Good morning
students. Take out your History book and
turn to chapter 2. Remember the monotone
of your teacher as he went through the history lesson and how after about ten
minutes you tuned him out, started doodling on your paper, thinking about what
you were going to do when you got out of school, looking at the clock thinking
to yourself – 35 more minutes and then this class is over. Then came exam day and you did not have a
clue about the material on the test because you tuned out on lecture day.
SURPRISE! SURPRISE! can you believe the same thing is happening in the classrooms today - some of YOUR students are tuning out YOUR lectures....
However do you
realize you have a tool at your disposal that teachers of the past did not have
– TECHNOLOGY. Research has shown that
many students have personal technology devices or access to technology. Today I was reading a tweet
from EdTech, in it he provided various ways to use technology in the classroom in an effort to engage students in the learning process.
One of the things I find most helpful about the Leaning Management System is the fact that because it is interactive it helps teachers better gage what concepts the students are getting in real time. As a teacher I think understanding what concepts students are getting in real time will help us determine if it is time to move on to the next lesson or if we need to continue on with the lesson and possibly change our teaching technique for that lesson, versus finding out when we grade falling exams that our teaching strategy for this particular lesson did not work.The author explains Learning Management Systems in the following way.
Learning Management Systems uses a variety of technology tools to keep students interested in the subject being taught. These systems may combine the use of online videos, clickers, managing groups, and blackboards to encourage class participation. Teachers can monitor students’ responses and upload related material within seconds to every student’s monitor or tablet.
Educational Technology Instigates Learning
Using educational technology in your classroom will
instigate learning among your students, encouraging them
to explore the world around them and think about what they are seeing and
hearing. Ideas of how to engage students that partner excellently with LMS are
discussed thoroughly by Jeff
Dunn on edudemic.com in a recent and well utilized article. His approach to
learning is based around the ideas that though we have these tools to use,
there are still ways to keep students engaged instead of distracted.
Personal Response Systems
Personal response systems, also simply known as clickers,
are an effective tool in the classroom. Similar to those used on game shows,
you can show students a question on the large screen and then ask them to click
in their answer. The answers immediately alert you to concepts that the
students are struggling with, so that you can slow down the day’s lesson to
explain the concept in greater detail. In this way, instruction becomes more
customized and students will be able to comprehend issues that in a traditional
setting they would have struggled with.
Desktop Sharing
Every teacher has at least one or two students (maybe
more) in their class who never speak up. For some students, the idea of
speaking out loud in a classroom is just too stressful. For others, they may
worry that students will laugh at them, or they may struggle with putting their
thoughts into speech. Desktop sharing can bridge those gaps, giving students
another alternative to speaking—writing. Writing gives students time to think
about what they want to say and then correct their speech as they write down their
opinion, strengthening their writing skills.
Presentation Technology
Technology can encourage the creative side of your
students. For example, you could form groups and then assign them to come up
with a presentation of a specific concept, or topic, using technology. This
gives students the opportunity to apply what you have been teaching them and
then expand upon the information, conducting independent research and putting
that data into a visual presentation using a variety of programs. Students learn
to work together, preparing them for a work environment, and gives them
experience with public speaking while letting them put their own angle on the
subject. http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2012/10/how-to-get-students-to-pay-attention.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EducationalTechnologyGuy+%28Educational+Technology+Guy%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
