If you are an educator, you certainly understand the importance of having a variety of teaching strategies because each student will have different learning styles. Support tools can have a positive impact, help students remember longer, and be relevant to many subjects.
Moreover, lessons become more exciting and interactive when information is delivered in ways other than the traditional listening-and-writing style. So what are the tools to support creating an engaging lesson?
This EDU Blog will provide a comprehensive summary of teaching tools terminology, including explaining why teaching tools are essential, practical applications, and suggestions for a more engaging lesson.
What are Teaching Tools?
Educators need effective teaching tools to help students absorb the knowledge easily. Slides and pictures can make lessons more fun and easy to remember. Students can learn better when they see and do things, not just listen and write.
A good lesson has many tools to support learning. For example, in an English class for kids, there can be cards with words and images. Students who use these tools will know what works best for them and talk to their educators more. educators will also know how to teach each student better.
Teaching Tools Now and Then
Pen and paper are the simplest tools you can have as a educator. From making students take notes to grading their papers, the pen is the source of everything in education. An educator’s pen can create so many worlds and provide immense knowledge. Students’ pens incubate their future growth. Sometimes teaching tools can be simple like that.
From writing things on a chalkboard (or whiteboard) to using index cards to learn, these tools are the most fundamental teaching tools you can think of. Or bulletin boards in school hallways, posters, or colorful sticky notes are traditional teaching tools.
However, the world has been developing day by day, and education has evolved in many forms. Today’s classroom not only takes place in physical form but also spreads online. Therefore, teaching tools are also modernized and more innovative according to the flow of technology development.
Nowadays, often schools provide computer/tablet time in classrooms. Or educational institutions launch online learning in many forms, such as virtual classes or recorded lectures. With these forms, teaching tools can be online meeting applications or game-based education that allow online interaction. These classes teach students how to work in a world full of technology – that is how innovative teaching tools evolve.
While cell phones can be an unwanted distraction, scheduling time for supervised technology can be helpful. Educators should be aware that everything has pros and cons, especially digital devices. Therefore, innovative teaching tools should be applied carefully and under supervision.
How to take advantage of your teaching tools?
Suppose you know how to apply it properly. In that case, you can also open a completely vivid virtual reality world in your lectures, helping students interact directly with the knowledge in the lesson more easily.
Teaching consists of three main phases: before, during, and after class. Each stage of this process can use various software and tools to support education.
Pre class teaching tools
To prepare for the lesson, educators can use design tools to help them create lecture slides or tools to use in the classroom, such as pens or rulers. They can bring the class to life by playing scenarios that help students interact.
For online learning, educators could freely use the software to make the lesson more enjoyable—for example, software to design slides, videos, or interesting online games.
During class teaching tools
Online communication learning software such as Zoom or Google Meet can be used for online classes. These software have many practical features. Educators must use them to save time and avoid the need for many operations.
Some features include an automatic attendance check; interaction with students through reactions; a group discussion room; an immersive view to celebrate students in class; an additional camera to connect and observe the writing board and notebook pages.
What educators are most concerned about is increasing interactivity. They can use learning games such as Quizzi, Kahoot, sound, and vivid images; materials stored on the web should be light on the machine; Statistics results in excel form for easy viewing, sharing, and storage.
After class teaching tools
After online lessons, educators can use software such as Azota to collect conveniently, grade, and store lessons after online classes. Similar to Azota are Livework sheets. Livework sheets have a variety of vivid and easy-to-follow exercises, are graded by computer, and reduce the educator’s workload. Educators can use physical tools such as test files for face-to-face learning for different classes.
Currently, there are many teaching tools and related software. But not all tools are universal. Using too many digital devices is not always effective in teaching. Therefore, educators need to consider the selection suitable for students and their purposes of use.
Examples of digital teaching tools
Applied technology in teaching
Tools using Artificial Intelligence (for example, Wolfram Alpha) are firmly applied thanks to the feature of free answers to knowledge with a vast source of data aggregated from many general education sites instead of just providing suggestions about the topics.
Learning Management System (LMS) is an effective teaching tool in many countries worldwide. With features that allow educators and students to communicate directly in lectures and additional discussion or schedule features. Assignments will also be tracked on progress and submitted and graded online by LMS.
One of the things that cannot be ignored when it comes to the application of technology in teaching is the vivacious game-based education tools. These tools help to increase interaction in virtual classrooms.
Some examples of online teaching tools
For students today, technology devices are extremely familiar, close, and almost an indispensable role in their daily lives. Because of this increasingly digitized development trend, teaching tools in this digital era also develop strongly with the frequency of continuous updates with new features. This ensures that the teaching process has the best quality, in line with current trends.
If students want to enhance interaction in class, educators can try using Classpoint, Peardeck, Nearpod;
Educators who want their students to work collaboratively can use Sway, Word, Exel, PPT online, and Book Creative.
To make the tests more interesting, some suggested tools are Kahoot, Quizizz, Nearpod, and Blooket. To create automatic grading worksheets, LiveWorksheet is an excellent choice.
If educators want to support and grade student work, they can use Classkick. Encourage and badge students using Praise in Teams. To assess the level of interaction of individual students, Insight in Teams is an example.
Reminders for using teaching tools
Planning how you use tools will significantly improve your productivity using them. Additionally, educators can use the following tips along with teaching tools to ensure the highest levels of productivity and engagement:
To find the best tools, educators should be prepared to research various options and ask for the school administration’s assistance.
What educators hope to accomplish with this tool should be indicated. By doing this, they can maximize how educators use their resources while maintaining productivity.
Educators should accelerate collaboration tools. educators, students, and even parents must collaborate to guarantee a continual progression of learning.
Set time restrictions in the classroom. Setting deadlines for instructional activities can encourage pupils to feel positive urgency and responsibility, which will pave the way for increased productivity.
You may have found a suitable teaching tool for your classes through this article. Traditional learning will be challenging for learners to focus and absorb lessons well, so pay attention to the selection or combination of highly interactive tools to make the class more interesting!
To learn more about teaching tools, sign up free at EDU Passport and explore the content.
