well beyond said classroom—in the real world.
Coding With Robotics: It Can Be Done in Pre-K
There’s no such thing as too early when it comes to getting kids started with science, especially now that there are tools that are designed to help even the littlest learners. As young as Pre-K, kids are able to play with technology in a way that strengthens their mind and skills. Of course, most of the time, five or six year olds do not realize the importance of what they’re doing, but the fact remains that tinkering with robots and other tech tools is helping them to learn computational thinking and develop their problem-solving skills. Student enthusiasm shows when they’re encouraged to play with a friendly looking robot in their classroom and the effects may be more beneficial than they’ll ever realize.
When exposing students to technology tools, such as robots, to teach them important skills, teachers should have some particular goals in mind and those will change depending on the grade level you’re working with. For kids in Pre-K, discovery-based play illuminating computer science concepts should be the objective of having the robots in the class. When working with kindergarteners, students should be encouraged to explore coding as well as robotics through play while also being taught specific concepts like sequence, conditions and debugging. This is also a fine opportunity to reinforce some math skills or have students create their own stories to show what they have learned.
By first grade, teachers can introduce digital storytelling to students using code, which will help kids learn what works and what does not through experimentation. Students will learn with care as each step requires practice, failure and re-dos. In second grade, they’ll begin wanting to add more complexity to their games and stories, so let them! They can access larger blocks of code and even become part of communities where they can share their creations. Some key learning areas include variables, remixing and other valuable computer science concepts much earlier than in the traditional education progression. By third grade, students are ready to delve into coding programs and create complex projects. This provides them with tangible ways of exploring computer science concepts and empowers them to learn more by creating a wide variety of projects, thus maximizing their exposure to coding with robotics and genuinely advancing their education.
Why We Shouldn’t Fear Technology in School
We are going to keep pushing using technology in schools, so we thought we might benefit from telling you a bit more about why there is nothing wrong with learning from tablets or from littleBits. The debate has gone on for a while, but there have been plenty of findings that support the fact that EdTech actually does help children learn. Whether it’s tinkering with a Kano Computer Kit or creating circuits with Circuit Scribe, hands-on learning should be something that students do every day. And should absolutely not be something we’re not afraid of introducing to them.
Whether it’s a belief that they lack the time, would not be able to manage their classes, account for safety or receive the proper training, teachers have come up with a multitude of excuses for why they refuse to use tech in their teaching. The thing is, though, they are all just excuses. And they all have solutions. Once they realize (or admit to themselves) that Web 2.0 tools like Twitter, Google Docs or coding sites do, in fact, have a place in today’s classrooms, they’ll be on the right path. By addressing their concerns in a rational way and with an open mind, we believe they will quickly be alleviated. It really is just as simple as taking the time to get comfortable and taking the time to plan out interesting and beneficial lessons.
It’s okay that some teachers think of technology in the classroom as a distraction because, for a while, it was. Now, however, there are certain technologies that are made for learning. Heck, they also encourage kids to start dialogue and enhance project-based collaboration among even the shyest students. There is no reason to exclude technology from modern classrooms—if you can even call it a modern classroom when there isn’t any inside. The only risk is that of leaving students behind while other educators are preparing them for the jobs they will hold by demonstrating how much more effective learning can be when it’s done with technology.