RESOURCES Te
RE SOURCE S
Technology in the classroom:Openin g the door to personalised learnin g
teaching to every student’s abilities and needs from gifted learners to children who struggle in class.
To identify and approach each student’s
learning variabilities - their strengths, challenges, aptitudes, interests, teaches that it is ext
remely important to provide talents and aspirations, UDL
them with multiple means of representation, action/expression, and engagement. New technologies have revolutionised how students learn and allow for that multiple means of expression.
Portable, personal laptops like Chromebooks or Surface Pros with friendly interfaces, vast
M
artinMcKay is the Chief Technology Officer and one of the founders of
Texthelp. He directs all R&D at the company with a focus on developing new technologies to assist people with Literacy and STEM subjects. His personal goal is to help 100 million people achieve their literacy goals.
student the chance to take ownership upon what they enjoy doing the most
- whether based
that’s thinking, writing, drawing, or organising. But where there lie clear strengths in students and their work, there may also be barriers preventing them from reaching their full potential. So how do we elevate the work of a student who is a great writer but not as confident articulating those sentences aloud? Or how do help guide a student to want to improve their writing, or planning, or even speech?
For some educators, the very mention of personalised learning brings to mind a catch-all solution for those students who maybe aren’t quite engaging at the same level as their peers. Perhaps English isn’t their first language, or they face challenges with literacy or even Dyslexia. But it shouldn’t be implemented as a last resort or a reactive measure.
From the first day of term, personalised learning should form the basis for identifying students’ strengths and aid in building lesson plans that celebrate and emphasise those assets. It should make things like collaborative learning exercises or homework a success, allowing each
www
After spending twenty years of my life working with educational technology and seeing how people utilise it in a number of different global markets, I’ve learnt that schools across the globe are worlds apart when it comes to the application of technology in the classroom. This is most apparent when we look at schools in the UK compared with schools in the US. Teachers using IT in the classroom in the UK are likel y to feel frustrated when looking across the pond where technology has become truly integrated in the classroom. So, what can we in the UK learn from our friends in America about incorporating edtech in the classroom and using it to develop a personalised learning approach to instruction? We can look to the US and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles - a framework to improve and optimise teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. In essence, UDL is the gateway to effective and efficient personalised learning that benefits every learner not just those who we may think need it the most.
,
We can also look at putting the right tools in place to make those practices successful. Technology is developing so rapidly that we’re constantly seeing it refined and then redefined, often benefitting classrooms. It helps tailor
4 4 www
.education-today.co.uk.co.uk
computing power, and cloud connectivity make it possible to tailor learning to personal interests and needs, even allowing for 1:1 initiatives where each student has access to their own device to support their learning. Undoubtedly though, the future of personalised learning is increasingly being shaped by technologies that rest on a far more creative end of the EdTech spectrum. With tools using Augmented or Virtual Reality lowering in price and developing in prevalence, in the hands of educators, taking this approach to personalised learning with the right technology can ensure that each student works to their strongest abilities in a way that’s fun, engaging, and accessible. It can also coax out and alleviate the aspects of study they might find stressful, therefore crafting a hopefully, make the
actual job of teaching more means of support and
efficient and manageable.
What’s more, as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning begin to feed into education technology, teachers will have more time to implement and tailor their practice, rather than lament over several individual lesson plans for a variety of student needs.
Doesn’t every student deserve an education that’s tailored to their own strengths and individual requirements?
ww
www.texthelp.com/freeforteachers March 2018 2018
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54
