bottom line is that because technology is so prevalent throughout the world, your kids and students will not be able to live successfully without it. They will need it to pay bills, set up services in their home as well as accounts around town, do their banking, schedule appointments, the list can go on forever.
The more we equip them to do this at an early age, the more they will glide into their real-world life with little difficulty. Except for maybe the apocalypse, or the occasional power outage. Although, even with a power outage we have a generator that keeps our electronics and some critical household items up and running. But that is kind of beside the point, except to say that we can prepare our students for just about anything when we are demonstrating it to them in real life.
And one of the best parts of this: the earlier you teach your students this, the more fun they have “playing adult.”
4. Technology Bridges the Gap Between Generations
This is one of my favorite reasons for loving technology in today’s world. We are all using it, why not use it to bring us all together?
Whether we are playing games, working on something around the house that requires technology, or helping them with their homework, we are bridging the generation gap in a way that both sides can understand the other.
I have loved when my kids came to me and asked me to play a certain game with them. I wouldn’t be so sure about it, but it ended up being so fun playing with them. Would I have done it on my own? Most likely not. But the experience of hanging out with my kids, who actually asked me to hang out with them was golden.
And this equates just as well to the classroom. Playing games that adds an electronic component to it can make it easier on teacher and kids to figure out or implement. Working it out together teaches communication skills, teamwork, and understanding between different people. These are truly great qualities to teach across generations.
And it shows them that humanity is basically very much the same in all of our differences. We are all human.
What a great lesson in people skills!
5. Technology Reinforces What the Students are Learning
There are some great ways to reinforce what your students are learning, both in non-tech as well as techie ways. A mixture of both is perfect. But for the technology side, here are some great ways to do it:
- Playing a game in which they need to remember facts that they learned. This can be as simple as a buzzer set. Or it can be as complex as a full on electronic quiz game.
- Gamification. This is a wonderful way to immerse the students in a game world that enhances their whole school day. And it such a great way to encourage the way they already think to make their school day fun. A great way to do this is with Classcraft. This is by far my favorite gamification app. It is one of the most well thought out ones on the market. And it was created by a teacher who knew what would work in the classroom.
- Recording a video allowing the kids to demonstrate what they have learned. This can be a quiz show format, a news story format, a narrative storytelling format, or even a drama format. It can be anything the kids can dream up.
- Showing educational videos that reinforce what they have learned.
There are so many other ways to do this. You will find them as you work on technology in your own life. Just try to keep an open mind about what can be done in the classroom, and they will pop up all the time in your own personal life experience!
6. Because There is More Information in Their Tablets Than in the Whole School
In a large number of schools in America, students have to carry their books, instruments, and other materials around school all day. It is daunting as well not physically advantageous for them. In some cases, younger students are struggling with back and shoulder issues from carrying around more weight on a regular basis than is healthy for them.
One great way to change this is to have a lot of their learning material on a tablet or Chromebook rather than several textbooks.
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