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Benefits of Educational Technology in the classroom

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Benefits of Educational Technology in the classroom

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Top 5 Benefits of Technology in the Classroom

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Technology has transformed life as we know it, and the classroom looks much different than it did 50—or even 10—years ago.

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How to use Educational Technology in the classroom

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How to use Educational Technology in the classroom

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Everything You Need to Know About Educational Technology

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these eight tips are very informative

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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:

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.

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.

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.

9. Gamification

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 in 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.

There is a lot of technology in education ideas available to teach and engage students. However, finding out which one works for your students and implementing them will reap you more benefits.

I hope this article has helped you find the right technology in education for your students. Happy teaching 🙂

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8 Innovative Ways To Use Technology in Education

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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?

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below is a great explanation on what educational technology is and what it can do for your class

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Technology has ushered in countless changes in teaching methods and student learning. Tech trends in education will continue full-steam with the development of new and improved educational technologies and tools. This guide offers an in-depth look at cutting-edge learning tools and trends, virtual learning environments, and the latest educational technology apps that are enabling new models of connected learning. Learn more about the sweeping technological changes that are transforming American educational systems.

Advanced Educational Technology Tools and Trends

A 2017 survey of more than 2,500 educators and administrators across the U.S. found that three-quarters of all educators integrate technology with instructional delivery on a daily basis. From interactive smart bulletin boards or virtual and augmented reality headsets to desktop and notebook computers, technology is pervasive in today's connected classrooms.

Here's a look at some of the latest trends in educational technology, as well as the benefits and drawbacks of each for teachers and students.

Virtual Learning Environments and Learning/Course Management Systems

K-12 schools and colleges use a variety of learning and course management systems to deliver online content. These systems are becoming an integral part of the educational experience as colleges and schools incorporate more distance education curriculum and degree programs into their 21st educational offerings.

There's overlap between the terms "learning management system" and "course management system."

An LMS is the entire infrastructure used to manage and deliver course content, as well as track student progress and other key metrics.

A CMS is used by instructors to place courses and materials online for access by distance learners.

A learning management system is the entire package, while the CMS is the suite of tools educators use to expand course offerings online. These include class exercises, quizzes and tests, and communications tools such as bulletin boards and real-time chat.

Regardless of the minor distinctions, the terms typically are interchangeable. All LMS and CMS fall under the umbrella of virtual learning environments. Here's a closer look at some of the most widely used VLEs implemented in K-12 classrooms, as well as colleges and universities:

How Learning Management Systems Work

These systems give institutions the ability to offer coursework and completely online degree programs to students regardless of location and the devices used to access the LMS. They also are completely customizable - educators can add any number of required readings, video lectures, quizzes, tests, mid-terms and final exams, and also track student progress through each assignment or test. The ability to customize educational content is what makes a college or university's LMS a true educational environment rather than merely an online repository for class materials.

Essentials such as grading, getting and turning in assignments are similar to traditional classes. When educators create courses, they establish a grading scheme such as the commonly used letter grading scale of A-F. Students can view individual assignment grading scores when they log into their classes, as well as view grades for weekly quizzes, assignments, major projects and their overall class grade. Grading parameters also can be set to percentages.

Students turn assignments in by uploading content using the LMS assignment tool, or through a third-party app such as Turnitin. Educators can provide feedback on assignments, and students can communicate with their instructors through the LMS via chat messaging, video call, or regular email.

A primary drawback to virtual learning environments is that many areas of instruction require hands-on training and development of physical skills that must be learned in a laboratory or similar setting. Examples include nursing or study in skilled trades such as carpentry or welding. Also, there are many charismatic college or high school instructors who have perfected the art of engaging students to increase student achievement. The dynamic personality traits these experts rely on in the classroom might not necessarily translate into a digital classroom, though.

EdTech Apps

Education was the third-most popular category in Apple's App Store in January of 2018, accounting for 8.5 percent of all apps available for download. Educational technology apps are being used to foster better learning in math, science and reading, as well as track citizenship and other key student metrics in grades K-12.

Although the word "educational" encompasses a broad spectrum of apps, we've put together a list of some of the most popular and widely used EdTech apps for K-12 and college classrooms, along with the app's primary area of focus and platforms upon which they are available.

Photomath
Stumped on a math problem? Take a picture of it using Photomath, and the app provides a solution with step-by-step instructions. From exponentiation and roots to trigonometry, Photomath can help college students learn how to solve complex mathematical equations.

Duolingo
Language, Android, iOS, Web browser. The free app and web site can help students pass their foreign language requirement. Learn Spanish, French, German, Italian and even High Valyrian, the language of nobility and the elite from Game of Thrones.

StudyBlue
Any subject, iOS/Web browser. The world's largest crowdsourced study library of study guides, notes and flash cards has more than 15 million college and high school student users.

EasyBib
Writing, Android, iOS, Web browser. Take the difficulty out of writing citations for college-level essays with this citation, note-taking and research platform.

Evernote
Productivity, Android, iOS, Web browser. While Evernote doesn't technically fall within the realm of an educational app, it's one of the best and most popular note-taking tools on the market. Succeeding in class often depends on taking detailed study notes. College students can use Evernote for class lectures, labs and group projects, and organize their notes into separate folders for each class.

