If you know it’s time to spark an EdTech initiative in your school, district, or community, there are many ways to start. Learn how you can begin the learning revolution with some practical and efficient suggestions!
Revolutionize Curriculum to Enable Readiness
So much has been made about the need for kids to learn with technology as early on as elementary school to prepare them for the real world. Many schools and districts, however, continue to rely on their longtime curricula despite evidence that shows innovation in education is highly beneficial for today’s youth. Whether that innovation involves regular EdTech, hands-on experimentation or simply getting up and moving around, most things that aren’t black and white textbooks appeal to kids and help them learn. There’s no reason for educators to fear change. It’s been done effectively and can be aligned to best fit each and every school while offering students choices they want and technology you can trust.
To ease apprehension, remember that plenty of innovative districts have implemented EdTech initiatives and, due to proper planning and execution, the education experience has been amplified. First, teachers should realize that 1:1 is the new normal. Every student in the classroom can better engage when they have their own laptop or tablet to follow along with material or view well-placed, interactive videos that they can actually all see. This access to EdTech devices also simultaneously boosts children’s comfort levels with using technology and narrows the gap among classmates. There are ubiquitous software programs that have been developed and allow for more efficient use by teachers as well as students. It’s this same software that will commonly be used in future jobs as well. In the case of classroom technology, the BYOD movement is something that has benefitted greatly from this. Since this movement sprang up a few years back, BYOD has evolved into something that teachers clearly see has benefits that outweigh its drawbacks.
To spark a curriculum change that is better catered to modern times and will better prepare students for the future, it will undoubtedly require a well-planned proposal, especially if dealing with administrators who are set in their ways. Each student learns differently, so why should every student in every grade across the country be required to go about learning in the same way? It’s a waste of time. By determining only what students need to learn and not setting any requirements for how they learn it, classrooms would become much more open and likely produce better engagement and retention. As for the financial aspect, there are plenty of ways to revamp the curriculum with innovative technologies and still save money. Educator discounts, for one, are a great route to take. Many companies (including this one!) offer educational pricing on many technology items, like laptops, tablets and circuitry for academic users. All it takes is a bit of information and now you know how to innovate and save at the same time! Good luck!
A New Way of Teaching Creativity—With a Popular Tool
Creative education these days tends to become a whole lot more engaging to kids when they are learning using tools they can relate to. Is there any better example of that right now than social media? Wait, social media is a technology for deeper learning? “Too good to be true,” most kids would say, but that is not the case. Certainly you’ve heard about the positive ramifications of using sites like Twitter, Facebook and perhaps even Instagram in the classroom, but now there’s another one too—and it specifically helps promote a love for creativity and the skills needed to be creative. We’re talking about Vine.
While it may not be totally brand new to children, using Vine to learn certainly will be. Vine opens up a new and pretty exciting world for student video projects they can shoot, edit and jazz up in their own unique way. According to some social media experts, Vine has revolutionized the way kids watch, generate and share content. It is also very easy to use even for kids as young as early elementary school. The best part of this technology is that the strict 6-second time limit for clips forces students to maximize their imagination and find a way to creatively include all they want to include while also realizing what is trivial enough to weed out. The tiny length encourages and even demands students to make their narration and visuals as efficient as possible and keep their message concise. This also helps them prepare for the real world when they may only have a few seconds to make a lasting impression or convince somebody to hire them.
The concise time frame not only teaches them how to be more creative and appealing, but also to be clearer in their communication. Their points must be compact, but remain informative and, above all else, still remain creatively engaging. The analogy is somewhat similar to being tossed in the deep end; since this new technology only affords students with so much time with which to work, the content they produce will be affected. Teachers can also use the Vine lessons as a bridge into teaching kids more about digital citizenship—the videos and accounts they should stay away from and what they should never include in their original works, for example. As long as kids are their own filters and use good judgement in the world of social media, using it—particularly Vine—in the classroom absolutely does have its creative benefits.
How Technology WILL Engage Students
Educational technology, whether it’s an innovative Chromebook or any number of unique STEAM tools, is a definite game changer in modern classrooms. While engaging students on new levels, EdTech also encourages in-depth collaboration and goes a long way in bolstering retention for today’s batch of learners. Technology makes it easier for them to carve their own learning paths because the varieties of products available can be used to personalize learning for each individual student. If you want a classroom full of engaged kids, tech will help you get there and here’s how.
