How to Use Technology in the Classroom

What is the future of education? Every year, experts weigh in on the conversation to try and make predictions about the trends that will transform the educational system in the next few years. Interestingly enough, in the past couple of years, most of the predictions have focused on integrating technology in the classroom. 

Naomi Harm, a K12 EdTech Specialist, says “The future of education will become fully automated by the progressive transformation of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and real-world teaching and learning experiences. […] Student learning experiences will take place in virtual and face-to-face exploratorium think tank hubs.” 

And, many other professionals share her predictions. Moreover, we’ve seen how the unfortunate situation with the pandemic dramatically transformed work and educational practices in a more online and technology-driven environment. 

Therefore, knowing we can’t escape the inclusion of technology in the classroom, it becomes our responsibility to find out more about this process and learn how to use it to our advantage. 

Keep reading to find out how technology affects educational institutions, what the benefits of using technology in the classrooms are, potential drawbacks, as well as ideas for how to integrate technology in your own classroom. 

Is Technology an Inevitable Aspect of Education?

Maybe a better way to phrase this question would be “Why is technology an inevitable aspect of education?” as there’s rarely someone who still doubts the inevitability of a tech-driven education. 

With the tech world evolving incredibly fast, online learning tools are dominating the market. These solutions introduce new updates, features, and a better user experience with every passing day. Developers spend sleepless nights trying to make the online space more efficient for learning and provide new opportunities that might not be available in face-to-face classrooms. 

There are two underlying forces backing this trend. First, our society has become immensely dependent on technology. Smartphones are practically an extension of people’s personalities with new generations spending more and more hours online. Second, technological advances give us practical solutions for common limitations in fully offline classrooms. Think about educational material and resources for teaching, for example. Even for teachers, the affordability, diversity, and quality of online resources hit old textbooks out of the park!

When we take these two factors into account, using technology in the classroom becomes a very natural transition that matches our way of life in all other aspects. In fact, one might even argue that it’s surprising how online learning is still not considered a fundamental property of mainstream education, which is exactly what Seth Kravitz, a successful entrepreneur and writer, noted. He believes that “online learning will switch from being a punchline to a respected option.”

What Are The Benefits of Using Technology in the Classroom?

As you’ve seen, the current trends favor the implementation of technology in the classroom, which allows online education to gain momentum and to evolve into a high standard, formally recognized method for acquiring knowledge – rubbing shoulders with in-person learning. 

But, a resourceful educator shouldn’t just wait around for these tools to become recognized worldwide, they should take the wheel into their own hands and be active during this evolution. 

Why? Well, there are a lot of benefits associated with using technology in the classroom, even when it’s only 10% of the time. In addition, we’ll share the leading benefits of tech-driven classrooms as reported by educational institutions and professionals who swear by them. 

Technology Increases Access to Knowledge

For kids to be able to learn the material and meet educational standards, they have to rely on textbooks, books, teacher’s lectures, notes, homework assignments, and practical work during class. Because of this, what they’ll learn depends a lot on their surroundings and the resources available to them. Books are pricey and libraries don’t always have new releases for specific topics. On top of that, bringing guest lecturers or researchers to talk about contemporary issues in a specific field is rarely possible. 

However, the internet is a place of endless possibilities. Children can watch visual tutorials, in-depth explanations, experts discussing a specific matter, or debates for complex phenomena, and so much more. Using technology for educational purposes is like diving into an infinite pool of knowledge.

Technology Increases Students’ Engagement

Not only will children have more access to knowledge, but technological tools are much more powerful in capturing the students’ attention and keeping them engaged on the assignment. This is partly because the online learning process is much more diverse and visually stimulating, and partially because the platforms are designed with the children’s needs in mind. Either way, they can help you improve students’ academic achievements simply by increasing their conscious involvement in the lecture through online tools. 

Technology Increases Independent Learning

An important part of education is teaching students how to take responsibility, initiative, and control over their academic journey – the basis for independent learning. The goal is to internalize the need for learning new things, underlying curiosity, creativity, and passion, which in turn shapes students’ motivation. Technology can help students achieve this, by promoting independent learning. While online, students will learn at their own pace, find reliable and trustworthy information on their own (research phase), and organize their time responsibly so they can meet educational standards. 

