Recent research states that the use of technology in education has improved student’s academic performance drastically. Though traditional classroom teaching may still be prevalent, many educational instituitions are coming forward in embracing technologies. For instance, they use digital whiteboards, flipped classrooms and Chromebooks replacing textbooks. And who best to support this movement than teachers themselves?
Here is a list of 8 innovative technology in education ideas to use in the classroom that is transforming the world of education:
1. Slideshow Presentations With Multimedia:
Text-only slideshow presentations are behind the times due to its monotonous content delivery. Also, it’s evident that slideshow presentations are already a part of your educational curriculum. Therefore, if you add a variety of multimedia elements to the performances, it could capture the attention of students for a long time.
Few examples of multimedia elements you can include in your classroom:
- Colourful Images
- Short video clips
- Sound Tracks
2. Podcasts Do Matter:
Podcasts for all your academic lessons can aid you with the teaching process in the long run. Especially, motivational podcasts, interviews and online courses. Likewise, there are a lot of podcasts available online on various topics of interest.
Few examples of podcasts that you can include in your classroom:
- Basic research on an academic topic
- Lectures from other educators
- Podcasts blogs
If you want to take it to the next level, you may ask your students to create their podcasts.
3. Take Your Students on a Virtual Tour:
Who doesn’t get excited about field trips? We all do. With technology in education, cancelling trips due to logistical issues is not going to happen anymore. Additionally, you can simulate a virtual field trip with Google Cardboard.
Learn history by exploring historical places, study the phenomena of the earth, visit a foreign country and a lot more. Above all, engage your students and make them fall in love with the curriculum.
4. Keep Your Class Schedules Online:
Google Calendar helps you create and share a class calendar. This keeps your students informed about the class, duration, and important dates. Therefore, emailing your calendar’s hyperlink to your students will do wonders. This will help you stay organized, in turn, make students come prepared for each class.
5. Use Virtual Manipulatives:
Visualizing mathematical concepts are difficult. Though there are manipulatives like base ten blocks, coins, blocks and tangrams, virtual manipulatives tend to be way effective. They are a relatively new technology modelled for a better adoption.
Reinforcing mathematical concepts with virtual manipulatives allow students to in understanding complex concepts. Therefore, incorporating the use of virtual manipulatives in classrooms is not only comfortable but appeals to hands-on learners as well.
6. Videos For Teaching: How to make teaching videos?
Watching videos helps in remembering key concepts longer than reading. Use Hippo Video to help you record digital whiteboard explainers, classroom activities, peer presentations as videos. Additionally, you can share them with your class via Gdrive, Google Classroom or YouTube right away.
Adding videos to your classroom resonates with visual learners, allowing them to learn at their own pace.Besides, you could establish a deeper connection with your students and comprehend clarity through videos.
This whiteboard explainer video was created using Hippo Video, an online lecture tool:
Here is the Top 7 Free Online Video Tools for Teachers. Check it out.
7. Hit Social Media:
Social media is not only for grown-ups. You could avail the benefit of using social media in education too. Therefore, you could come up with a exclusive hashtag and encourage students to tweet their inquiries, academic doubts, homework, presentations etc.
Answer your student’s questions by displaying the results of your hashtag feed on the screen. This could be beneficial for those who may not be comfortable asking questions in front of a large crowd.
8. Video Feedback, Quiz, and Surveys:
You could record personalized feedback on student’s work as a video. Also, allow students to give peer feedback through videos. Therefore, this could help students speak an opinion instead of keeping it writing focused.
Encourage students to create forms, quiz, and polls related to your academic activities with a tool like Google Forms.
Students can create them through classroom electronic devices. So, this could be one of the easiest ways to introduce technology in your classroom.
They say learning by playing is the best way to understand a complex concept. This applies true to all the students. When a complex concept is taught in the form of games, it sets the foundation right.
For example, Learning students to type faster can be taught in the form of playing typing games in the computer lab. Not only are they incredibly engaging for teaching students to speed typing, but they also invoke fun and excitement for students.
Teachers can ask students to form pairs or groups and encourage them to collaborate with each other while learning by playing. This also encourages teamwork among students, which is an essential skill when they want to grow up in their career.
10. Social Groups
Students spend so much of their time on social media more than adults do. So bringing social media into the curriculum is among the most innovative ways to use technology in the classroom. Teachers can connect students to curriculum, classroom resources, and one another. Create a Facebook or Whatsapp or Slack group specifically for your class where you can post discussion topics.
11. Corporate Training
Beyond this, videos can be particularly helpful for corporate training programs. Be it communication training, sales enablement training, professional or etiquette development training, you can easily and clearly articulate and share useful information via videos. The biggest advantage of asynchronous videos is that they can help you train candidates without the constraints of time or place. Also using interactive elements can enhance engagement and improve participation.
There is a lot of ideas available to teach and engage students. However, finding out which one works for your students and implementing them will reap more benefits.
I hope this article has helped you find the right technology in education for your students. Happy teaching 🙂