How to Use Education Technology — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00In this video series, I'm going to be answering the question of how
2. 0:02teachers can be using technology in their classrooms.
3. 0:05I believe really strongly that it’s no longer enough
4. 0:08to just be teaching technology in a single computer science class.
5. 0:11Long gone are the days of my childhood where I would go into a computer lab
6. 0:14for a single hour to practice some typing,
7. 0:16look for Carmen Sandiego somewhere around the world,
8. 0:19hunt for different animals while I was exploring the Oregon Trail.
9. 0:23Today’s world demands an entirely different approach to technology
10. 0:26integration. My name is Sam Kary and this is my YouTube channel
11. 0:29for The New EdTech Classroom.
12. 0:38In this video I’ll be taking a look at 14 different strategies
13. 0:41for how to take a holistic approach to technology integration.
14. 0:44To be clear, it’s not that I believe that technology
15. 0:47can fix all of the issues that we have in our education
16. 0:50system today, but I do believe it can help us with engagement,
17. 0:53connecting with families, helping students find their voice,
18. 0:56preparing students better for the future, helping to
19. 0:59inspire students to discover new talents and interests
20. 1:02and potentially careers that they would want.
21. 1:05And if you're interested in learning a little bit more about all the different reasons
22. 1:08why I think that technology
23. 1:10is important in education, make sure to check out my other
24. 1:13video series that covers that topic.
25. 1:15If you find my video helpful, I’d appreciate it
26. 1:17if you would hit the like button, subscribe to my channel and hit the notification
27. 1:19bell if you don’t want to miss any of my weekly videos, and if you have
28. 1:22any questions or comments about the strategies that I suggest
29. 1:26in this video, I’d love to hear about them in the comments.
30. 1:28The first strategy for how to take a holistic approach to education technology
31. 1:32is to use digital classrooms. Digital classroom platforms
32. 1:36like Google Classroom and Schoology help teachers
33. 1:38organize materials, resources
34. 1:41and assignments. They serve as a central hub
35. 1:44where students can go to access all the other
36. 1:47EdTech software that you are using in class.
37. 1:50But more importantly, digital classrooms help make material in the class more accessible.
38. 1:55Gone forever are the days that a student says that they can’t do work because they lost an assignment.
39. 2:01If you post it to Google Classroom it’s there for everybody to see.
40. 2:05You can post more than just assignments, you can also post your Google Slides lesson plans,
41. 2:10so students can go back and re-look at the lessons that
42. 2:13you taught. You can also have students discuss topics
43. 2:16in your digital classroom. And with the digital classroom,
44. 2:19parents also have access to everything that you are doing in class.
45. 2:22The second way is to use technology to create student
46. 2:25centered, differentiated
47. 2:27learning experiences. Meeting the learning needs of all students
48. 2:30in a single classroom is one of the greatest challenges
49. 2:33an educator today faces.
50. 2:36Technology helps teachers personalize instruction and
51. 2:39deliver materials right at their instructional level.
52. 2:42Personalized math instruction programs like ST Math
53. 2:45and MobyMax
54. 2:47help remediate math skills for students if they need
55. 2:49those skills to access the curriculum. Reading programs
56. 2:52like Newsela allow all students to access the same
57. 2:55content at their just right reading level.
58. 2:58And personalized instruction platforms like
59. 3:00Khan Academy and Freckel offer a
60. 3:03range of differentiation and personalized learning across
61. 3:06subjects and grade levels. In addition to
62. 3:09providing materials at different skill levels,
63. 3:11technology also helps teachers teach to different modalities
64. 3:15whether visual, auditory or experiential.
65. 3:18The third strategy for how to use education technology
66. 3:21is to use it to increase engagement. Engaging students
67. 3:24is really hard and unfortunately in today’s
68. 3:27public schools we are facing a crisis of engagement. All the
69. 3:31data shows that if students are not engaged, they aren’t
70. 3:33learning. Although using technology doesn’t guarantee that
71. 3:36students are going to be more engaged, it does still take a highly
72. 3:39skilled teacher to do that, still rather than
73. 3:42lecturing, introducing new material with a
74. 3:44Flocabulary rap video, an
75. 3:47interactive Google Slides that you are making with Pear Deck, and then
76. 3:50having students prepare for a test by playing a Kahoot game or a
77. 3:53Jeopardy board that you make on Google Slides is almost
78. 3:56inherently going to be more engaging for students.