Technology can be used for all sorts of engaging and fun classroom activities at all grade levels due to its ever-growing versatility and adaptability. One important thing it can help teach students to do is track their digital footprint. In these digital times, it is increasingly important for kids to know how to be upstanding digital citizens, especially when using social media. Tech can also be a catalyst to drive collaboration in the classroom or out. Chat and discussion boards are an ideal way for students to continue the conversation even after the school day has ended. The goal of modern classrooms should be for the students in it to ditch the pens and paper. Learning by performing hands-on, engaging projects and experiments is by far the best way for students to become the modern learners and STEAM experts they will need to be. They could always start a class blog for them to polish their writing skills in an eLearning environment if teachers would like for them to use a virtual pen.
For teachers who really want to engage their students with technology, they can and should turn to video—and not just a quick YouTube search. Make sure the video is relevant, appropriate and safe (since you’re a good digital citizen) and since we’re on the subject, another good way to amplify retention is to amplify the sound. That’s right, music can be a great way to engage kids and help them remember fundamental concepts. Music often helps young learners tune in or can provide an enjoyable brain break from all that learning! Finally, stopping every few hours for an online assessment is the perfect way to make sure kids are continuing to focus and an even better way to assess their knowledge. See, technology in class should never be an afterthought.
3D Printing and its Real-World Impact
Innovation—in education or in the real world—is the cornerstone that drives success in today's times. Whether practiced by students or those already comprising the current economy, innovation in designing, preparing and executing everyday tasks is becoming a ubiquitous skill among global citizens. In our case, we believe that teachers should teach with innovative methods and encourage kids to collaboratively explore new-age solutions to pressing problems through the creative use of technology. One of those technologies is on its way to being a major player in the innovation revolution. We're talking about 3D printers.
3D printing has already had a major impact on STEAM education and afterschool Maker labs. Their step-by-step design process encourages hands-on focus and tends to light that spark of creativity in the minds of children. Beyond education, however, is where the use of 3D printing becomes exponentially more powerful. In school, kids learn how to load, program and print using these high-tech yet compact machines. They make creations that are unique to their personality and likes, but do they use it? In the "real world," 3D printers are becoming more and more common among many different kinds of professions. Why? Because groups like doctors, therapists, athletes and scientists can design and print their own personal tools and parts—devices that they are able to customize to know they will be able to get from it exactly what they need.
Some recently concocted new uses for 3D printing have caught even the most brilliant of minds slightly off guard. The latest ideas include touchable ultrasounds for blind mothers and yearbooks that blind students can feel. It's not just manual labor fields that are being revolutionized, either; 3D printed goods are helping workers in many fields, including the art, healthcare, fashion and food industries. Yes, food. People can print their own food—and it even tastes good. Especially appealing to people with dietary restrictions, 3D printed food can be synthetically created to contain the right amounts of vitamins and other nutrients. Designers are also regularly crafting and printing customized prosthetic limbs for adults and especially children. For kids to be able to receive a new and functional hand or other body part because of 3D printing is almost miraculous given how far this technology has come in such a short time. As quickly as it burst onto the scene, 3D printing for actual, everyday use is booming just the same.
Maker Movement Continues to Boom
Whether in school or for fun, what has come to be known simply as “making” is becoming a hard-to-escape phenomenon. Formal and informal makerspaces, where kids design and build their own toys, tools or sculptures, are becoming a staple in many modern schools as well as the center of afterschool clubs and activities. Their popularity continues to grow and we see absolutely nothing wrong with that. Makerspaces are places that promote hands-on learning, tinkering and creative growth by eliminating the limitations on kids and providing that safe environment where they can build anything they can think of using cool technology.
Since it’s becoming more and more clear that engagement in hands-on STEAM learning definitely prepares kids more for the future, MakerEd has continued to rise—especially in the last handful of years. It brings with it benefits on societal, economic and technological levels that you probably would not have ever considered. Economically, adults and, to some extent, even kids are more empowered than ever by a growing number of career paths that reward technical skills. In society in general, making promotes a sense of community, curiosity, and collaboration and encourages teamwork to accomplish communal goals. Technologically, everyone is gaining new and improved access to maker tools as DIY kits are able to provide almost anyone with an easy way to get going.
Research shows that the amount of people engaged in some sort of maker activities is growing rapidly right before our eyes and eSchool News recently published some numbers on the matter. According to them, the number of Fab Labs and hackerspaces that are open for business has risen to well over 1,100. New inventions have been pouring in—over 3,000 in fact—including 1,400 in just 2013 and 2014 alone. In 2006, there was one Maker Faire with 22,000 attendees. By 2014, there were 135 Maker Faires with over 800,000 attendees. And this past year, there were over 1,000,000 attendees. Described as “part science fair, part county fair and part something entirely new,” Maker Faires display the emerging popularity and societal necessity for creative invention. President Obama even went as far as declaring June 18, 2014 the National Day of Making. Learning by doing: getting today’s kids ready for a tech-filled future.
We hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving and encourage you to follow us for awesome Cyber Monday deals on EdTech products!