Ready? Set. Play!

-
There are many approaches to teaching your students a new "tech tool" and depending on the amount of time that you have will vary your approach. One way that I introduce a new tech tool, other than walking the student step-by-step through the process, is allowing them to, well, play!
Why I love allowing students to play with a new tech tool:
  1. It promotes creativity. I don't expect an end product. It alleviates stress of having to create something that has such a binding contract.
  2. It fosters collaboration and teachable moments. If you allow require your students to get out of their seats and assist their peers, the entire learning process is now in their hands. Talk about student-centered learning at it's finest.
  3. When it comes time to create the "final product" they understand the tool (maybe even more than you do at this point), and may reiterate to you what they have learned more clearly.
  4. They may take advantage of the advantages of 20% Time (awesome read right here). There have been many studies suggesting that there is great value of allowing students to explore a topic of their choice. Although you are providing the "topic," being the technology tool, you are allowing them to explore it in their own manner. Whether they are using Image Blender to create a drawing of a sunset, or PiktoChart to create an info-graphic about their favorite hockey player, the bottom line it: They are learning the new tool on the way.
What do you think about allowing students to "play" to introduce a new tool?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sphero indi is My NEW Hero and free activity

-
Image
We offered ten stations at the session eRobots: Robots for the Everyday Elementary Classroom. I would be remiss if I omitted the Wakelet I created here: https://wakelet.com/wake/d320d572-f125-4935-8a9d-3c9aa78851d8 . I have to say, most of the robots I had used in my classroom as a teacher. I became more acquainted with a handful while working as a technology integration specialist supporting teachers in their classrooms. And then there were three that were 100% brand new to me…. Sphero indi. What can I say about this robot, besides the fact that I am in absolute love! Every part of me wanted to jump back into the classroom and see what my students could do with this fantastic bot when I ordered it and delivered it to my door a few weeks before ISTE. What do I love about Sphero indi? Well, for starters, the versatility. With this little bot, you can do both plugged and unplugged activities. I honestly could visualize the students I once taught being highly intrigued with the ability t...
Read more

Google Slides: Get-To-Know-You FREE Template for Remote Learning 2nd-4th Grade

-
Image
 If you were a game character, what would you be like? Learn about your students by tapping into their inner-gamer. In this simple Get-To-Know-You Google Slide template, your students will: learn how to navigate to a linked Website ( https://www.abcya.com/games/make_a_face ).  create and download their gaming character.  Insert their downloaded character into a Google Slide. type 3 powers that their character possess. This is the time to have them think of three strengths that they want to share with you and your class! Don't forget to force a copy for each student in Google Classroom/Schoology! Grab your copy here! Introductions: Gaming Character by Aimee Bloom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License .
Read more

Tech-Know: Google Meet Students Can't Rejoin Workaround

-
Image
Have you had the experience of losing a student during a Google Meet and not having the ability to rejoin? Even if you didn’t remove them from the Meet, from time-to-time a student may lose connectivity and not be able to rejoin. We have also been experiencing this phenomenon even after resetting the Google Meet link in Google Classroom and reinventing everyone back in. Some students are still not lucky enough to rejoin!? A work around to this is having the lost student access Google Meet itself https://meet.google.com/ and providing them with the code to your Meet. As of this post, simply sending the students the direct link did not work. If you are in the midst of your Google Meet you can easily access this code in the bottom left hand corner: You can share the link to Google Meet ( https://meet.google.com ) and the code to your Google Classroom’s Stream, GoGuardian, etc. Once your student is at Google Meet, have them enter the code that you have given them: This so far has been su...
Read more