Online Resources & MOOCs

The number of students enrolled in distance education programs continues to rise. According to a Survey by Babson Survey Research Group, In the fall of 2016, there were more than 3 million students taking online only courses, which is just under 15 percent of the nation's more than 20 million college students.

The rise of distance education has also led to a proliferation of Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and other online resources such as Open Educational Resources and Open Courseware. MOOCs are modeled like traditional college classes with assignments, tests and deadlines, while the other two offer resources such as textbooks and class materials that help students who are independently learning subject matter.

Here's a look at 10 such resources:

Alison
Offers more than 1,000 free online courses in information technology, language, health, math, humanities, skilled trades and many more areas. Alison has served more than 11 million online learners.

Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources
This consortium of community and technical colleges offers open educational resources and OER degree programs that have zero textbook costs since all materials are delivered online.

Coursera
Offers online classes from leading educational institutions throughout the world such as Columbia University, University of California, Johns Hopkins University and many more. Coursera also offers online degrees in business and computer and data science from select university partners.

edX
Founded by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012, edX is an online learning repository and provider of Massively Open Online Courses from more than 90 of the world's leading universities.

Harvard Online Learning
From lectures to podcasts, Harvard Online offers both free and fee-based content for distance learners taught by Harvard professors. Open online courses include abstract algebra, Greek history, poetry, digital technology, computer science and many more.

Khan Academy
Offers free practice lessons, instructional videos in math, science, computers, history, art and more for learners in grades K-12 and college. Also offers test prep instruction for adult learners preparing for the MCAT, NCLEX-RN or GMAT exams.

Open Course Library
A library of sharable resources such as course activities and materials, syllabi, readings and assessments created by the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Education.

Udacity
Offers free online courses in topics such as data science, data analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, software engineering, virtual reality, Google AdWords and related technical topics to students throughout the globe.

MoocLab
Site that aggregates Massively Open Online Courses, MOOC certificates, MOOC credit programs, and MOOC college degree programs.

Code Academy
Offers free computer programming in Java, SQL, Python, HTML/CSS, as well as technical skills development courses in web design, HTML, responsive design and more.

From the Expert

Amanda Gould is chief administrative officer for The American Women's College, the first, fully-online degree program in the country designed just for women. A thought leader in data-driven digital learning, Gould presents throughout the United States on this topic, with a particular focus on the innovative Social Online Universal Learning model currently being implemented at The American Women's College.

What are some of the tools and trends in virtual learning and apps that Bay Path has installed or is examining for potential deployment?

We have deployed adaptive technology to help personalize learning pathways for students because we believe it allows us to better meet students where they are, and provide 'just-in-time' content/activities that help fill knowledge gaps along the way. It also allows us to genuinely look at how interdisciplinary content integrates across a curriculum.

Why is it important to stay in front of technological changes in educational technology?

Like all technology, educational tools are constantly improving. And just as technology has allowed for enhancements in many industries, the educational arena can also be enhanced by incorporating tools that allow for increased engagement, more targeted personalized instruction, and/or provide insights for interventions to better serve our students.

Who benefits most from these tools? How do they help teachers and students?

The real value of using adaptive technology as the backbone for the formative assessment in the learning process is that it provides both the instructors and the students a clear sense of what is expected. The visual representation of a learning map also shows what has been achieved and where there may have been challenges. It keeps the student and instructor precisely on the same page and gives them the same language, and yet on an individual basis for each and every student. Complementing faculty instruction with this technology means that students essentially have built in one-on-one 'tutors,' and instructors have information at their fingertips to guide feedback and interventions that may apply to individual students, or to the class as a whole.

Can you address how the development of technology in the classroom has led to new methods of teaching and student learning, and what we might expect five or 10 years down the road.

The way people learn today has inherently changed due to technology. People of all ages are exploring content on the internet to figure out how to perform new tasks, solve problems and fix something that has broken. I am most excited about the shift from a text-book driven educational environment to one that is more exploratory and focused on the skills, knowledge, competencies for which we want students to be exposed and the rich plethora of materials/videos/exercises that can help a student navigate towards mastery in more affordable ways.

It would be most rewarding if the incorporation of technology and student-driven exploration afforded teachers the time to work with students on emerging skill sets for our changing world, such as sense-making, computational thinking, media literacy - skills for the future that go even beyond the communication, problem solving and collaboration skills considered so important to supplement our discipline specific training.

Are there any educational technology initiatives that American Women's College has rolled out that have fostered new student-teacher interaction and methods of learning?

The American Women's College Online has also begun exploring how technology can be incorporated into virtual learning in the sciences. Through a partnership with Labster, simulated lab experiences were custom- created for our Food Science and Safety degree program. By augmenting other lab experiences with these simulations, students can re-create the experiments multiple times towards mastery. Each and every student is required to demonstrate their own competence, and additional content can be integrated along the sequence to help explain what scientific concepts are being demonstrated at various steps in a laboratory experience.

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K-12 & College Educational Technology: Classroom Tools & Resources

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Technology has ushered in countless changes in teaching methods and student learning. Tech trends in education will continue full-steam with the development of new and improved educational technologies and tools. This guide offers an in-depth look at cutting-edge learning tools and trends, virtual learning environments, and the latest educational technology apps that are enabling new models of connected learning.