Blessed are the rich, for they shall inherit technology…

We all like to comment on how much technology has taken over the lives of the younger generation, how we never had iPhones, laptops, and tablets to entertain us but rather had imaginations. Whether or not you believe that the younger generation are spoilt and also restricted because of their increasing reliance on technology, there is still a divide within the younger generation itself, not just between the older generation and the younger.

 Money still plays a big part in what students have access to and their exposure to new technology. While most schools are encompassing BYOD in their classrooms, the decile, and the income of the parents, will often determine the quality of the technology the students are exposed to. At my first placement I was at a reasonably high decile school which was co-ed and out in the country. Some students had laptops, some students had tablets and smart phones and some students had nothing. The school had computers for the use of the students, interactive whiteboards and what is now considered the “basics” of the technology kit. Due to the mix in technology and non-technology users in the classroom, this could make it difficult to incorporate a whole lot of technology if it was meant to be used on the student’s devices. On placement at a private school has shown me a completely different side of the spectrum. All the students have laptops, smart phones and/or tablets. It is easy to incorporate the use of technology in the classroom because all students have access to it. I think these students are being exposed to more of the new types of technology such as editing tools for Media Studies, interactive websites like Khan Academy, script writing tools and more. 

These students have the advantage over their less wealthy or privileged counterparts in other schools as they are learning to use the tools of the future, whilst their counterparts are often still using those of the present. This presents a problem for both students and teachers as we want to prepare them for their future, and if their future consists of these advanced technological tools and devices, then they should be learning with them and about them. The challenge for us is to come up with innovative ways of bringing a range of different technologies to the classroom and making it accessible for all. Blessed are the less wealthy, for they shall be a challenge for new teachers. 

Storm your Brain with Padlet!

Teacher: “Let’s Brainstorm your ideas on the board!” Class groans. “I’m kidding, that’s too much effort for me, get on Padlet and write it yourself!” Class cheers. Padlet, the brainstorming sensation that’s gripping the nation! No it does not consist of a mini paddle for minions, nor is it a small pad of paper. It is an online collaboration tool (yes I know I love talking about these) where you can set up pages for students to ask their “burning questions” (sorry, had to use it), you can set up a quiz of sorts that they can all participate in, you can upload videos and images and really it’s just a nice collaboration space that everyone can use at the same time! You can share it with anyone and it is a fun tool for students to use. Rather than wasting 10 minutes trying to write every student’s ideas down on the board, missing someone and then wanting them to copy them all down, just get them to go on Padlet and put all their ideas into one ‘document’ so that they can see each other’s, you don’t have to risk your messy board writing and the students are entertained with technology! 

Be sure to read the fine print. Having a tool which allows students to post anonymously can lead to disaster if you haven’t set up the classroom environment to be respectful and appropriate. You need to make sure that the students are able to act responsibly and appropriately when using this tool so that you don’t have a huge quagmire on your hands with parents ringing in to complain about what Johnny said about Timmy on a Padlet. Use the technology to your advantage, not to your detriment. 

Google may have swag, but Microsoft has Sway…

Yo yo my homies,
 I’d like to give a shout,
to my friend Bill Gates,
 for all his work to help us out.

First you’ve got Word,
Saving us from spelling;
Giving us synonyms
To make our words compelling.

Then there’s PowerPoint,
That master in disguise.
Taking notes are easy,
When you’ve got them all on slides.


 Moving onto One Drive,
the Power of the Net.
You won’t lose a thing,
Just upload it, don’t forget!

Google tries to tempt you,
 Its icons on your right.
But to the left, to the left,
Yoncé and Gates shine the light.

Now we’ve got Sway,
Making it profesh.
With designer style flair,
Don’t settle for any less.

Upload your lessons,
A PowerPoint or Word.
Sway will give it swagger,
Street cred will be earned.