79. 3:59The fourth strategy is to use technology to ditch
80. 4:02textbooks and flip classrooms. The idea
81. 4:05of ditching textbooks comes from Matt Miller’s book, Ditch That Textbook.
82. 4:09One of the key ideas that he talks about is the fact that in
83. 4:12our digitized world, educators are no longer
84. 4:15the holders of information. Instead of being the gatekeepers
85. 4:18of information, we should be guiding students through the digital
86. 4:21world to help them develop strategies to find what is most
87. 4:24interesting, relevant and useful. Teachers who
88. 4:28embrace their role as guide through the digital world can start
89. 4:31flipping their classes, where their job is actually
90. 4:34to curate sources, create video
91. 4:36tutorials that students are then learning about
92. 4:39on their own outside of class, the way
93. 4:42that they would in the real world, so that when they come into class
94. 4:45they can be engaged in more rigorous, collaborative project-based
95. 4:48learning activities instead of just sitting
96. 4:51and listening to a lecture and taking notes.
97. 4:53The fifth strategy for how to use education technology is to give
98. 4:57students the opportunity to share their knowledge in differentiated
99. 5:00ways. Rather than limiting students to showing what they
100. 5:03know through traditional means like tests, essays,
101. 5:06and presentations, with technology and creativity
102. 5:09apps, students can now show their knowledge through a
103. 5:12ton of different, interesting ways that make sense to them.
104. 5:16They can create podcasts,
105. 5:19digital comics,
106. 5:20digital books,
107. 5:22videos,
108. 5:24graphics.
109. 5:26There are all kinds of different possibilities. Once students learn how to use these different programs, a teacher can offer them choice
110. 5:33for how they would show their learning on a future assignment.
111. 5:36We know that offering students choice is a clear way
112. 5:39to have students more connected to the learning that they are doing in class.
113. 5:43Technology provides a clear path for how we can achieve that.
114. 5:47The sixth strategy is to use technology to teach students 21st century skills.
115. 5:51Imagine attending college today without skills on how to
116. 5:54navigate the web, touch type, compose an
117. 5:57email, collaborate on a Google Doc,
118. 6:00or create a Google Slides or PowerPoint presentation.
119. 6:03And students with more advanced computing skills in coding,
120. 6:06web design, app creation, robotics
121. 6:09will almost certainly have a leg up in the future
122. 6:13job market. Although lots of students from more affluent backgrounds
123. 6:15will probably learn these skills outside of school,
124. 6:18for many of our students, school will be the only
125. 6:21opportunity they have to teach these skills.
126. 6:24It’s our responsibility to do so.
127. 6:26The seventh strategy for using education technology is to bring abstract experiences
128. 6:30to life through augmented reality and
129. 6:33and virtual reality. The fact is that
130. 6:35many times, despite a teacher’s efforts, students lack the
131. 6:38schema to understand new concepts. I am personally
132. 6:41an experiential learner. I totally
133. 6:44empathize with the fact that sometimes it’s hard to learn something
134. 6:47unless you experience it for yourself. Augmented reality
135. 6:50and virtual reality has the potential to fill that gap.
136. 6:53Immersive virtual reality experiences
137. 6:56offered in Google Expeditions can literally drop
138. 6:59students inside of a geographic location or inside
139. 7:02of a cell in a human body. Preliminary studies
140. 7:05have also shown that virtual reality can have an impact on
141. 7:08increasing a person’s empathy for another person’s experience
142. 7:11because you have literally just walked in that person’s shoes.
