Educators are increasingly turning to technology to support improved student outcomes. But how do they supply fuel? Authentic Engagement that uses technology as a tool to not only enhance learning, but also stimulate curiosity and strengthen connection?
Recently, Edsurge spoke with Kelly Mitchell, a digital learning and education facilitator Onslow County School North Carolina. Mitchell spent four years in the classroom before moving on to the district role. For the past 12 years, she has encouraged other teachers to effectively embed Edtech in their classes, and encouraged students to “work together, create rooms and move around”!
Edsurge: How to promote personalized learning and authentic engagement in the classroom and what specific strategies and technologies are most effective in supporting these goals mosquito?
Mitchell: I’m a huge fan of Dr. Catlyn Tucker’s approach. Station rotation model For blended learning. It used to take quite a while, but if you keep things simple and practice your transitions over and over again, I believe that if students adapt and thrive in a classroom where their learning style and interests are appreciated Masu. They are often moved around, but little knows that everything they do is tied to one of their standards. And they love it!
The idea is to give students a choice and a voice on how to demonstrate their understanding. They appreciate the effort we put into listening to them and realizing how they learn. And when that happens, we are all more engaged, staying at work and working together. Small shots of student involvement really keep you moving throughout the day.
One of the most widely used tools in Onslow, Lumioteachers can easily intervene, providing high quality, pre-made activities and interactive features. Those who want to get closer to the materials in their core curriculum can easily import the materials and quickly become interactive.
When students have a little choice for this question, they excite something very simple. For example, graphic organizers are always entertaining crowds. Choose how to express the character’s characteristics in drawings, writing, or photos and you’ll have a victory lesson! I just worked with third graders and had to explain why the character traits of the books we read were helpful in selling more lemonade than the brothers sold. And they essentially had to create a poster that sold the character’s traits of that character.
Technology helps students redefine what they are learning by giving them creative ways to demonstrate understanding. Allowing students to record audio along with texts and images is a powerful way to demonstrate understanding in their own voice.
How can technology support teachers to make core curriculum materials more interactive and engaging for students?
If core curriculum materials are used, it can be difficult to learn how to use the material to teach students a genuine learning experience. Even stations and playlists allow teachers to work with small group students while other students continue to engage in a variety of other collaborative and independent activities. That’s beautiful! In addition to simplifying the planning process, the Education Technology Program has made it extremely easy to use core curriculum content to make game-based learning, collaborative group work and digital manipulation into lessons.
How do you involve students in the process of integrating technology into your learning experience?
It often gives students options for how to demonstrate their learning. By offering this choice, students can use their talents, strengths and interests. At the beginning of each year, I ask my teacher to choose a high-tech champion and help students who are new to using the educational technology available as students in Onslow County. Having one or two high-tech champions in each classroom takes some of the pressure from teachers and does the job of getting to know the programmes with students. This is one of the best ways to give leadership opportunities to highly empowered and more tech-savvy students.
What advice would you give to other educators looking to use technology to build a culture of authentic engagement?
Don’t overthink it. I’m willing to learn with your students. The days when teachers are experts in subjects are gone. You don’t have to have all the answers. Our digital native students want to chase the answer, decide whether it’s what they’re looking for, and revisit the question many times.
One of my favorite things about Lumio is the ease of entry into the program. Do teachers need to liven up the material of the core curriculum? If so, start with a Super Sorted For verbs or adjectives, or strange numbers and even numbers. Do they want to amplify students’ voices in a fast and out of the way? Next, let’s throw it shout! It may end there first, then a group work activity or Monster Quiz For reviews. Or maybe we should give it a try Fett Area and surrounding labs. Teachers don’t need to know everything in and out of Lumio to use it effectively to attract students. It shows that teachers incorporate small moments of involvement into their daily routines, which leads to students being invested in their learning.
We can’t let them sit in the program and allow them to go down the rabbit hole in their “path”. Personalized learning is more than a programmatic pathway set. Personalized learning takes into account a variety of personalities, strengths, weaknesses and preferences. Students of this generation are truly grateful for the opportunity to make their students’ choices.