Technology Promotes Collaboration

Since technology is popularly associated with independent learning, it’s a common misconception that neglects group work and collaboration. In fact, when used right, technology can increase students’ collaboration and help them achieve shared goals more easily. This is done through online communities and educational platforms that provide fascinating opportunities for students to share their work, collaborate on different projects, coordinate their assignments, and advise each other. 

Technology Introduces Differentiation

Public schools and most standardized homeschooling curriculums have a well-defined program that the students need to follow. This is a good thing for so many reasons, although it lacks differentiation which can be added by integrating technology in the classroom. What we mean by differentiation is the variability in the topics, fields, and skills covered in the curriculum. 

Let’s take biology as an example. As part of biology, children will learn about the human body, biological functions, plants, animal kingdoms, and even bacterias. Some students might be particularly interested in plants, which thanks to the internet, online resources, and different learning platforms, they can actually familiarize themselves with botany as a separate field of study, outside the scope of K-12 schools’ curriculum. Other examples include anatomy, physiology, genetics, microbiology, parasitology, zoology, pathology, and information from many other branches, just within the subject of biology. 

Technology Decreases Teachers’ Workload 

Another benefit of introducing technology in the classroom is to decrease your own workload, without negatively affecting the quality of education. Is that really possible? Thanks to technology, yes! A lot of digital learning software have automated features and handy tools for eliminating tedious tasks such as manually grading papers, for example. Online exams with closed questions can be fully automated so that the computer calculates wrong and right answers. Of course, you can also choose partially automated exam formats, where you grade open questions, and the computer takes care of multiple-choice questions.

Technology Prepares Students For Life After School

Finally, we have to admit that teaching students how to use technological advancements for educational purposes is one of the best ways to prepare them for life after school. Regardless of the career path they choose, students will have to, first, be tech-savvy as one of the basic requirements for most jobs today, and second, know how to stay on top of their game by constantly working on their skills and keeping up with new findings in their field. 

What Are the Drawbacks of Using Technology in the Classroom?

Most conversations about using technology in the classroom focus only on the advantages of this approach, which is understandable, but also misleading, as it leaves educators unprepared for the arising challenges when they try to integrate online tools in the classroom. 

Why would one think twice before relying on technology? We have identified three potential instances where digital tools might do more harm than good. They include teacher’s competences, students’ backgrounds, and the school’s resources. 

First, relying on technology might not be the best idea if the teacher or educator is not familiar with the tools. It’s best to first participate in “online teaching” courses, do independent research on your own, or offer teachers some training, before making changes in the classroom. This is very important because if the teacher doesn’t know how to properly use the tools, this can severely impair the learning process. 

Second, consider the students’ backgrounds. If you teach a class where most of the students can’t afford a laptop with a stable internet connection at home, you shouldn’t implement technology in the classroom. These students won’t have the same opportunities as the students who have that luxury, making them fall behind, which is not something you should allow. 

This brings us to the third consideration. The school’s resources might help you avoid the second constraint. For example, if the school has internet hubs, open 24/7 where all students can get access to the internet and all online resources introduced in the classroom. Additionally, some schools can even afford to set up computers for every student in the classroom. If this is something that your institution can handle, then you have nothing to worry about, but if it’s not, first consider whether all the students have access to such digital tools. 

How to Integrate Technology in the Classroom?

Last but not least, let’s talk about practical applications! In other words, let’s answer the questions of where, what, and how to make your classroom more technology-inclusive. 

Some of these things may already be familiar to you, but we’ll start from the basics and move our way toward more elaborate solutions involving more advanced technological tools.  

Begin With PowerPoint Presentations and Video Materials

If you’re an educator in a fully in-person classroom, you probably understand the difficulty of moving things from ground zero. Where do you start? How to suddenly change your methodology without disturbing students’ habits and ways of learning? 

If you think of using technology, think small at the beginning. When a student is presenting a topic, you can ask them to make a PowerPoint presentation and use the school’s projector so they can present it in front of the class. You can also start by bringing more video materials, such as TED Talks, tutorials, lectures, visual animations, and many other useful contents as supplementary material. 

