It’s my first year teaching, so far it’s been challenging and incredibly fun. I teach Biology, Chemistry and Physics in rotation to 136 students. The tools below have been very useful in creating resources, saving time and contributing to the learning of my students.
Teaching has also made me aware of some potential opportunities in education. Closing these gaps with new tools could benefit schools everywhere from nice to haves, to those that could shift whole practices.
Some of the tools are Science specific but can be adapted for any subject. I’m not employed by any of them but I do benefit from using them.
The current tools.
Finding interesting stories takes time and spare time is rare.
Feedly takes care of that issue giving me access to new stories around topics of interest. The simple and quick access to articles and visuals makes it very useful.
A light weight task scheduler. Accessible online away from my phone, works on Internet Explorer and can keep pending tasks grouped together. This keeps my workflow streamlined and notes my tasks.
Google Earth brings in the rest of the world to my lessons and now that Google Earth Pro is free you can use a whole number of tools to load new perspectives as layers on top of the earth quickly.
You’ll need a copy of google earth and a few interesting KML files, for example explore a minefield with Angelina Jolie or view some mysterious coloured lakes. These open the place and information quickly onto Google Earth. There’s further uses in it from measuring buildings to seeing locations throughout time giving real all ways of contributing to learning across the curriculum.
Subjects aren’t static. All subjects change especially Science constant new evidence projects and findings make it exciting to teach.
Mail outs collate these new advances easily across different threads. It’s a routine to share this week in science at the beginning of the week which students really enjoy.
There is also a technology weekly and there might be one for your subject. Others of interest include Aeon, Springwise, SciDevNet.
Getting students involved and contributing to research in any subject is brilliant for their learning, projects from Zoo Universe allow for this. One project Snapshot Serengeti has been extremely useful when discussing animal adaptations, classifications and evolution. This isn’t limited to science as there are also projects on history and more.
Reddit/Imgur/Giphy/5 Seconds App.
Eye catching visuals particularly gifs can make a difference in learning. Reddit, Imgur and Giphy are great banks for these visuals (one I used recently). From reaction gifs to lighten the mood or one that expands explanations, there are many options out there.
But when they’re not the 5 seconds app is there for you. Available in your local app store it allows you to create gifs quickly from photos/videos captured from previous lessons. There are plenty of options besides this app however this one is intuitive, fast and watermark free. Here’s two I made earlier.
Sometimes students need to access information in their own time. These two are excellent due to the possibilities to track classes, recommend areas and assess knowledge. The depth and quality of information are impressive. Both are useful for homework, research and cross curricular tasks.
Students produce tremendous amounts of work and evidence of learning. Some examples from my classes made their way onto my department boards but many other good examples simply made their way into recycling bins. This is effort that needs to be recognised.
Wall display is the tool to showcase learning. There isn’t a need to throw away good learning anymore. Class examples can be shown, shared with parents and digital copies reused. The focus on the learning and work itself is the excellent part. Additionally with new features coming for feedback and faster sharing with parents this is one tool to watch.
The opportunities for new tools.
The gaps I’ve identified are in planning lessons, special educational needs, parental engagement and qualifications. These are the ones that I experience. However there might be an elegant solution already in existence, if so please do leave a note.
- Planning lessons. (Creatively)
Lessons are what teachers do. Learning needs to be imparted but with so many lessons this can be difficult. Of course this is something that does get faster with experience. Once a repertoire and resource is set (thanks TES) planning gets straightforward. However the danger then becomes that lessons stagnate.
We could look at the design of the lesson plan document itself or the way we review our lessons but these can also stagnate without external stimuli. The opportunities in lesson planning are for tools that can motivate and accelerate the process.
Could there be a tool that suggests new ideas for teachers in built into their lesson planning routine? Could we have teacher dashboard platforms which feed in new ideas/images automatically? Could we have concept tools that could suggest successful class games, images or new videos allowing you to structure ideas within existing lesson outlines?
2. Parental Engagement. (Quick, reliable and rewarding)
Engaged parents and successful students are strongly linked but being a parent is difficult and often school communication isn’t great. There are opportunities here for tools that engage parents quickly, honestly and with a good experience.
We could stick with emails or letters, tracking them and their responses, but the question remains is it a rewarding experience for anyone? Parents and schools need to be able to keep track of their students, pass on messages to each other quickly but also be encouraged throughout.
Wall display is one step in the right direction with examples of good student learning that could be shared with parents for a good experience.
Could/should tools gamify interactions? Could it reward parents for staying involved with the school?
3. Special educational needs. (Tailoring, automating, supplementing)
I’m still not fully decided on whether this is an area that requires new tools to deploy or for more investment in continually training staff. But discourse is good, so thinking hypothetically tools here could focus on tailoring, automation or supplementing teaching. Improvements in educational needs would also benefit every learner.
Teachers are responsible for the learning of every student in their class. This can be difficult when trying to balance out the needs of each learner. Additionally research into educational needs might highlight new practices to help learners and technology could rapidly deploy these.
For example we could have a tool for students with dyslexia that generates typographically designed printouts from slides to make for easier understanding. Another example could be a tool that alters the colors of slides automatically when presenting, taking into account needs of students.
Could we cheaply and quickly make it even easier for teachers to tailor lessons? Could we automate parts of the differentiation process that takes into account new research?
4. Qualifications. (Better for students, schools and society)
My students are working towards qualifications. They understand the need for them but also feel the restrictions faced by them often not seeing the value in their learning. These qualifications also cost the school but when students are disengaged these become even larger costs for everyone involved. For employers are these grades as relevant anymore, further what can these qualifications do to show student potential?
There are multiple gaps here in improving experiences for students, reducing costs for schools and transparency for employers.
Could we have tools that allow for greater student choice in what they study? Could tools for qualifications generate portfolios that show what students are capable of creating? Could we have automated script readers for objective marking also freeing teachers time? Could we open source qualifications for free, passing on the savings to schools? Could/should qualification tools have some psychometric profiling?
Education is improving rapidly these are some of the gaps I’m experiencing as a new teacher. Perhaps some of these are justified and perhaps there are a few more gaps that we could fill, thoughts on these are appreciated.