143. 7:14Similarly, augmented reality platforms
144. 7:17like Merge allow students to literally hold a
145. 7:20dynamic globe or human organ in the
146. 7:23palm of their hand. And programs like CoSpaces
147. 7:26and Adobe Arrow allow students to actually create
148. 7:29virtual reality and augmented reality
149. 7:32themselves. Virtual reality and augmented reality
150. 7:35is definitely an emerging technology, but it has a lot of
151. 7:38exciting potential for what it can do to change education.
152. 7:42The eighth strategy is to use technology to expand classroom walls.
153. 7:46In an ideal world all students across the nation would be able to take field trips
154. 7:49anywhere they wanted, connect with educators all around the world,
155. 7:53and build relationships with other international students.
156. 7:56Technology affords students some of these opportunities. Students
157. 7:59can use tools like Skype and Google Hangouts to go on
158. 8:02virtual field trips, to meet classes around the world,
159. 8:05or to have a scientist from National Geographic
160. 8:08do a lecture from the field. Even with unlimited
161. 8:11budgets, students wouldn’t be able to experience all the different things
162. 8:14that they could through technology. Technology can help
163. 8:17redefine the classroom from a brick and mortar structure and help
164. 8:20connect students with others all around the world.
165. 8:23The ninth strategy is to use technology to teach our
166. 8:26students digital citizenship skills. We are currently
167. 8:29living in a world that has been dramatically
168. 8:32impacted from rapid technological change. We need
169. 8:36to be equipping students with the right skills that they will need in order
170. 8:39to navigate the digital world and to make respectful and responsible
171. 8:42choices in digital spaces. PBS Learning Media
172. 8:45and Common Sense offer educators free resources
173. 8:48for how to teach students about important
174. 8:50life skills, such as digital footprints,
175. 8:53cyberbullying, determining whether or not information on the
176. 8:57Internet is reliable, as well as the implications of oversharing.
177. 9:01The tenth strategy is to use technology to
178. 9:03promote social sharing. Whether or not you agree
179. 9:05or disagree with the concept of being a digital native, the
180. 9:09reality is that students today are used to sharing with other people and
181. 9:12really like doing it. Rather than fight
182. 9:14against it, educators today should embrace the fact that students
183. 9:17want to share what they have created with their friends. Educators can
184. 9:21leverage this impulse to try to motivate students to do
185. 9:23their absolute best. When students know that they are going to be sharing
186. 9:27what they have created with others and not just the teacher,
187. 9:29they tend to be more motivated to do their best work. Sharing work
188. 9:32with peers as well as others outside the classroom
189. 9:35also imbues their work with more meaning. Students understand
190. 9:38that they are making something that other people are actually
191. 9:41going to read or watch or participate in in some way.
192. 9:44They are not just doing school in the way that I did school, where I
193. 9:47wrote a paper and gave it to my teacher and beyond that
194. 9:50my work wasn’t really shared or read
195. 9:52by anybody else. It’s kind of sad
196. 9:53that all my hard work sort of went to waste. Many technology apps
197. 9:56are set up to help promote social sharing. Padlet is a
198. 9:59free bulletin board where students can post
199. 10:02different pieces of work that they have created
200. 10:04and then comment on them. I use Padlet all the time in my
201. 10:07class for students to share what they have created with each other and they
202. 10:10absolutely love it. Apps like BookCreator facilitate social
203. 10:13sharing of digital books by creating a digital library
204. 10:16that can be shared with other students in the class, the school,
205. 10:20or even the world outside of them.
206. 10:22And then programs like Flipgrid
207. 10:23allows students to record short videos to explain
208. 10:26their thinking or showcase their knowledge and then share
209. 10:29those videos within your classroom, where students can then create video responses to each other.
