Education has greatly evolved over the past few years, and teachers are moving to easier and practical forms of teaching. Advancements in the IT sector have revolutionized the way people communicate with each other and almost all other aspects of modern life. The education sector is no exception.
Earlier kids used to rush to school carrying a load of books, and spend summer vacations on the playing field with friends. In this era, kids are born with a silver spoon in their mouths. They have access to technology, electronic gadgets, and cell phones, and just about everything you can think of. Kids understand the ins and outs of a tablet, iPad, and other entertainment devices well enough. In fact, they have access to social media platforms where they spend most of their time. That being said, you can encourage better learning and education in them with the myriad technology resources available today.
Though you might feel that technology is diverting or distracting children from their routine study schedules, you can also educate them with the help of technology. Here are a few ways how technology can assist in teaching children.
Start adding presentations and videos in your lectures
Educators today aren’t the run-of-the-mill kind anymore. There are many tech-savvy teachers who inspire and motivate their students to learn using presentations and educational videos. Besides being fun, they are more interactive than traditional means of learning. If you want to teach your students something interesting that’s out-of-the-box, try and make an amazing PowerPoint presentation for that subject. This will kindle their interest and help them listen and learn eagerly. If they are teaching a bunch of kids, then a PowerPoint presentation with funny images and illustrations is sure to attract kids. It’s a fantastic idea to incorporate presentations and videos to make your lectures interesting.
Encourage them to start submitting assignments online
Are some of your students not happy with written assignments? How about getting them to try their hand at submitting online assignments instead? You can encourage them to start their own blog and update their know-how about the subject. Besides, even you can access their blog and give them feedback from time to time on improving their writing and comprehension skills on the subject.
You can even ask them to summarize a chapter in just 140 words in their tweets while interacting with them through feedback. If you’re active on social media, you get to interact with them and understand them more. Create a shared Google Drive and ask them to start submitting their assignments in the drive. These simple and easy techniques will encourage them to start using technology for their education.
Give Webquests and online tests to students
The internet literally has answers to almost every question that you can possibly ask. It’s also loaded with lots of information that helps you understand the subject inside-out. This can be greatly utilized by the students. Start giving them assignments in the form of Webquests. Instead of the usual two-page written or typing assignment on a subject, give them interesting tips relating to their personal interest, latest happenings around you, and more. Rather than the usual, write me an essay scenario, ask them to research about the given topic and come up with solutions, suggestions for a scenario, or even make a report on it.
Many online websites conduct tests and quizzes every now and then. Keep track of them and try and encourage your students to take up such tests. Help them prepare for an online quiz and even give some marks to them based on their performance on the test. This will encourage them to learn the subject from various different sources and also keep them away from plagiarism.
Start publishing the students’ works online
There are many online portals and forums that let students publish their works, like project summary, research papers, ask questions to experts, and more. Encourage your students to make a strong online presence by publishing their works on such educational web pages. Encourage them to start answering the questions asked by various students and also ask questions to other students in the forum. This will give them a wider perspective and they will naturally interact with world class students through social media.
