Technology can easily be integrated
into most lesson plans without sacrificing content. More importantly,
the appropriate use of technology can be a means of teaching essential
concepts and eliciting critical thinking and better problem solving
from students. Here are a few more suggestions for easy ways to
incorporate technology into your lessons.
Have students use a scanner on a regular basis to capture examples of their work.
Almost all teachers, at some point or another, ask students to draw or
make a collage as a means of representing what the pupil has learned.
By scanning student work, the teacher can gather examples from every
student and drop the digital images into a slide show presentation
(such as PowerPoint) or a digital video.
Why place student-created images in a slide show? Slide shows are great
motivators, especially when students have created the material on the
slides being shown. Slide shows give students an opportunity to gain
recognition as well as mentally "rehearse" concepts. Scanned materials
can also become part of a digital portfolio.
Use an online rubric generator to quickly and
efficiently create guidelines explaining how you will be grading an
assignment. More than anything, this is just professionalism in action.
Principals, students, and parents appreciate teachers that can give a
thorough and descriptive explanation as to how a pupil’s work is
graded. There are quite a few online rubric generators. The best I’ve
seen so far is RubiStar (although, to be fair, Teach-Nology
has a fairly decent online rubric henerator). It makes creating a
rubric downright easy. To get learners extremely involved in a lesson, have the students use RubiStar to create pupil-generated rubric for a lesson.
This is like saying, "Tell me how you wish to be graded on this
assignment." Ultimately, this course of action allows students to be
more accountable.