Implementing Education Technology by Pursuing Technology Education
Technology is used for many great things in our world. It’s a powerful tool when used correctly. As such, this powerful tool can be used to transform learning.
Technology continuously offers more and more avenues of education that recently were not available to us. Therefore, many schools are implementing education technology into their curriculum. Some of these schools are finding that implementing education technology by pursuing technology education is the best recipe for both teaching and learning.
Why Education Technology?
In times past, we, as teachers, were limited by what we could provide in the classroom. If we didn’t have the supplies, manipulates, or materials available to us, our students missed out on extension that we could have provided. Today, though, earning can be taken beyond the classroom. Extension, explanation, and exploration are easily done in engaging and relevant ways like never before. We merely use the education technology provided to us!
What is the Best Education Technology?
The best education technology places new approaches to learning at our fingertips, giving us the ability to adapt our lessons to each student. It allows us to meet them where they are and bring them to where they need to be in ways that were previously impossible.
There are so many branches and forms of education technologies out there, supplying so many EdTech companies. Which of these many education technologies is best?
Our favorite avenue to education technology is Pedagogue. Pedagogue is there to help you, the teacher, get more education technology into the classroom.
Virtual Classroom
Pedagogue makes their virtual classroom available to teachers for free. You can do most things you can imagine up with the virtual classroom.
- Perform Conference Calls
- Teach Via Livestream
- Do a Screenshare
- Use the Virtual Whiteboard While Teaching
- Share Files
Interactive Lesson Creator
With this interactive lesson creator, you can create unique learning experiences for your students. You can then reuse them later or even share them with other teachers! You can also build interactive assessments.
A few other things that you can do with the Interactive Lesson Creator are:
- Automatically generate multiple-choice arithmetic quizzes;
- Create bar charts or pie charts;
- Create your own, individual-based dictation exercises;
- Create a Find-the-Word with your students’ vocabulary or spelling words;
- Create an interactive video to enhance your students’ learning experiences;
- Create interactive timelines;
- And so much more!
Content Templates
The best part about the Pedagogue Lesson Creator is that you do not have to come up with anything on your own (unless you want to). There are over 30 templates available to you, and each template includes different content for teaching your students.
Social Media Network
Lastly, but not least, Pedagogue is also a teacher-centered social media network. We, as human beings, need community. We need each other. We need networking.
With Pedagogue, not only can you network with other educators around the world, creating necessary and lasting bonds, but you can do so much more! You can share strategies and hacks with other teachers and learn from them as well. You can get advice on questions you might have… and offer it. On Pedagogue, you can find tools and resources others have shared and share those you have found helpful! This social media network brings educators together, where they can work together to make the world of education a better place.
Let’s Take it a Step Further
Now you know which education technology is best. How do you best implement education technology? One of the best ways to effectively implement Education Technology is to pursue Technology Education.
Why Technology Education?
The world that our students are growing up in is eons different from the one we grew up in. Their world is highly complex and run by technology. Knowing how to use technology properly is vital to their survival past graduation—and maybe even sooner.
We must implement the skills they need in their everyday learning. You see, learning simple computer skills, typing, and computer software in a computer class is no longer sufficient.
So how do we effectively teach our students how to thrive in this ever-evolving world? Simple. We start implementing education technology by pursuing technology education.
How Do You Implement Technology Education?
- Use computer games, such as Sushi Monster, to teach Arithmetic concepts.
- Have the students prepare a presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint that describes what they have learned in the lesson.
- Give your students the chance to create videos surrounding the content they are learning.
- Give your students the reigns to use the data tables, diagrams, or such that describe the concepts they have learned.
- Use digital storytelling.
Conclusion
Implementing education technology is not enough. As the U.S. Department of Education said in their 2017 National Education Technology Plan Update, “closing the digital divide alone will not transform learning. We must also close the digital use divide…”
To close the digital use divide, it is up to you, the teacher, to ensure that your students have a clear understanding of how to use that education technology effectively. They must also, in learning to use the education technology, learn to use all technology as a tool. They must learn to use this tool to engage in life-long learning that is both productive and creative rather than merely using it to consume passive content. In other words, the best way to help your students learn in today’s world and for their future is by implementing education technology by pursuing technology education.