Distance Learning, mLearning, Digital Education, Technology

What exactly is interactivity? Read this insightful article to learn more about the levels of interactivity present in eLearning modules.

The latest news related to the meaningful and effective implementation of educational technology and e-learning in K-12, higher education, corporate and government sectors.

With online teaching and learning becoming the norm for so many teachers and students during the COVID-19 climate, it is important to be aware of what makes an engaging, creative and effective web-based teaching and learning experience.

When and how much should students be using technology in class?
What is the best way to set up my classroom for device use?
How can I make sure I am protecting student privacy when using technology?
Which policies and procedures will help me get the most out of teaching with technology?
Are there benefits to allowing student phones in the classroom? If so, what are they?
How can I keep kids on task when they're using devices?
How can digital citizenship lessons help me get the most out of teaching with technology?
How can I use technology to support learning outside of school?

Engaging students through a computer screen requires a unique approach to pedagogy and innovative course design.  The feeling of “getting it right” typically involves a good deal of testing and modification given the wide array of design formats and technology tools available, not to mention the varying needs of students, many of whom are underprepared for online learning (Bettinger & Loeb, 2017).

Common Student Challenges

In online courses, certain student challenges tend to come up time and again, which disrupts learning or impedes completing coursework on time.

An engaging learning experience in which students are fully immersed in the content is driven by six variables, according to new research.

The State of Engagement 2019 report, from edtech SaaS provider GoGuardian, features insight from hundreds of students, teachers, school leaders, and IT administrators to identify the specific factors contibuting to an engaging learning experience.

Technology has undeniably and profoundly expanded access to education in many ways. For one thing, classroom walls have dissolved in the wake of these advancements providing new ways of learning. With classroom social media, a new age of education is dawning and teachers can be a catalyst for educational change.

The use of classroom social media allows students to communicate and collaborate with other students studying or researching the same topic or lesson material. With this freedom, students tend to take more responsibility for their own learning.

What is your tolerance for failure in education?

Jess Mitchell, senior manager of research and design at the Inclusive Design Research Centre, posed the question on Wednesday to a group of around 850 educators, librarians and other open-access enthusiasts at the OpenEd conference in Niagara Falls, N.Y.

Even as movements like open access gain momentum and increase access to learning materials for more students, Mitchell said, “the so-called playing field is not equal.” Determining where educators draw the line for failure, whether that’s with students of color, low-income students, immigrant students or some other group, determines educational outcomes and equity opportunities for the future.

You’ve probably heard about the benefits of digital learning: It’s engaging, student-centered, often collaborative, and can increase student achievement.

But here’s the catch:

You and your students won’t reap these benefits if you don’t purposefully plan your use of technology.

Too often, teachers think of technology as something to check off of a list. “Does this lesson use technology? Nope…How can I sprinkle some in?” Using technology merely for the sake of using technology isn’t effective teaching.

Instead, here are five digital learning theories and models that can help you tap into the benefits of technology and enhance student outcomes.

This section looks at the various aspects and principles relating to digital literacy and the many skills and competencies that fall under the digital literacy umbrella. The relationship between digital literacy and digital citizenship is also explored and tips are provided for teaching these skills in the classroom.

Bloom's Digital Taxonomy for The Web is another of our most popular posts of 2016. The visual features a number of key educational web tools to digitally operationalize Bloom's thinking levels. For each of these thinking levels ( creating, evaluating, analyzing, applying, understanding, and remembering) we came up with five web tools that better correspond with it.

Online course evaluation is crucial to the improvement of future courses, although carrying it out is difficult. Here are the three basic steps to it. 

“How did you do that?” This is a question I have been asked a few times in my career when using an element of technology in my lessons.

The thing is, this is not a reaction to my students tackling some carefully crafted web quest or using iPads to create animated video clips (simply because I don’t usually do those kind of tasks but more on that later!) It is often a reaction to my class using an app like Padlet to collaborate or Kahoot to create their own quizzes.

“I didn’t do that,” is usually my answer. “I just set it up and my students did the rest.”

“But it seems so complicated,” they continue. “I could never do something like that.”

When a teacher is reluctant to use technology in class, there are two reasons they may offer – “I don’t know much about technology,” and/or “my students are much better with tech than me so how could I teach them anything with it?”

Social media and technology are vital pieces of day by day life and incorporating the utilization of these into the classroom is more normal than previously, given how adjusted numerous students are to them.

Every social media stage offers various approaches to be utilized in the classroom, from sharing declarations to holding live talks, thus considerably more.

It’s critical to comprehend the effect of social media in education before utilizing it, yet we’re of the firm conviction that it will help advance students in innovation.

For nearly four decades, Perry Samson didn’t see many students’ hands raised in his large lecture courses.

“I just assumed I nailed class and threw chalk down and did the victory dance,” says the atmospheric science professor at the University of Michigan. “In reality, they probably had questions but were afraid to ask them.”

When we say that our lifestyle has changed, it tends to point towards various trends and things that have brought that difference.

According to this research, by January 2019, there have been 3.4 billion active social media users around the world. Even young children, who are barely beginning to speak, want a piece of it while they are eating - they won’t open their mouth unless their favorite song is played on YouTube!

Ask a Tech Teacher contributor, Jane Sandwood, has interesting ideas on blending tech with tradition:

California has recently increased state investment in school technology, focusing on better broadband connections and supporting further teaching of computer science. Although there is still some debate about the benefits of increasing use of technology in schools, there appears to be plenty of evidence to show that, if used effectively, it can greatly enhance learning. It isn’t as productive on its own, and shouldn’t be used as a substitute for good teachers. However, blended learning takes the positive aspects of technology and combines them with tried and tested teaching methods. Although children are naturally becoming citizens of the digital world, for them to integrate fully and in a positive way in this new society, they still need guidance from teachers.

Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of working with approximately 300 faculty who have developed and taught their first online course. One of the concerns I frequently hear from instructors considering teaching online is that they will lose the interaction and sense of community they have with their students when they teach face-to-face. That doesn’t have to be the case; many online instructors successfully create a sense of community in their courses. There are a variety of definitions of community. Most include wording or phrases such as “having something in common,” “feelings of being connected,” “shared goals or aspirations,” and “regular interaction.” This article will explore seven strategies faculty can use to promote and increase community in the online environment.

The Digital Literacy Competency Calculator (DLCC) is a web-based tool for representing the connection between digital literacy competencies and the teaching and learning practices that produce them. 
For more information, read our White Paper.

The learning design recipes provide real examples of academic teaching practice within the University and are shared here to inform and inspire practical digital solutions to pedagogical challenges…

Social media offers great opportunities for teaching. Wasim Ahmed and Sergej Lugovic have reviewed the literature on the use of Twitter in the classroom and have noted its benefits to both students…