I’ll admit, I have mixed emotions about using technology in the classroom. We know our students are glued to screens at times, and already have ample experiences with tech tools. It makes me want to go low tech as a teacher! Well, insert my friend Emily. She is a classroom tech guru and has some very compelling reasons why adding technology in the classroom is a no brainer. Learn more about how to connect with Emily at the bottom of the post!
The background
In my 5th grade class, I have a student who struggles with spelling. He can barely read, but then once he does read a paragraph or question, he can’t really spell in order to answer the questions. He is a wicked smart kid who is funny, caring, and kind. But the other day, I was trying to help some many kids that spelling everything for him was no longer working. So, you know what I did? I taught him how to do things for himself. We have Google Read/Write on every student account at our school. I showed him how to use it to read the material to him so he didn’t need someone else to read to him. Then I showed him the Google Speech to Text for Google Docs and Google Slides. Now, he was able to be independent while doing his work. The smile on his face is why teachers wake up each morning. I watched while I helped other students and he was giddy that he was doing it all by himself. I don’t think he had ever worked on an assignment all by himself before.
The benefits
Now you may be asking why I am telling you all of this, but it is exactly this kind of story that shows the benefits of technology in the classroom. There are lots of benefits that we don’t see right away or that are less tangible and obvious, so this is the best representation we’ve got. When it comes to using technology in the classroom, it’s not all about Kahoots or Gimkits or whatever. It’s not about always making things fun or engaging. Sometimes we just need to make the lives of our students easier so that they can be successful in their learning and technology can help us do that.
So, tomorrow, I want you to think of a tool that could be a benefit to your students. Whether they have special education services, ELL, Honors, AP, or a class full of Gen Ed students, they can all benefit from assistive technology. So, pick 1 tool that they could use and teach them to use it. Show them how it can be helpful and let them play with it to see all of the cool things that it can do.
Making it happen
Here are some tools I would suggest starting with:
- Google Speech to Text
- Google Read/Write
- Flipgrid
- Google Keep
- Grammarly
- Keyboard Shortcuts
And, if you are looking for help figuring out these apps for yourself, head over to teachingfromthecouch.com or follow me on Instagram @teachingfromthecouch