Almost as quickly as we could have imagined, the value of educational technology has gone from a nice-to-have supplement to an essential element of modern education. The link between hands-on learning and real-world readiness only continues to grow and the way today’s students are taught should evolve along with this trend.
The Connections Between Tech, Learning and Real-World Readiness
For many teachers, using technology in the classroom is the norm. For the vast majority of educators, however, it’s a headache-inducing afterthought. The fact is, however, that using technology to teach necessary concepts in a modern fashion has its advantages. The issue isn’t really with what teachers teach, but rather with how they teach it and technology provides so many extensions that don’t come with traditional classroom instruction. In this day and age, it’s all about learning by doing. Preparing for the real world is not something students can learn from a textbook—they have to get up, move around and use their hands to truly understand how to succeed in the world in which we live.
Today, students don’t have to wait until college to engage in hands-on work that hones STEM skills in a practical and efficient way. There are so many opportunities to use technology to enhance education and each has its own set of unique benefits for students. Both in and out of the classroom, students use technology to refine and enhance the learning process by using it to conduct experiments and activities they otherwise would not have the means to do. One method that’s become popular in all grade levels is the flipped classroom model. Technology allows teachers to deliver their message to students while they’re at home and use class time to collaboratively work on solving real problems. Especially in STEM subject areas, flipping the classroom is beneficial as the student can review the material as often as they need to in order to grasp the concepts they need to know.
Another approach is just to simply teach how to use technology. While many of the fundamentals for accomplishing tasks in the real world remain the same, the tools that modern-day workers use are constantly being updated. Oftentimes, schools can work directly with businesses to gauge how their technology use is changing and adapt those practices to their current course work. Tweaking the curriculum is an effective practice due to the constant changes that take place in terms of technology. These technology tools help provide students with an interactive approach to learning rather than a reactive approach. Learning with technology not only enhances the learning experience by serving as a tool to find a solution, but students can use it to solve relevant problems. It’s this hands-on experience that will undoubtedly serve them well in the years to come.
Starting a Robotics Club
Diving into the interactive, hands-on and tech-heavy world of educational robotics is mightily beneficial for students today. For starters, the field of robotics deals with the creation, operation and application of robots as well as what have always been thought of as complex computer systems for their management and control. Learning with robotics, however, is an awesome way for kids to boost their creativity, hone problem-solving skills, enhance teamwork and communication skills and improve their technical knowledge all with one compact and powerful learning tool.
Starting a robotics program in school is perhaps the ideal way to reinforce basic STEM skills in a fun, interactive and collaborative environment. Starting a school-wide robotics club or even making it a yearly part of the curriculum is by no means an impossible task either. All schools really need is some space, some tools and a commitment to hammering home specific educational objectives during the course of tinkering with robots. Teachers just need to decide which programs they want to teach and how robotics will help them do that. Whether the goal is polishing STEM skills, teaching tech concepts or preparing kids for the pressures of competition, robotics is a fantastic way to make learning fun and focus on group-boosting teamwork.
Once you’ve got the preparatory measures taken care of, it’s important to take some time to make it as easy and engaging as possible. Selecting a programming language that teachers are able to teach and students are able to understand is key to advancing learning through robotics. Finally, it’s generally effective to do a bit of research and see what other schools have done in learning with robots. See how they weave robotics into the curriculum and align the work with required educational standards. There are plenty of robotics communities both locally and nationally, so take advantage and collaborate for the best results! Robots aren’t going away anytime soon, so if we can’t beat them, our students might as well learn all about them.
Teaching Teachers to Code so They Can Teach Their Students
A recently published statistic shed some light on the dire need for increased computer science and tech proficiency in our schools. There are over 3 million teachers nationwide and hardly any of them know anything about computer science or coding. That’s alarming. How can we expect today’s generation of students to learn such vital skills if there is nobody to teach them? In January, however, President Obama announced a significant step forward as his Computer Science For All proposal included significant funds for teacher training and support programs. Computer science, he says, is a “new basic” skill. He just may be spot on with that assessment.
There are no intentions of replacing teachers with computer science specialists or engineering experts, so the responsibility rests on the shoulders of those elementary, middle and high school teachers. Once they know how to code, they also have to be adept at teaching others what they know. Not only will students have no idea how to write code, they probably won’t even know what it means to write code or much of the jargon surrounding the subject. So, the task that school teachers face has become twofold: learn to code and learn how to effectively teach young children how to code. Since we all can agree that teachers should be prioritizing learning this skill, it must be easy for them to access (and cheap). The best way is to make it a group effort—take an extra hour or two each week (perhaps following staff meetings) and start going over basics until the teachers know them inside and out.
