by Maki Bennett, Matt Felts, Harley Perritt and Macy Shupe
Teachers are using Google Apps for Education, Edmodo and blogging in daily lessons to improve instruction and incorporate 21st Century skills.
Mike Dunavant, the instructional technology resource teacher, said technology benefits students throughout the school day.
“The executive director of my division says if we are teaching rich 21st Century lessons and to the highest order, then the SOLs will take care of themselves,” Mr. Dunavant said.
Mr. Dunavant said that using technology regularly in the classroom benefits students by building collaboration skills, communication skills and advanced knowledge for the working world.
“Being able to force students to work better together will help open their minds to critical thinking,” Mr. Dunavant said.
Virginia and United States history teacher Jelani Lynch uses Google Docs with his class for note taking.
“It allows collaboration. It allows them to interact with resources of the outside world,” Mr. Lynch said.
Mr. Lynch’s sixth block class uses Google Maps to find historic locations. Students pinpoint the location and add information about the event, battle or change that occurred at the site.
Junior Jamie Lund said she enjoys using Google Maps because it is interactive. She said the benefits of using Google Maps and Google Docs include using the automatic saving function on the Cloud, interacting with other students and accessing her work from any computer at home or school.
“It takes the stress out of stuff,” Jamie said.
For Mr. Lynch the automatic saving feature has another benefit: his students no longer have excuses about not having their work.
“As an educator, I’ve gotten tired of the ‘My computer crashed excuse,” Mr. Lynch said.
Junior Kayla Hatcher used Google Maps in Mr. Lynch’s class as a secure timeline.
“It shows us where in the world the place is, and it helps you see where certain places are,” Kayla said.
Health and physical education teacher Kenneth Perrault uses Google Docs for class projects and blogging. One of his students, freshman Chase McKinney, said the blogs are helpful.
“We can’t write to each other, but if you write something, the whole class can see it,” Chase said.
Biology teacher Juliana Yam is in her second year of using Edmodo, a social learning network. She said her students enjoy using Edmodo because it looks similar to Facebook and allows her to send text message reminders to cell phones about homework, quizzes and tests.
“I definitely see an improvement in homework,” Ms. Yam said.
Sophomore Talea Jones, a biology student in Ms. Yam’s class, said she likes receiving reminders on her phone from Edmodo but prefers using School Space because she is familiar with the format.
Mr. Dunavant said that the point of using 21st Century skills is to meet students where they are comfortable and prepare them for later in life.
“I haven’t seen any failures yet,” Mr. Dunavant said. “The biggest failure would be not using it.”
Recent Comments