Digital Teaching and Learning

Michael Constantino

Why?1. To benefit our ‘digital native’ students – they are

comfortable in a digital world, even if their teachers are not, we need to use these tools to aid T&L.

2. To benefit ourselves; in an ever more competitive job market, having a handle on new technology and techniques is going to make you more employable.

3. It makes life EASIER!!!!!

4. They are all FREE!

Two Approaches

1. Using technology to support what we already do

2. Using technology to introduce completely new ideas

• As we only have 5 minutes, I will be running through some suggestions for both

Supporting what we already do

Fun way to quiz students, in the format of a game show – totally free and allows students to use own devices. Will work on tablets, smart phones or PC’s if you are in a lab

Watching YouTube clips? Film some, start a channel – if in primary, students can try stop motion animation or puppet shows to explain concepts, older students can do news reports or comedy sketches to explain concepts, either way, the power of seeing their work on YouTube and being able to show parents is powerful. (Comments can be useful if monitored)

Great for literacy and learning keywords, a good way to enforce definitions – can be whole class or team games

Introducing completely new ideas

A digital classroom; free tools like Google Classroom and Edmodo, create a virtual space for students to interact with you and each other. They are easy to use and have loads of online support and YouTube tutorials. If you are already using a VLE, you may have something similar, but these tools are really easy to use

Collaboration, Collaboration, Collaboration… Google docs is a free alternative to Microsoft Office, but easily allows students and/or teachers to collaborate on documents – syncs beautifully with Google Classroom and students can work in groupsAlso great for teachers who want to collaborate on the same document, but can’t because “someone else has it open” – totally free, just need a Google account

Enough with USBs!