So Sway is the new Swag. It’s hip and happening and saving you hours of work. Got a PowerPoint that looks a little dull? Maybe some photos and ideas you want to share? Sway with the wind right over to Sway. It’s an easy to use tool to help spice up your lessons or resources by giving them the animations and effects that you don’t have time to add. Students are away and missing important stuff? Upload your lesson resources, PowerPoints and/or documents onto a Sway doc and if you can’t be bothered to make it look nice and easy to navigate through then Sway will do it for you! Your PowerPoints will look a lot less boring, your popularity among students will increase* and you will have gained technology experience points! You can add videos, links, tweets, images, pretty much anything, to your Sway, click on the emphasis, design, and remix button and voila, you’ve got Sway (better than Swag). You can then save it, copy and paste the link into a class OneNote notebook or wherever you share things with your student and they can access it so long as they have WiFi. So when your students are chilling in Maccas with the free WiFi, they have no excuses not to be looking at your Sway. Sway out.

*Conditions Apply: If you are not a good teacher, the guarantee does not hold.

Kahoot, the lesson saviour since Jesus couldn’t make it

Totally didn’t know what this thing was until a couple of months ago. All I was hearing was “Do a Kahoot with them!”, “I use Kahoot all the time!” and “Kahoot counts as using technology!”. Having participated in a few Kahoots before this second placement I decided it was time to try my luck with the little bugger. For all you amateurs that have no idea what Kahoot is, prepare to be amazed and enthralled as this totally non-amateur enlightens you. 

Kahoot is basically a time filler or waster for teachers to use in lessons. It can take from 5 minutes to an entire lesson and it will guarantee you a place on the “favourite teachers” list and also book you a place in the principal’s office, informing parents why their child is being beaten by someone called madhattersdragon in an underground fight club called Kahoot. Ok it’s really not all that sinister. It is an online multi choice quiz site which allows you to either create your own quiz or cheekily use someone else’s pre-created one and present it to the class as an aspect of a lesson. It is great for reinforcing knowledge, establishing prior knowledge and giving students a break from their essays on why Edward sparkles and why Jacob smells. 

It is also a way to include a bit of that technology stuff in your lessons as students need a device to participate. Students also have a time limit on each question and the slower they are, the more likely they’re gonna get their asparagus whipped by madhattersdragon. Kahoot brings the classroom to life as you can include video segments, audios and pictures to help move your quiz along. You will have no problems with student participation because they actually think it’s a game! That’s right, you can trick them into doing work! If you are not sure what to do to start or end a lesson with a bang, Kahoot it. If your students need to release some pent up energy, Kahoot it. If you have no idea how to make Calculus fun, Kahoot it. Alright it might not work for Calculus but nevertheless it is a fantastically engaging tool which teachers need to take advantage of if you’re going to get some street cred and keep your students of the street. Peace. 

OneNote to rule them all and in the darkness bind them...

The OneNote. If you thought the One Ring was badass then you have not been living. OneNote – the dream collaboration tool for teachers. Ok it’s not the newest tool on the block but when it comes free with the Microsoft 365 package, you’d be a fool not to take note of it. With the growing use of technology in the classroom, OneNote is an excellent tool for teachers to use a collaboration space for students to upload articles, documents, links and so forth. Sick of photocopying a million practice exam papers or just feeling like a greenie? Upload it on OneNote. Students missing out on the lesson? Upload it one OneNote. Want students to bring the resource you handed out yesterday with them? Upload it on OneNote.

                                       

Sure we haven’t got to the stage yet where we don’t need paper but OneNote is a sure as Pikachu way to save some! All of my classes have an OneNote folder which makes planning and teaching a dream compared to having bits of paper floating around the classroom and coming out of students books. The beauty of OneNote is that you have separate folders within the folder, and can add pages within the pages of these folders. The sky is the limit. The Collaboration Space is a great tool to use when you are wanting students to share notes with each other or you have questions that you want the whole class to answer and have those answers displayed to everyone. The Content Library is teacher controlled which means you upload whatever you want and the students aren’t able to change or delete it. So be sure and put those delightful Year 9 photos of them up….I’m kidding, that’s not ok. There are also opportunities for the students to have their own page within the folder which only the teacher can access. This is great for when the students are doing individual work, assessments or internally assessed standards. The teacher is able to comment and give feedback on student work which can sometimes be a lot easier than writing them on each essay. If you are wanting students to do something constructive with the devices that they bring to class EVERY lesson, then get them doing something on OneNote. A delightful learning location.