Technology-based Teaching: Article 3

Adapting technology in face-to-face classrooms

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As teachers our task to foster learning. But the learning environment should be very comfortable and attractive for the learners. The students’ experience over learning does a significant impact on a successful learning process. The learning behaviour and information acquiring method may be different from person to person. Therefore, we have to try different methodology for teaching to satisfy the learning aspects of the students’ group.

Teachers face difficulties finding the right technology based on the available facilities in their teaching environment. In the classroom, we generally use chalkboard or white board as our basic teaching aid.

Overhead Projectors

This is one of the oldest techniques used for displaying pictorial information by projecting it to a screen or wall. OHP is its acronym. But still, we can use it to show some complex illustrations for students.

Ex: Show the world map to explain about the countries or show the scientific diagram which you can’t draw on the board nicely and clearly.

Radio and sound player

Imagine you are a language teacher; you can use a sound player to play some conversations or any other audio presentation which can be used to support your teaching. The latest radio is having the features of playing CDs and files in a pen drive.  With a small effort, you can convert your classroom environment to a more interactive area. If you can’t find a sound player, either you can use a tab or a mobile phone.

CD Player and TV

If your school or educational institution has a recreation area where a CD player and a TV is available. An educational video which is relevant to your lesson provides an opportunity for the students to get the authentic education by sensing the real situation. It also helps you to explain the lesson by pointing the real scenarios.

Ex: In a situation, you are explaining about “Tidal waves”, plenty of “YouTube videos” are available with a real capture of tidal waves.

Computer and Projector

If you are having a computer (laptop) with a projector which you can use in the classroom, get ready for a transformation. I am listing few techniques which I use in my teaching.

Summarise your note to a presentation

Use a presentation software to create a summary of your notes to display when you are explaining the subject content. You can use pictures, videos, tables and illustrations in your presentation as well. You can easily find a presentation software online and downloadable.  I will discuss the available presentation software in a next post.

Use pictures or illustration

You can design illustrations and diagrams to explain the complex scenarios and process using a drawing a tool. If you are teaching a computer subject, screen capturing software will be very helpful to capture the screen from the computer.

Create simulations and animations

You can create simple animations to interpret a process clearly. There are several animation software available online or downloading.

Create videos

You can create videos by capturing the computer screen. This option may be very useful when creating software demonstration or a presentation. Several video capturing software are available for free or a reasonable price. There are online sites also provide creating a short video.

Interactive White Boards

This is a form of whiteboard but with much features of creating different illustrations as a touchscreen. Most of the whiteboard can be connected to a computer. It can be easily operated using our hand similarly we are using a normal whiteboard.

 

There may be several other tools which we can use in the classroom. You might be able to find those by doing a search on the Internet. I hope now you are aware that with the help of the technological tools we can change our classroom into a technology-facilitated learning environment.

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