Technology is a part of our students’ everyday lives; sometimes too much of their lives. However, there are many benefits for both students and teachers to using technology in the classroom. When applied effectively, technology implementation not only increases student learning, understanding, and achievement but also augments motivation to learn, encourages collaborative learning, and supports the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills (Schacer & Fagnano, 1999). Technology allows teachers to differentiate instruction more efficiently by providing a wider variety of avenues for learning that reach students of divergent readiness levels, interests, and learning styles (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, & Malenoski, 2007). The magic is to find the balance between tech and non-tech activities in your classroom.
So how can we find a balance?
According to research, students may need to be engaged with a new concept 28 times over a three-week period to get the information stored permanently (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollack, 2001). Use a combination of tech and non-tech activities to help students be engaged with the material in several different fashions. For example, have the students use technology to research a topic and then have them discuss what they found with two or three other students in the class. Another example would be having the students complete a venn diagram comparing to topics, discuss or compare their diagrams with a partner, and then create a podcast explaining the two concepts and how they are similar and different. Have students take notes by hand of a reading and then use these notes to create a comic strip about the topic. Students need variety to keep them interested.
Offering a variety of tech and non-tech activities in your lessons will help to keep students engaged. It will also allow them to be creative or possibly have some choice in how they demonstrate their learning, but also helps students to work on social skills by talking face-to-face about the concept with other students.
Technology should also be used in the classroom to do things that would otherwise seem impossible. For example, use technology to reach out to experts on the topics you are discussing through Google Hangouts or have students post their writing online to get authentic feedback from a worldwide audience. Does this have to be done every day? No. Does it allow students to see how technology can be used to further their learning about a topic? Yes. It shows students how to network and build relationships what in the past would have been more difficult to build.
As teachers, we need to help our students succeed in the 21st century. They need to be creative, be able to synthesize and be able to build relationships. Technology can help build these skills in our students, but so can non-tech activities. The magic is to find the balance between tech and non-tech activities in your classroom.
References:
- Schacter, J., & Fagnano, C. (1999) Does computer technology improve students learning and achievement? How, when, and under what conditions? Journal of Educational Computing Research, 20(4), 329-343
- Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007) Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. Denver, Colorado: Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning
- Marzano, R., Pickering, D., & Pollack, E. (2001) Classroom Instruction that Works. Denver, Colorado: Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning
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