To support improved student outcomes, educators increasingly look to technology. But how do they fuel authentic engagement, using technology as a tool to not only enhance learning but also inspire curiosity and strengthen connections?
Recently, EdSurge spoke with Kelly Mitchell, Digital Learning and Teaching Facilitator with Onslow County Schools in North Carolina. Mitchell spent four years in the classroom before transitioning to a district role. During the last 12 years, she has inspired other teachers to embed edtech effectively in their classes, encouraging students to “work together, create and move around the room!”
EdSurge: How do you approach personalized learning and foster authentic engagement in your classroom, and what specific strategies and technologies have you found most effective in supporting these goals?
Mitchell: I am a huge fan of Dr. Catlin Tucker’s approach to the station rotation model for blended learning. Creating stations used to be quite time-consuming, but I believe if we keep things simple and practice transitions over and over, students will adapt and thrive in a classroom where they feel their learning styles and interests are valued. They’re often moving around, but little do they know that everything that they’re doing is still tied to one of their standards. And so they love that!
The idea is to give students some choice and a voice in how they demonstrate their understanding, which helps us get their buy-in. They appreciate the effort we put into listening to them and recognizing how they learn. And when that happens, we’re all more engaged, staying on task and working together. It’s those little shots of student engagement that really keep you going throughout the day.
One of the most widely used tools in Onslow, Lumio, allows teachers to easily step in, offering quality pre-made activities and interactive features. Those who want to stick close to core curriculum materials can easily import any of the materials and quickly make them more interactive.
Something so simple excites students when they have a little bit of choice in the matter. For example, graphic organizers are always a crowd-pleaser. Pair that with the choice of how to represent character traits with drawings, writing or pictures, and you’ve got a winning lesson! I just worked with some third graders, and they had to explain why a character’s traits in the book that we read helped them sell more lemonade than the brother sold. And so then they had to basically create a poster selling that character’s character traits.
Technology can help students redefine what they’re learning by giving them creative ways to demonstrate understanding. Allowing students to record audio alongside text or images can be a powerful way for them to demonstrate understanding in their own voice.
How can technology support teachers in making core curriculum materials more interactive and engaging for students?
Sometimes when core curriculum materials are being used, it can be hard to learn how to use that material to teach and provide authentic learning experiences for students. Stations and even playlists make it possible for teachers to work with small groups of students while other students stay engaged in various other collaborative and independent activities. It’s beautiful! Along with simplifying the planning process, instructional technology programs have made it super simple to bring game-based learning, collaborative group work and digital manipulatives into lessons using core curriculum content.
How do you involve students in the process of integrating technology into their learning experiences?
Oftentimes, we give students choices of how to demonstrate their learning. Providing this choice allows students to use their own talents, strengths and interests. At the beginning of every year, I ask teachers to select a tech champion to assist students who may be new to using the instructional technology available to them as Onslow County students. Having one or two tech champions in each classroom takes some of the pressure off the teacher and places the work of knowing the program on the student. This is extremely empowering and one of the best ways to give our more tech-savvy students a leadership opportunity.
What advice would you give other educators looking to build a culture of authentic engagement using technology?
Don’t overthink it. Be willing to learn alongside your students. Gone are the days when the teacher is the subject matter expert; we don’t have to have all the answers. Our digital-native students want to and need to go after the answer, decide if it’s what they were looking for and revisit the problem time and time again.
One of the things I love most about Lumio is the ease of entry into the program. Does the teacher just need to spice up her core curriculum materials? If so, start with a Super Sort for verbs and adjectives or odd and even numbers. Do they want to amplify student voice in a fast and non-intrusive way? Then, let’s toss up a Shout it Out! It can end there at first, and the next time we add on a group work activity or a Monster Quiz for review. Or maybe we try a PhET lab on area and perimeter. A teacher doesn’t have to know all the ins and outs of Lumio to use it effectively and engage their students. As teachers incorporate small moments of engagement into their daily routines, they’ll see students become more invested in their learning.
We can’t just sit them on a program and allow them to go down the rabbit hole of their “pathway.” Personalized learning is much more than a pathway set by a program. Personalized learning takes into account different personalities, strengths, weaknesses and preferences. This generation of students really appreciates the opportunity to have student choice.
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