Using technology in the classroom has become more and more popular over the last few decades, creating further potential for students to develop and grow.
As technology continues to advance, it’s important for teachers to incorporate new tools into the learning environment. Modern technology can help to educate students on best practices and teach them how to use technology safely.
In this guide, we’ll investigate how to engage students with technology, providing some useful tips and tricks
How can technology increase student engagement in the classroom?
Technology is a great way to create variety in the classroom when it comes to teaching methods and learning processes.
Instead of having one voice teaching students with notes projected on a screen, you can introduce a variety of voices through the use of videos and podcasts. You can use interactive displays to do fun games and tasks to engage students with their learning materials.
Technology integration gives students the opportunity to make fun multimedia presentations to show the rest of the class and engage with the educational content more creatively.
Some students may enjoy school more as technology provides visual representations of the learning materials, which will help those who learn visually.
Not only will the utilisation of tech in schools help improve learning, but it also allows teachers to help their learners engage with technology in a healthy way and use it to their benefit. For example, the use of productivity apps can help students learn to focus better and improve time management skills.
Ways to engage students with technology
There are an increasing number of ways to enhance student engagement. While it can be expensive to integrate technology into schools, computer-based technology has become more affordable, and it can be combined with a wide variety of free or low-cost online resources. These include:
- Educational videos on YouTube
- Lesson plans
- Virtual quizzes like science quizzes for students
We’ve put together some of the top-rated methods teachers are using to increase student engagement with educational technology in primary schools and secondary schools.
1 – Augmented reality (AR)
AR is a fantastic way of engaging students with technology. This form of tech can really help learners to immerse themselves in the subject matter. For example, if you’re educating your learners about ancient history, you could let them explore a digitally reconstructed version of a Roman city.
There are a wide variety of AR apps available, teaching anything from human anatomy to interactive whiteboard apps for English lessons. You could even take virtual field trips, making it easy to introduce your students to more visual learning tools.
2 – Make learning fun with games
A great way to encourage students to engage with the learning process is to make it fun. This can easily be done by turning various tasks into games and will have a notable, positive impact on cognitive engagement.
There are a variety of educational gaming apps and websites available to use on interactive displays, such as:
- History quizzes for interactive whiteboards
- Computing games for interactive whiteboards
- Geography games for interactive whiteboards
With quizzes, your students can compete against each other, seeing who can complete the quiz the fastest and who gets the best results.
Then there are a wide variety of language-related games available, like modern foreign language games. These help students increase their vocabulary and improve their grammar skills in a fun and competitive way – much better than using repetitive worksheets all the time.
3 – Podcasts & videos
The use of podcasts and online video resources are particularly useful for teachers using the flipped classroom model. However, they can be used in any educational setting to improve student engagement by adding a different voice to teaching materials.
Videos and podcasts are another helpful addition to student learning as they give the opportunity to relisten to a lesson. This is great for students who struggle with the topic or have shorter attention spans. Having access to lessons afterwards can drastically improve a student’s learning ability and engagement.
If you’re implementing the flipped classroom model, creating your own podcasts can be a wonderful way to build up reusable course content for your classroom while also providing your class with a variety of learning materials. This will help students to retain focus and have better engagement with the academic content.
4 – Digital assignments
A fantastic method to enhance student engagement is to require them to utilise digital tech for their homework assignments. Instead of only writing essays, you can ask them to create podcasts, write blog posts, produce various forms of video content, or even post to social networking sites.
Not only will this promote positive engagement, but it will teach students how to use technology safely and provide the basic skills needed for content creation.
Integrating technology-based assignments assists students with professional development in the digital field, giving them a deeper understanding of modern technology’s pros and cons.
Learning to write a high-quality blog post, create interesting video content, and manage social media channels will increase the number of job opportunities available to students.
5 – Student response systems
If you want to monitor student engagement on the spot, clickers or student response systems are a great way to receive instant communication from your class.
It will allow you to see if your current teaching methods are engaging students in the way you hoped they would. Moreover, using student response systems will help you to know if you need to consider implementing different methods to help your class reach their learning goals.
Promethean’s ClassFlow software offers a unique polling feature where you can poll students in real time to assess their progress, ask questions, and more.
Monitoring student engagement is a great way to keep tabs on how your students learn and what teaching methods improve student motivation.
6 – Social media engagement
Social media has become ingrained in society and won’t be leaving any time soon. Rather than ignore it, teachers should actively engage with it so they can educate their students on best practices for social media engagement.
Introducing this form of technology into the school environment may help teachers to provide students with the necessary skills needed for using social media on a professional level.
7 – Online forms
Using online forms in the classroom is a great way to give students a way to provide feedback and is a handy tool for teachers when giving students quick online quizzes.
Online forms can be used to track student understanding and productivity. For example, you can ask students to fill out an online form when they complete tasks, allowing you to track which students are completing tasks with ease and which students may need additional support.
8 – Virtual classrooms
Online classrooms, such as Google Classroom, are a great tool for teachers. Not only will teachers be able to provide personalised feedback on work, but they can plan lessons with ease, monitor student progress and create a unique learning environment for classes.
Virtual classrooms are very useful for times when students cannot attend school in person, such as during an extreme weather event.
When using the flipped classroom method, a virtual homeroom is very beneficial as it helps students to keep track of their progress and makes it easy for teachers to share new material. It also means that all the necessary content is stored in one place, making it easy to access previous lessons.
FAQs
Does technology make students engaged?
When integrated into the classroom and used with a variety of online educational resources, technology can definitely boost student engagement.
Educational technology helps visual learners engage with the subject matter more easily and provides the space to create content that can be rewatched by students who struggle with concentration.
How can I engage and empower students through technology?
An easy way to engage and empower students through technology is to install an interactive display like the ActivPanel interactive display in your classroom. This allows you to show the students a variety of media with ease and will help create lessons where your class can interact with the content.
Encouraging your students to use various aspects of technology for their assignments is another way of encouraging student engagement through technology. Allowing students to be creative and use technology for their school work can increase student motivation and improve morale.
When teaching a foreign language, technology can be greatly beneficial. Students could record themselves speaking, or you can record students reading aloud. They can then listen to the recording and identify where they need to improve their pronunciation.
How does technology enhance engagement?
Technology in the classroom makes it easier for shy students to provide feedback and for teachers to monitor student progress through the use of student response systems.
Engage students with an interactive display
Educational technology, such as interactive whiteboards, make it easy for students to present their work to the class and for teachers to develop lessons that encourage student engagement.
At Promethean, our interactive displays and lesson delivery software are perfect for engaging students of all ages.
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