Coding has far-reaching implications and knowing how to apply it in education will be an extremely useful trait to have. Our answer to that is simple: build it into every subject. The best way to get everyone comfortable with this new language is to treat coding like a new literacy that spans the entire curriculum, in exactly the same way that used to be the case for reading and writing. It’s also important to stress the fact that these teachers do not need to become overnight experts at writing code. Rather, they just need to know enough and be proficient at the basics so they can teach it effectively for, say, a year. Coding is always evolving, so those who are tasked with teaching it need to keep up with the changes, but it will be worth it to provide today’s generation of students with a head start on a skill that will no longer be optional by the time they are ready to go to work.
EdTech: From Supplemental to Essential
It may now be difficult for us to imagine a modern-day classroom that doesn’t, in some way, make use of technology. Then again, it may be impossible for veteran teachers to imagine a school breaking away from traditional pen-and-paper learning. That is widely becoming the case, however, and perhaps for the better. We live in a much different world now than these teachers did 10, 20 or 30 years ago. The importance of learning with technology to gain tech and other STEM skills is paramount and has a direct effect on future success. In an era in which we rely on technology almost as much as we rely on oxygen, education as we once knew it must undergo an impactful transformation.
EdTech integration and hands-on instruction are growing rapidly across the world, forcing educators to adapt, a lot of times, on the fly. Many contemporary classrooms feature students that are both digital natives and digital learners who use technology for work, play and now for learning, making old instructional methods very much a thing of the past. What comes along with this desire to transform learning with technology is a learning curve. Teachers, oftentimes, do not have the patience to learn the ins and outs of complicated tools just so they can spend the next few months teaching young kids how to use them. They want their EdTech to be fun and useful, transporting students to a world they had previously not been able to access. And, this learning revolution is happening all over the world.
The growth of EdTech is paramount in preparing kids for a future job that may involve anything from coding to complex architectural design. On a more immediate front, however, by engaging them in new ways, technology can help younger elementary students who are struggling with the basics, such as reading and writing. When the idea of tech in the classroom first emerged, it was met with far more opposition than optimism from teachers, administrators, district officials and even parents. Now, it’s blossomed into a transformational phenomenon. The EdTech market is expected to more than triple by 2020. Does that tell you something? Maybe something about the importance of establishing tech proficiencies in kids earlier and earlier so that they have a chance of acquiring a 21st century job? We think it does.
Master the art of Flipping the Classroom
Most of the time when you hear about flipping the classroom, it’s high school students that are involved. Why wait until the teenaged years though? It’s becoming easier than ever for teachers of any grade (even as low as first) to flip their classrooms due to the adaptability of the technology they are using. When approached properly, flipping the elementary classroom can improve classroom management, facilitate new kinds of lesson planning and enhance student engagement. Kids will enjoy using the technology now and, someday, will hopefully appreciate the effectiveness of flipping.
For a flipped classroom to be successful, teachers must, first and foremost, disperse their attention in a strategic way. Rather than focusing on the most proficient students, they should spend more time helping any students who may be struggling with the work and let the kids who are more “advanced” work independently. It shouldn’t be too difficult to differentiate these students, but to master the flip, teachers should quickly note which students need more help with the technology, which are ready for the next challenge and those who have learned something incorrectly and need clarification. Instead of having students wait in line for help, teachers can establish some kind of signal system that allows them to come to the students (just like the flashing lights at the checkout in the supermarket). This ensures that teachers get around to everyone and kids aren’t wasting 10 or 20 minutes a day waiting in line for help.
The ultimate goal of flipped classrooms is to create a way to better engage students in the material or discussions. Don’t have them doing too many activities though; you don’t want the pace of the school day to be too frantic because that’s when kids will just try to get through the work rather than taking the time to truly absorb and, more disturbingly, they will stop enjoying it. Kids, especially the younger ones, need adequate time to process what they have learned and need to be challenged—activities for the sake of activities is not doing anybody any good. In the flipped classroom, it’s all about striking the proper balance between learning and tech activities. If the only change is in the delivery of instructions, then there has been no real pedagogical change made.
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