Motivate Students

This PAGE One column features technology-in-the-classroom advice from tech-savvy Georgia educators.

By Farrel Webb, Martin Luther King Jr. High School, Lithonia

As educators, we continually compete with technology for our students’ attention. Each day, it seems, we must remind students that listening to music and texting aren’t appropriate uses of class time. In my experience, students use their devices unproductively when they are not engaged or when they are not being held accountable. Here are some simple ways to counter those pesky, new societal habits and help students use technology productively:

Use short, focused activities with clear objectives. When teaching about communication networks, for example, you could use a Promethean board to display cell towers and signals transmitted through radio and TV waves. Have students design a can and string with a computer-aided design program, and then play a virtual version of the old-fashioned telephone game. Or have students use iCloud to locate a hidden Apple device.

Have students create word lists based on a book or study unit, and then create a word cloud using Wordle or Tagxedo or an image to visually express the words. These types of projects reinforce the student’s learning, analysis and determination of the most valuable information.

Play engaging games on sites such as Glogster, Jeopardy or Scribble Maps.

WELL-MANAGED ASSIGNMENTS

Sites like Letscrate and Google docs enable you to upload hundreds of documents at a time. Online versions of homework assignments can serve as a backup for handouts that didn’t make it home in the backpack. These sites also make it possible for students to complete the work online, and several will grade assignments instantly and provide students with feedback.

Downloadable applications such as Edmodo and Infinite Campus enable students, parents and/or teachers to keep track of their grades, assignments and attendance.

And just as an instructor dims the lights to signal that the noise level must be lowered, a program such as remind.com can alert students of impending project deadlines.

LEARNING UNPLUGGED

Sometimes a well-planned lesson can crash and burn when a server goes down, a screen goes out or the Promethean board lamp burns out. Use these times to challenge students to broaden their knowledge or invent solutions. Students, like adults, are often not aware of the breadth of functionality availed by their devices. Now’s a great time for them to learn how to fully use the calculator or calendar programs at their fingertips. Such exploration helps teach personal accountability and resourcefulness, and it disarms the excuse of “I didn’t have time to learn it.” Students who contend that they have too much information and “too little time” can photograph their notes for later review. Reinforce the activity by having students upload the notes to a website or by sending a copy to themselves and/or their parents.

BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

Educators seeking to help students with limited access to technology at home may wish to check into computersforclassrooms.org, withcauses.org or even freecycle.org. Some Internet service providers also provide discounts for disadvantaged families.

Farrel Webb, a business, marketing and technology teacher at Martin Luther King Jr. High School in Lithonia, specializes in making the complex simple … and fun. Her previous employers included Apple and The National Institutes of Health. Webb holds a master’s degree in business education from the University of West Georgia.