This post is targeted primarily at the teachers at my current school as a follow up to a 5 minute slot I did at today’s teacher training day. The focus of that slot was to highlight ways in which free and student-centred educational technologies can be used to engage learners. Read on to discover 5 ways in which we can engage learners using technology, starting with the easiest… :D

1. Get a blog

A blog is not a difficult thing to set up – and it’s certainly a very easy thing to use. In fact, it’s top of this list because it’s the single most effective way of communicating with students who live in an increasingly digital world.

Whilst blogs can be set up for one-way communication (by turning off comments, etc.), I would discourage that. Set out boundaries with students and, if necessary, turn on the option to moderate any comments before they go ‘live’.

My learning.mrbelshaw.co.uk blog isn’t perfect, but it’s proved fairly effective in providing a way for students to get in touch. Most do so through email, although if you’re not comfortable with providing an email address that you only use for school-related stuff, leave it off.

Want to have a try? Head over to edublogs.org to sign up for their excellent free service. I provided a guide to this to all Heads of Department at my school before Christmas – just ask me if you’d like another copy! :)

2. Use the technology they already have for learning

The average student, and especially those from more affluent backgrounds, tend to have technology coming out of their ears. I did a survey recently which found that over 90% of my GCSE students have mobile phones with Bluetooth functionality and over 80% have MP3 players (mostly iPod Nanos, actually).

We should be using these technologies to engage students. Whilst one should always follow school policy in these matters (I’ve already got into trouble for flouting that) I cannot help but think that sometimes we should explain to students that we’re using their devices for learning.

If, like me, you’ve lots of digital resources (worksheets, videos, audio files) that you haven’t got time to use in lessons, why not make them available to students anyway? You can convert videos to iPod-friendly formats easily (Windows, Mac) and put them on a website, burn CDs/DVDs to order, bluetooth them to mobile phones or put resources on the school intranet.

It’s easy to be cynical about these things, but since putting some audio and video files on my website, I reckon (from the web server stats) that around 5-10% of my GCSE students are accessing them. That’s 5-10% more students using materials voluntarily to further their knowledge, which has got to be worth it. And that’s just a start…

3. Set up a course wiki

A wiki is a website that any user with permission can edit – the most famous example being Wikipedia. This is useful for providing a knowledge base tailored to the specific needs, understanding and learning styles of the students in your classes. Whilst it sounds like it could lead to a free-for-all, again I’m using this successfully with my Year 10 classes at gcsehistory.wikispaces.com. Again, it’s all about setting boundaries.

One of the best ways of getting a wiki going is to plan out initial sections that need to be filled, have a lesson in an ICT suite, and then set a collaborative homework. As administrator of the wiki you get the option of having email updates as to the bits (highlighted in green) that students have added and the bits (highlighted in red) that they deleted. Thus, it’s easy to see who’s done what!

I’d recommend wikispaces.com to set up a wiki, as if you’re a teacher you can ask for the advertising to be removed. For more on tactics to get students going on the wiki, try wikipatterns.com. :p

4. Connect to other classrooms using Skype

I should imagine that most people have at least heard of Skype. It’s a piece of software that allows you to make phone calls over the Internet. There are premium options and there are competitors (Gizmo, etc.), but the basic services of Skype are still fantastic.

The great thing is that you can use video when having a phone call. This could be used with a single webcam for whole classes to interview people, or many to have one-to-one conversations with other students around the world. Even with a microphone and a bit of preparation, this could work well.

This is not something I’ve actually done at my current school, although I do use Skype extensively at home to connect with other educators around the world. You may find Vicki Davis’ blog post on Skype illuminating (her Cool Cat Teacher blog is well worth reading!)

5. Get your students blogging

Although this will probably strike fear into the heart of many a teacher, it’s actually a great way to engage learners, especially those at GCSE level and above. It’s fairly simple process that goes something like this:

a) Explain the purpose of the blog (more interesting, a record in one place, can add media, etc.) and go through expectations and behaviour framework.

b) Take students to ICT suite to get them to sign up for a blog (or create one for them and give them their username & password)

b) Allow students to customise their blog.

c) Introduce features of blog, how they work, etc. (trust me, some teenagers don’t even have an email address…)

d) Get them to write an introductory post

e) Encourage them to write a comment on someone else’s blog post. Use sanctions really firmly against anyone who says anything stupid, emphasising this is going on the Internet for everyone to see.

f) Set a homework task with paramaters such as: write a post on X with 3 paragraphs, 3 pictures and 3 links.

g) Monitor the blogs by subscribing to the RSS feeds of both the posts and the comments for each using a feed reader such as Google Reader or Bloglines (what’s RSS?)

h) Smile as you know which have done their homework and which haven’t as they enter your classroom (most will have done, I would predict!) :)

Whilst I’ve made it hard for myself by installing reasonably complex software to do this at learning.mrbelshaw.co.uk/blogs, it can be done in a no-nonsense, straightforward way. Try learnerblogs.org, 21classes.com or Imbee.com (a secure social networking site I’m currently using with Year 7)

 

Staff at my school: please ask me if you want to set in motion any of the above. I’m friendly and will only advise in a non-patronising sort of way. :D

Regular readers: have I missed anything? What would YOU recommend?