Any student can relate to the overwhelming ennui of having to sit through a class’s lesson consisting of words, words, and more words. The bleak contrast of the black text against a white background almost forces the brain to shut down. Students cannot learn like this, and they certainly will not want to. For that reason alone, is why many great educators resort to a more visual, dynamic, and engaging approach to lessons with the help of technology. Thankfully, there is already a vast ocean of applications from which educators can pick what best suits their style.
In Millers’ (2020) Tech Like a Pirate, he mentions
an app named Flipgrid (now named just Flip)
that can be used as a virtual whiteboard (pp. 38 – 39). Delving deeper into the
Flip website showed that it is akin to Zoom or Microsoft Teams in the sense
that groups can be created, and members can engage together with the use of
either the camera or text. A leader can create topics or discussions so that
members, such as students, can participate. A unique feature about Flip is that
since it is centered around video, replies to a topic themselves can be a video
instead of text. This gives students more freedom to express their knowledge as
some individuals are better speakers than writers. Additionally, Flip adds
plenty of creative effects to further boost creativity which, alongside the
fact that Flip is free, makes it a great application for educators.
On the topic of video, Miller (2020) also mentioned free
video making software, such as Adobe Spark Video (now named Adobe Express), as
well as briefly mentioning iMovie (pp.39-40). They are both great, but one video-making
app that can be accessible to Android devices is Video
Maker by InShot Inc. It is free to use and has a paid upgrade available;
however, that does not mean the free version is limited at all – quite the
contrary. Through a short, ten-minute session of creating a silly video, it proved
to be incredibly easy and interactive to use with a plethora of creative
options to choose from. With an app like Video Maker, making videos can be something
that is supremely versatile in a classroom, and it provides students with the
chance to truly engage in a lesson.
The final application, Quizizz, is also mentioned by Miller
(2020), and it more focuses on a game-type of activity (p. 52). Having a lesson
or review in the form of a game is a simple yet effective way of getting
students to be engaged in the material. The competitive nature of games makes
students want to better grasp lesson concepts so that they can get the right
answers and win. Quizizz provides plenty of visuals to facilitate memory alongside
features such as drawing, video response, and audio response which all give
that satisfying creative freedom to students. Quizizz is certainly a useful
tool for educators who want to make learning more fun and memorable for the
whole class.
Learning is not boring; it should not be at all. Education
is fickle so educators need to be flowing with the currents and be adaptable.
Thankfully, with the accessibility of technology and the sheer number of
creators, there is no shortage of applications with which educators can use to
enhance their teaching.
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