5 Teaching Ideas to Enhance Learning

  

      Technology use in the classroom has opened the door for all classroom teachers, to better reach their students in terms of programming, planning, delivery, feedback, engagement, and motivation.  With so many different kinds of learners that make up a classroom, it's an important pedagogical practice to differentiate both the teaching methods administered by the educator, and the assessment tasks that we ask our students to complete to share their learning.  Many students today have special needs, where accommodations and modifications need to be applied so students may be successful within their studies.  Not all students can succeed with traditional paper and pencil methods, but all students do have the capacity to succeed, if they are given the means to do so.

      The Universal Design educational framework addresses the reality that students are all different and unique learners, and as such, there is no one perfect means to deliver material and new learning for all students to readily understand.  Classroom practices need to be differentiated to address student differences and unique qualities, in terms of engagement in learning, representation of materials, and student expression of learning.  Technology has provided the means to move towards this design within the classroom.

      Below are 5 teaching strategies and ideas and not only differentiate towards a more Universal Classroom Design, but also help to meet the needs of those students, who require special accommodations due to learning difficulties.  Each of these activities help to enhance the learning experience for all students.

1.  Smart Board Technologies
Smart Board
Smart Exchange

      A great teaching means for all grade levels, from kindergarten and up into high school, the Smart Board is a fantastic engagement tool for classroom instruction.  The Smart Board is simply an interactive white board, where teachers and students can manipulate data with a touch of the finger.  Users can write and erase information with the provided pens and eraser, but they can also move pictures and shapes by touching the screen.  Programs can be opened and closed, videos can be played, and information can be moved, changed, altered, and manipulated through the interactive screen.  Teachers can make up their own lessons using the Smart Notebook software, or visit the Smart Exchange website for pre-made lessons and lectures.

      I've always found the Smart Board very useful for math lessons.  Students are motivated and engaged when coming up to sort geometric shapes into a venn diagram, or watch videos on measurement, where the teacher can pause and playback the video, and switch to a lesson on measurement conversions.  Working with fractions is a lot easier, as students can work with fractions strips, circles, and other shapes to compare, sort, and add and subtract fractions with ease.  The Smart Board combines visual, audio, and tactile learning, that can benefit a wide variety of learners across all grade levels.


2.  Twitter
https://twitter.com/

      Twitter is quickly becoming the most popular social media tool, not only in education but across a more global spectrum of users.  Twitter is quite simply, a device for users to update their status, or share information using a limited number of characters for text writing purposes.  It does allow a person to include pictures with their updates, as well as links to websites, where more detailed information can be obtained.  Users can direct their "tweets" to specific audiences using "@" markers, or make their own tweets searchable using # hashtags.  Twitter has quickly become the quickest means of updating information and events, across all forms of media.

      I've only recently started using Twitter on a regular basis, but I find that the benefits of this media forum are endless.  When researching for current events, students can easily use hashtag searches to find relevant links to information for a wide variety of topics.  When Chris Hadfield was commanding the international space station, students could follow his tweets and even ask questions related to space content in the science curriculum.  I find the best use for Twitter is the connectivity a teacher can have with his/her students.  Setting up a classroom account allows students instant access to information and content being presented by the teacher.  For students who find it difficult to verbally express themselves in class, Twitter can be a great way to share ideas and ask questions, aside from traditional hand raise.  Most smart devices also have voice interactivity, so students can verbally express their tweets if they struggle with writing.  Twitter is an excellent means to get students to become more engaged, and provides them with an alternate means to express themselves, and access classroom content throughout their course of study.


3.  Digital Scrap booking with Smilebox
http://www.smilebox.com/

      Digital Scrap booking is an incredible tool for users to express themselves online.  A digital scrapbook is just like a normal scrap book, encompassing pictures, artwork decor, and captions that tell of an event or interesting happening in one's lifetime.  A digital scrapbook however, can do so much more.  Programs like Smilebox allow a user to incorporate a collage of pictures with videos, images, music, links, and text information to display a wide genre of events and information.  Smilebox is a great program that is easy to use.  After choosing a background, users can create multiple pages in their scrapbook, by simply dragging and dropping the information they wish to include within their pages.  It is a great way likewise, for students to display their learning, using multiple forms and formats.

      When completing biographies at the junior level, Smilebox proved to be a fantastic tool to display learning.  It has a little bit for every type of learner.  For visual learners, pictures and videos can be dropped into pages, that tell of a person's significant life events and moments.  For auditory learners, links to podcasts and background music can be dropped into pages to bring about more interest and content when learning about the significance of an individual within our own history.  Finally, Smilebox allows users to include text boxes to type up biography information for the more linguistic learner within the classroom.  Teachers can set the expectations for the digital scrapbook based on students needs, whether it be creating a scrapbook from scratch, to including specific content, pictures, and videos for those learners who may need more direction.  Smilebox allows for that type of scaffolding for teachers to better accommodate their students.


4.  Digital Storytelling with StoryJumper
http://www.storyjumper.com/

      Like digital scrap booking, digital storytelling allows a user to do much more when creating a story for users to share.  Digital storytelling applications like StoryJumper merge writing, photographs, music, and voice to create a personal multimedia story.  Students can create pages and pages of their own story by simply adding text boxes and dragging and dropping in images to allow their story to unfold.  StoryJumper also provides a unique way for a student to publish his/her own story, by sharing the story online, not only through the StoryJumper website, but also links to social media outlets as well (students can tweet the link to their story once it is completed).

      I've found StoryJumper to be a very engaging tool not only for creative writing, but also with retelling and recounting events as well.  Students can retell a novel they have read, by recreating it as a short story with text, images, and music.  Field trips can also be recounted and presented with StoryJumper, through interactive pages, and even voice overs that tell of the field trip as the audience scans through the pages.  StoryJumper can be combined with other applications easily, to promote creative writing, and share student experiences in terms of text, voice, pictures, and images.  It is a great website to use, that reaches a vast multitude of learners with different learning styles and unique needs.


5.  Ipad and Tablet Video Recording Apps
http://www.magisto.com/

      One of the most nerve racking moments for my students, is the thought of having to give a presentation or speech in front of their classmates or even a larger scale audience.  Rather than presenting, why not create a video?  Video recording and editing applications, like Magisto, are free and easy to use, for students to create their own edited video presentations.  Magisto automatically turns student video clips and photos into edited movies, complete with music, graphics, backgrounds, and effects.  It has many uses for the classroom, and allows students to express themselves in a more dramatic fashion once the camera begins to record.

      Magisto is a pretty unique piece of video editing software, as the application actually performs scans of visual, audio, and storytelling analysis to determine the type of effect a user is attempting to create when preparing a short video.  I've found the program quite useful when filming public service announcements to inform a general audience on the many charitable organizations in our community that need our support.  Using video recording and editing software is always engaging, allowing students to collaborate together on a project, and also allowing for students to bring their own unique skills and abilities to the project.  Whether they are strong at writing captions and content information, providing narrative voice overs, filming important scenes, performing in front of the camera, or editing for effect, video apps like Magisto allow students to display their own creativity and showcase their learning across a number of mediums within one simple application.