Technology within the classroom – Yeah or Neah????


After our 2nd F2F session I received a lot of valuable feedback and suggestions on my HMW question of technology integration within the classroom. I knew this would be challenging, since my skills are very limited with technology. Since there has been many changes involving technology with this new generation of students, I do believe it is  best to educate myself in ways that would benefit their overall learning experiences. 

One suggestion that I tried was using google slides for a Book Talk assignment.  Normally I would give them a sheet of paper (outline) that they would fill out and present it to the class.  This time, I gave them a lesson on how to complete this assignment on google slides and they were all very eager and anxious to get started. Students were asked to prepare this at home and present it to the class once completed.  To my amazement the students who I normally have to chase to complete anything in class were one of the first to complete this at home. What was beneficial was that I could comment on their progress and edit their work while they  continued working on it from home. I could not believe by introducing this form of technology, truly changed their perspective on their work. Once I surveyed all of the students, they all expressed how they enjoyed completing this assignment via google slides verses writing it down on a sheet of paper.    

Going through this experience, I can now see how introducing technology can be beneficial to their learning.  Their great excitement and enthusiasm was revealed as they presented their work to the class. They were all able to add pictures, change the background colours and fonts and add special effects to their Book Talk. They also gave tips to other students on how to format their work differently. I was in awe and learned many pointers from them. I was a little apprehensive and discouraged at first, but I now see the value and attitude change technology can add to assignments.  I guess my next challenge will be what else can I do to continue stimulating them in this same manner using technology without losing the basic skills of spelling and cursive writing?

4 thoughts on “Technology within the classroom – Yeah or Neah????

  1. @rcampolucci
    I really like where your HMW started “How might we successfully integrate technology in the classroom to enhance grade 3 student learning ?”
    but given your post you could also consider..
    “HMW re-think Grade 3 book talks in order to maximize engagement and opportunities for feedback”
    This leaves you wide open to explore many different solutions. Technology might be one of them but it does not have to be. While I know you have joined C21 to expand your awareness of the many different tools that are now available to us as teachers they don’t ever need to be the end unto themselves.

    While I am very biased toward the use of tech in the classroom let’s explore why using slides in this book talk case might have contributed to the positive experience the students felt.

    1) Students enjoy working in this medium (we know this)
    2) All the work is saved, tracked and easily managed. The students have essentially “handed in” the work as soon as it is shared with you.
    3) Opportunities for your feedback or peer or outside are amplified 10X. This is where the really opportunities begins. Consider adding a “peer’ feedback” step where you front load some criteria and language use when giving peer feedback. By adding this step you are creating one more opportunity to improve and change their book talk before presenting.
    4) Digital lives on – make copies of the low, medium and high level work as exemplars for next year. These can be valuable tools.
    5) Multi-media – slides allow for the insertion of gifs, video and really polished images that allow students to feel invested and proud of their work.

    What we are really talking about is trying to find tools and pedagogies to help us maximize engagement and deliver timely feedback and opportunities for peer editing/collaboration.

    Google slides happens to be really good at all these things 🙂

    Check out this post: https://librarystile.com/2017/07/15/book-talk-with-google-slides/

    @adamcaplan
    @tfaucher @ashaikh @ahughes @wdarby

    1. Thanks so much for these great points. I think you are absolutely right – the next step I need to introduce is peer editing which will enhance this type of assignment even further. The post you suggested was very helpful. I will take these things into consideration for the next google slides assignment. Much appreciated!

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