Feedly Article #3

Feedly Article #3

3 Simple Strategies To Integrate Technology Into Any Lesson

Classrooms and teaching as we knew it growing up is a thing of the past.  Rote memorization and a teacher droning on and on from the front room as students scramble to take notes are a being re-thought.  As this article discusses, technology is important in classrooms, but how teachers utilize that technology is even more important.  This can be a challenge in multiple ways, but this article offers three strategies to help blend the two more easily and create a balance.  The first strategy is to “think visually.”  This section offers several examples of free sites that allow students to integrate visuals/graphics into their work.  One of these is Animoto, which turns pictures into animated videos.  The second strategy is “blog all about it.”  As most English teachers will tell you, some form of journaling can be very important for angsty teenagers.  Blogs are a wonderful solution to help with this project.  The article points out that this can be transformed from individual journaling to cooperative learning and team building.  The final strategy is “integrate social media.”  Students are already extremely familiar with these tools, so why not use that?  Social media can used for word games or scavenger hunts, a closed-circuit learning activity, and group research boards. 

There are some wonderful ideas in this article.  Technology is here and it is not going away.  Students are already using so much of it, so why not show them how they can use it to learn, too?  It doesn’t have to be every lesson for every subject, but it shouldn’t be ignored either.  I love the idea of groups using things like Pinterest to create research boards for a project or following political feeds via Twitter.  Students can create and imagine and grow on whole other levels that were not even possibilities when most of us were growing up.  Imagine if we can teach these younger generations how to utilize these tools for their education, how much better their learning experience is going to be.  I am not saying throw out the books, but there has to be a balance.  It is our job to show these children that balance and broaden their horizons.

I found this article on te@chthought.  It was written by Sandra Love, Director of Education Insight and Research at Mentoring Minds, on May 06, 2015.