Teaching tips: Using technology in the classroom. Part 2

Making sure that the learning process is as relevant to your students interests as possible ensures a more successful teaching and learning experience. And what can be more relevant than young people's heavy dependance on technology? Web 2.0 applications, mp3 players, gaming consoles and cell-phones all form part of today's generation, so it is a very good idea to use these tools in your classroom as a means to deliver some of your lessons.


Here are some ideas that can help you get going:

• Youtube: The video sharing website has a wealth of educational videos if you know how to properly use the search feature. You can quickly find a relevant video and show it to the class as part of your lesson.
• Twitter: Among other things, you can use Twitter to keep in touch with your students while they are away from the classroom or to encourage group-work. Check the previous blog post for a more detailed description.
  
• Mp3 players: there are many ways for using an mp3 player in the classroom. They're great for listening comprehensions and are extremely helpful for teaching foreign languages.
• Blogs: encourage each student to start a blog and use these periodically to compliment particular subjects. You can tell them to write an article and publish it in their blog and then encourage them to comment and rate each other's work.
• Gaming consoles and video games: there are many educational games available on the market. Many of them available on popular hand-held consoles such as the Nintendo DS. Make sure that you read online reviews about the video game and that you plan on how these will be used in the classroom before committing yourself to buying them.

Any other ideas? please share them by leaving a comment. Thanks! :)

Education - The importance of Technology in the Classroom

I am currently working on a thesis regarding the use of technology in the classroom. Below is an excerpt from my dissertation:

The use of computers and the Internet is fast becoming an important tool in the education sector. It is becoming very common for technology to be used for assessing, training and educating students. According to a number of studies conducted by Barbara Means et al. (1997), the use of technology in the classroom has a number of advantages including, better collaboration between students, enhancing student motivation and adding to the students’ perception that their work is credible when properly referenced from the internet. Most educators are overcoming the barrier posed by these ever-more sophisticated technological tools and they now understand that technology is a particularly important tool for assessing their students. The fact that modern students are very dependent on technology proves how important it is that their teachers employ more modern methods in their classroom so as to meet the interests and capabilities of their students.

The use of technology in the classroom can certainly make teaching easier and more efficient by saving us precious time. I am currently in the process of creating an online application (which is part of my thesis) to be used by teachers and their students. I had been searching online for the ultimate teaching tool for years and I failed to find it. The applications that I found were too complicated, limited in functionality, or required a monthly subscription payment...so I decided to create it myself. This will be a website created by a teacher for teachers and it will be 100% free. As you might have noticed, the website will be called Mentor Buddy (www.mentorbuddy.com). I'm putting the last finishing touches to the whole thing and hopefully it should be launched sometime in late October. In the meantime the internet has a wealth of resources for teachers: from lesson plans to tests ready for printing. The internet can make our job so much easier, the trick is to know how to search for the proper information.