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12 Educational Technology Concepts Every Teacher Should Know

12 Educational Technology Concepts Every Teacher Should Know
12 Educational Technology Concepts Every Teacher Should Know: Incorporating technology into the elementary and middle school classroom


Guest post by: Lori Wade

The technologies are an integral part of modern life. They have appeared in all the spheres, including the most unexpected ones like education. Even little kids know that today there is no need to go to the library to find information. The technologies help to save time and make the studying process more engaging.

If you belong to a school that ignores technological growth, I would recommend you to start learning and using the technologies by yourself. It is crucially important as little kids do not know the world without technologies and it is difficult for them to understand why they should do something by themselves when they have the technologies that can easily help them with these problems. Thus, the kids will definitely appreciate that, and you won’t be able to resist the temptation to encourage other teachers to follow your path.

Here are 12 concepts that have been implemented by a number of teachers around the globe.

1. BYOD

The first concept that I would like to mention on this list is BYOD which stands for Bring Your Own Device. It is perfect for the schools that have limited access to devices. According to this concept, every student should bring a device that he may use for interacting with the digital world and completing interactive tasks.

2. Computer as an assistant

Many schools have computer labs and/or carts which can be used by teachers and students. Book the lab or cart for a lesson and show your students how they can use the computers to make their studying more effective. Students can quickly turn into independent learners and explore topics of interest if they have a solid understanding of digital safety and effective ways to conduct internet research. You can also try to work on interactive assignments that require using various technologies.

3. Virtual lessons beyond school hours

You can create a virtual learning space and conduct extra help sessions after school hours where your students will watch you on a screen while they are home. Skype, Google Hangout and Appear.in are some of those technologies that can help assist with the virtual learning process. Encourage kids to ask you questions as well as create group chats where everyone can communicate and learn from one another.

4. Collaboration approach within your class

Using the technologies, you can teach your students how to help their peers study, learn, and assist them in their homework assignments. This can easily be accomplished with digital collaboration tools, especially Google Drive. For example, ask the kids to become a proofreader and editor for other students. Thus, they will boost their writing skills and will get rid of the necessity of using a proofreading service in the future as they will be able to do this job on their own.

5. Collaboration beyond the four walls of the classroom

Kids are used to discussing different topics in class, but do they know that they can easily discuss those things with children at other schools and even those who live in other countries? This is a perfect experience for everyone who wants to widen their experience, knowledge, and in some cases even language understanding and speaking skills. There are many communication and collaboration digital tools that allow for this kind of interaction.

6. Blended learning

Not all kids and teachers are ready to completely transfer to online studying. Start with blended learning – try out a couple of digital activities per week, increasing the number with time.

7. Online grading systems

Your students and their parents would be grateful if you create or use an online grading system that will help everyone track the achievements of the child and check the attendance. For most parents, this will be the most convenient way to communicate with you without the necessity to call you every time they want to know what's happening at school with their child's grades.

8. Cloud for sharing

The shift to a more paperless classroom allows you and your students to share information using cloud storage. Thus, there is no need to print the documents to take them home, as they are always available online.

9. Course management systems (CMS)

This is important for all the teachers who want to take a step forward into creating online courses for students. CMS have all the tools that help to systemize and organize content presenting it in the most efficient way.

10. Learning management systems (LMS)

One of the best solutions to implement technologies into the classroom is to start using a learning management system. Of course, it would be better if a school buys a subscription for a campus, but if this option is unavailable, you can always find some free options. You can integrate different apps into an LMS that will be helpful to create the best strategy for teaching and organizing your work.

You can read about the differences between a CMS and an LMS here.

11. Gamification

Everyone loves when the process of studying is more than just read-write-retell. There is a huge number of applications and programs that help make studying more fun and interesting with gamification. It works perfectly for all the subjects, but most of the teachers and kids appreciate gamification in learning languages and sciences. Gamification helps to explain the most complicated things in the least complicated words so that most of the students understand everything without additional explanations.

12. Incorporating Multimedia

Integrating multimedia into your lessons is an important teaching strategy in today's classroom. Multimedia allows you to capture your audience, help explain difficult concepts and reach a wide variety of different types of learners. Read more about the benefits here.
Have you already used some of the technological methods in your educational process? I hope that my recommendations will be of assistance to you.

About the author:
Lori Wade is a freelance content writer for Thriving Writer who is interested in a wide range of spheres from education and online marketing to entrepreneurship. She is also an aspiring tutor striving to bring education to another level like we all do. If you are interested in writing, you can find her on Twitter or Google+ or find her on other social media. Read and take over Lori’s useful insights!