This article originally appeared on Kleinspiration.com on May 15, 2017.
By Erin Klein.
Nowadays, it’s expected that one can request a wi-fi password when visiting a local coffee shop. Throughout the day, we use our devices more than we may realise for a number of productivity tasks and entertainment outlets. Whether we are entering an address into our GPS, snapping a photo, replying to an email, surfing the web, listening to music, browsing social media, or texting a friend, we are plugged in to our devices and connecting to our world. Our students are the same.
When I’m in a conversation with a group of students, I love when a question is posed followed by a short silence. Without being taken away from the discussion, someone usually chimes in with an answer after quickly pulling it up from their device. Not skipping a beat, the conversation typically continues into a deeper discussion as seamless research and collaboration continues to take place. We are a connected world with access to information at our fingertips. Technology is transforming the way students feel about learning. They now have the ability to seek answers to their questions no longer from one teacher in the room but rather an endless possibility of teachers across the web.
Students are empowered to use technology to create and publish, collaborate with others, connect and interact with their community, explore their natural curiosity, and demonstrate their learning in innovative ways.
Creativity boost
Schools are probably the best place to teach individuality and diversity thinking to students of all ages. So why would you use anything else when technology can offer a universe of apps, websites, and resources, teaching creative thinking in an interactive manner?
Technology can help kids become more creative through dozens of applications designed for mastering the art of drawing, sketching and painting. There are also lots of apps and resources that allow students to create stories, projects or engaging video materials. What can expand the creativity of a second-grade student? Photography, audio, video, drawing. Technology allows us to have new opportunities in the classroom.
Collaboration in Classroom
These days there is a specially designed app or website for almost anything you may think of. Classroom group work is no exception. There are plenty of apps and websites that empower kids to collaborate with other students, make projects together and get real-time feedback from the teacher. Yet only some apps or websites bring collaboration to a new level.
itslearning is a comprehensive tool that allows collaboration between the student, teacher, and community. As a teacher, I love that it’s one login for everything I need.
“The itslearning LMS solution allows districts to truly personalise learning by putting curriculum resources, instructional strategies, objective-based lesson plans and assessments, all in one easy-to-access central location. The platform provides countless ways for teachers to create engaging lessons and resources, makes teacher collaboration and sharing of materials easy, and automates routine tasks so teachers have more time to focus on their students.”
Allowing students to connect and share their creative work all under one platform is valuable and efficient. itslearning provides that opportunity for students.
Children have never been as collaborative as they are in digital era.
Using 3-D Printing to Create
Students I recently worked with were over the moon to be able to design and create together using 3-D printing capabilities. One seven-year old especially caught my attention in saying, “I like 3-D printing because I get to take something from my imagination and make it come to life.”
Our learners today are just like us as adults — they have come to expect the ability to access information and connections beyond the classroom walls. Technology, when intentionally used to positively shape teaching and learning, can have a monumental impact on engagement and success.