If the school has computers in the classrooms or you have a computer laboratory, you can organize classes where you’ll divide the students into groups and assign them a task that involves online resources. 

From here, you can slowly build your way toward a more integrated use of technology in the classroom. 

Add Online Homework Assignments

The second step you can take is transforming students’ regular homework assignments with online work. This can be achieved in many different ways, some of which we’ll discuss in our online learning tools section. 

The main idea behind this step is for children to slowly start using technology for learning purposes at their own pace, without feeling pressured. Digitizing homework will also allow you to gather feedback about the benefits and potential drawbacks of technology-based learning from your students, before deciding to digitize the whole lecture.

Try Out Gamifying and Game-Based Learning 

In the past month, we’ve shared several articles regarding innovative teaching approaches, including gamification and game-based learning. Both of these methods heavily rely on the use of technology in the classroom for achieving optimal results.

Gamification is the process of adding game mechanics in non-game environments, such as education, while game-based learning is the use of games designed to enhance student learning. Both game principles and actual educational games are part of many learning platforms on the internet which you can use.

To find out more about these approaches, don’t hesitate to follow the links and check our in-depth guides.  

Use Online Learning Tools

Online learning tools are the golden standard when it comes to using technology in the classroom. There are a myriad of options on the internet for different purposes, different methods, different aspects of the lectures, and much more. There are simple, small applications for creating quizzes, as well as full software solutions for the whole educational institution.   

In addition, we’ll share some examples of our favorite online learning tools that can be incorporated into different aspects of the learning process.

Game-Based Online Tools

iCivics – games for learning topics regarding the law, government, civil rights, etc. 

MangaHigh – games for learning math.

BrainPop – from health to science, BrainPop is an amazing tool for game-based learning.

GimKit – a tool that easily turns classic games, such as match the pair and guess the word, into an educational online experience. 

Online Courses

Another online resource comes from the educational platforms such as Coursera, Udemy, and Edx who offer hundreds of thousands of courses and specializations in a myriad of topics. Some of the courses are free, while others offer discounts for students. Plus, as a teacher, you can actually make your own course and upload it on platforms such as these. 

Online Reading Materials

Ebooks are becoming more and more popular, mostly because they’re more accessible, cheaper, and convenient. To use this to your benefit, assign students online reading materials at the end of each lecture and discuss the matter together during class.  

Online Research

As we’ve already seen, the internet is like an infinite pool of resources, which is why it’s a good idea to teach kids how to use it to their advantage by conducting their own research. Assign a topic, share instructions on finding reliable sources, and ask students to do their own research and present their findings later. Depending on the topic, they can use research articles, news articles, online historical resources, statistics databases, and even forums as a way to gather valuable insights and investigate people’s opinion.  

Use Online Communities for Better Communication

Yet another way to involve students in an online learning environment is to create a digital community for facilitating communication between you and the students as well as the students themselves. Until recently, Facebook Groups were a common place where classmates gathered to share resources and help each other, but now we have specialized platforms such as Moodle, Discord, or Slack that offer more features and might be better solutions. 

Of course, the above-suggested communities are free, but if your school has the resources, you can use a more sophisticated system, which will also allow you to involve the parents and other staff. On these platforms, you can easily make announcements, send children notifications about assignments or future events, and follow their progress automatically. 

Before You Go

Don’t be afraid to implement technology in the classroom! As we’ve illustrated in the article, there are so many ways and degrees to which you can integrate online tools. This means that you can choose to digitalize the learning process only up to the point that you’re comfortable and feel prepared for. Slowly, you’ll learn more and see what works best for your students. 

The only thing we would like to add at the end is to encourage feedback! Be open to communication and listen to what students have to say. They’ll tell you if the online solutions available in your institutions make things easier for them, or not. It’s always a good idea to have online alternatives as options, but that doesn’t mean you need to force changes. 

Finally, before we say goodbye, let us remind you to check out our website and take a look at our massive library of worksheets and other teaching resources. Plus, we have insightful guides and practical advice for all teachers and homeschool parents on our blog, which is where you can subscribe to make sure you don’t miss anything!