In a recent edtech survey pioneered by Promethean, 71% of educators suggested that they are constantly striving to innovate with technology – but what does that mean? Where do the strengths of technology in the classroom truly lie?
Hosted by Promethean, a recent roundtable ‘The State of Technology in Education – The Big Debate’, brought education professionals from across Australia together to discuss key topics on the edtech agenda, and the importance of technology in supporting real human connection was a strong theme.
In this blog, we’ll be exploring how you can use the ActivPanel to reinforce the human element of teaching and learning.
Keep everyone involved, no matter the learning environment
Although the majority of students have started the new school year in the classroom, it’s important to be prepared for unexpected changes to the learning environment. Using the ActivPanel, you’ll be able to keep all of your students equally involved in lessons, even if a few are learning from home at any given time.
It’s easy for remote learners to feel isolated, especially when most of their peers are still in the classroom. Fortunately, by connecting your ActivPanel to common videoconferencing solutions like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, you can bring those students into the lesson live so that they can keep asking questions and taking part in discussions.
By making the most of the ActivPanel’s compatibility with live video sharing tools, you can keep morale up and make sure every student has equality of lesson access.
Get creative with collaboration
Even now you’re back in the classroom, social distancing might mean that you can’t currently run the same sort of activities that you have in the past – but that doesn’t mean that collaborative learning is off the table!
Using ActivInspire, which is supplied as standard with your ActivPanel, you can set up engaging activities like polls, quizzes and memory games that students can take part in using their own devices. This is a great way to run group activities safely, and encourage your students to keep working together and developing social and interpersonal skills.
Give your students a platform to express their ideas and experiences
We are social creatures, and we love sharing. So, why not use the ActivPanel to give your students a platform to share their ideas and experiences?
Whether it’s a topic they’ve been researching independently or even just something exciting that they did at the weekend, using the Screen Share app enables your students to mirror their devices to the ActivPanel and give a short presentation.
This kind of activity will help keep your students connected when they might not be able to see friends outside of school as often or as easily – and help them to develop extra-curricular skills like presenting and public speaking in a fun, pressure-free environment.
We believe that technology is at its best when it’s helping to reinforce real human connection, and these ideas are a great place to start. If you’d like some more inspiration, why not check out our top tips for supporting social learning in the classroom.