Successful online education means offering personalized learning experiences to students, which will impact schools’ metrics, which will adapt and impact the employment world metrics. Of course, all stakeholders must work together, and take into account each other’s needs when setting their success metrics — which is obviously easier said than done; but not impossible.
Children should know how to write by hand — more than their names — as well as how to type. There’s no reason to support one activity in the detriment of another. A lot of students take notes with pen and paper, and use their laptops / computers to turn in their assignments and take tests. It can be done. Both writing and typing are channeling the same core skills: the formation and communication of thought.
Do you prefer your students to learn just because they have to, in order to get a grade, or would you like them to learn because they actually enjoy it? An LMS with a beautiful user interface can improve the learning process and make students — and teachers — more engaged. Visual and interactive elements have the power to keep things interesting and prompt students to actually be excited about learning.
For students to be engaged and motivated during an online course, e-learning professionals had to find creative solutions. One that stirred the learning waters and generated a lot of buzz in the e-learning arena is gamification – including gaming principles and mechanics in a non-gaming context, aka learning materials. At first glance, fun games are weirdly associated with the serious nature of learning. But playing games trigger some subconscious reactions in learners’ brains, which keep their interest high for longer periods of time and make them want to play more and more.
The use of interactive videos in the classroom promises a lot — higher engagement rates, better retention rates, a more exciting learning experience — thanks to it including the biological characteristics of the short attention span and the high level of energy children have. However, it is still far from being the norm in online learning, and especially in most schools.
Officially, any school’s purpose should be to teach students how to learn. The 21st century student should come out of school with a skill set — problem solving, communication, collaboration, digital literacy, ethical skills — that will help them overcome all challenges of the modern workplace.
MOOCs created a storm in higher education , but they still didn’t prove themselves. SPOCs, on the other hand, are closer to the objectives of higher education institutions. They are not a replacement of teachers; SPOCs are teachers’ sidekicks. Also, they pave the way for future more successful MOOCs.
Micro-learning goes hand in hand with the principle “If you can’t beat it, join it”. You can’t beat the shrinking attention span. So you need to adapt to it and deliver smaller chunks of learning content. Your students will be grateful for this.
If we consider technology as an enabler to bridge the gap between the mostly present traditional classroom and the modern and fast-changing world our kids live in, the following tech devices should become part of all classrooms: smart furniture, tablets and WIFI, display technologies, document cameras, and microphones. read on to find out more about each of them.
You know the saying, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way”. Maybe there aren’t too many things a teacher can do to maximize collaboration in the classroom, especially if we consider the physical shortcomings of such a room, but things are not that grim. Read on to find a few suggestions for possible solutions.
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