210. 10:33The eleventh strategy is that technology helps students develop
211. 10:36collaboration skills. Students have to learn collaboration skills in order to be
212. 10:40successful in higher education and in their careers. Learning to work in diverse teams
213. 10:44to solve complex problems is one of the most important skills
214. 10:48that a teacher can teach. Unfortunately teaching
215. 10:51collaboration isn’t that easy. It’s not like you can just create an activity,
216. 10:54throw a group of students together and say hey,
217. 10:57do that. Technology helps teachers develop collaboration
218. 11:00in two important ways. The first is that it provides
219. 11:02the tools necessary for collaboration. Students can
220. 11:06edit the same document together from different locations
221. 11:08or hop on video or text chats to talk
222. 11:12about the work that they’re doing. And secondly, technology
223. 11:14helps teachers create tasks that are complex
224. 11:17enough to merit collaboration. One of the biggest problems
225. 11:20with collaborative activities in schools is that a lot of
226. 11:23the tasks that students are asked to do are simply not all
227. 11:27that complex and don’t actually merit having four people
228. 11:30working on that activity. One of the complex collaborative tasks
229. 11:33I like doing with my students is having them
230. 11:36create a green screen video. In order to do that,
231. 11:38they have to plan together, record a video together,
232. 11:41and edit that video together. It’s the kind of task that would be very difficult to do
233. 11:45if there were only one or two students working on the project.
234. 11:48The twelfth strategy is to use technology to help students develop
235. 11:52metacognition. I know when I got
236. 11:53into education it was my mission to imbue
237. 11:56a love of learning and self-awareness
238. 11:59in my students. Getting students to take ownership over
239. 12:02their own learning is perhaps the most powerful lesson
240. 12:05a teacher can teach. I’m a huge believer that students should
241. 12:08be setting smart goals and tracking their academic progress
242. 12:11throughout the year to build a sense of autonomy and
243. 12:14self-efficacy. Tools like Google Sheets,
244. 12:17Google Docs, and Seesaw allow students to track their
245. 12:20academic progress over the course of the year. They can also be shared with
246. 12:23family so that they’re more kept in the loop.
247. 12:25That brings me to my thirteenth strategy,
248. 12:28which is to use technology to enhance family engagement.
249. 12:31Research shows that when families are more connected to schools,
250. 12:34students perform better. Technology facilitates greater
251. 12:37family involvement in many ways. Once you set up
252. 12:40your digital classroom, families can now see all of the different
253. 12:43things that students are doing in school. Parents can easily
254. 12:46sign up to get notifications from digital
255. 12:49portfolio programs like Seesaw, so every time
256. 12:52students upload a piece of work into their portfolio,
257. 12:55the parent gets to see it and comment on it as well.
258. 12:57Opening up this window into what is
259. 13:00happening in school also helps students
260. 13:03understand that the work that they are creating matters.
261. 13:06My last strategy for how to take a holistic approach to
262. 13:09technology integration in schools is to use
263. 13:12technology to improve teacher practice. I’ve worked with
264. 13:15numerous educators and every single one I know
265. 13:18wants to improve their practice to improve outcomes
266. 13:20for students. Unfortunately, teacher professional
267. 13:23development violates nearly every standard we set
268. 13:26for good teaching practice. It isn’t personalized,
269. 13:30differentiated, experiential, or presented
270. 13:33keeping different learning modalities in mind. Numerous technology tools
271. 13:36exist to address this need. Teacher created YouTube channels
272. 13:39like this one can help teachers develop new strategies for technology
273. 13:42integration that they want to bring into their classrooms. Similarly,
274. 13:45teacher blogs and Twitter provide lots of
275. 13:48different ideas that teachers can use in their classroom. There is some interesting stuff
276. 13:52going on in artificial intelligence as well. Teachers can use an
277. 13:56A.I. program called TeachFX and it will analyze the percentage of
278. 13:59student talk versus teacher talk in your
279. 14:02classroom, so you can adjust your practice
280. 14:05to improve student engagement. Private video sharing platforms
281. 14:08like Edthena support teacher development by allowing
282. 14:10teachers to virtually visit and analyze other
283. 14:14classrooms in order to learn from other educators.
284. 14:17Used in tandem with thoughtfully planned and skilled instruction,
285. 14:20education technology has the power to improve academic
286. 14:23outcomes and to transform the educational
287. 14:26experience for students, families, and teachers.
288. 14:29I’m sure I missed some ways that technology can be used in
289. 14:32education and I’d love to hear
290. 14:33your thoughts in the comments below.