Good teachers are able to use students’ differences to their advantage. These teachers avoid the easy “one size fits all” approach and seek to engage each student as an individual. This is commonly done by teaching to different learning styles or incorporating students’ interests. This can also be done using technology.
All teachers have projects that involve a presentation or written report. These appeal to only a select few learning styles and the others have to suffer through it. Take for example a book report. The students who learn by reading and writing do fine while the visual learner wants to draw pictures or a flow chart and the physical learner can’t sit still long enough to write a full paper. Below are some programs that could be used as alternatives to a written report for various learning styles.
Group learner- Post the report on a blog and have other students leave comments. (WordPress)
Kinesthetic learner- Act out an important part of the book on video and tape yourself explaining the significance of it. (video editing such as iMovie)
Visual learner- Create a flow chart showing the connections and important events for each character in the book. (Inspiration)
Aural learner- Record yourself explaining a significant part of the book and then let other students record their own observations and comments. (VoiceThread)
As you can see, these are only a few options teachers could use. The goal is to start with an existing project and find appropriate technology that enhances it. The focus should be on the content and learning goals while the technology merely engages students’ interests and learning styles.
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