Use of technology in Education

Innovations and technology that changes day by day have changed the face of the education. Technology now a days have become an integral part of the education. As education is considered to be as the core aspect of one’s life, technology brings revolution by providing rich and valuable information.

Technological developments like e-learning, web; educational cds, digital classrooms, and so forth are, no doubt grasped by a few educational institutions to give the learners a lot of important data. The organizations today can have classes with instructors from over the world or even virtual classrooms. Additionally, the conveyance of the data through these mediums is in a substantially more interactive and creative way than reading material and textbooks. 

In such time of Technological change, the part of instructors is additionally evolving. They are no more the main bearer of information, the one and only source of providing data and information. The students can get data, information and project ideas through online destinations, eBooks, and so forth.

Almost each student is looking for web help instead of books as they got a great deal, more data and productively depicted on web, which is not difficult to learn and students do not forget it easily than as contrasted with what they learn through books. Indeed schools are utilizing projectors and taking assistance from web to teach students.  It’s an advance type of teaching today.

Because of technological advancement there is no need to go to the library, use the catalog and to rely on what is physically there. Technology has now opens the door to many more resources with different way of presenting the information.

The World Wide Web is the additional resource that teachers can use. Dictionaries, virtual libraries and electronic books can all be pulled on to the screen in a multimedia classroom. Furthermore, teachers wanting to find information on all the newest learning materials can turn to the Web.

Education now extends beyond the classroom walls. There’s a change in student and teacher roles. Now classroom is not compulsory to exchange the information between teacher and students or between students and student they both can exchange information on using technology via Ipad, tablet, smart phones, Online class rooms etc. You can exchange the information either you are in train, bus or outside the home.

Now a days using Digital boards in Digital classrooms make study very simple, more collaborative and interactive also. In these digital classrooms you can record faculties lecture for further use and broadcast it anywhere in the world simultaneously live.

Using these digital classrooms students can interact teacher personally and can perform questioning and answering privately. In this way the study can become more detailed.

Many institutions also have make use of the social media like Facebook, Twitter etc  that helps them in providing the students different types of notices, information and the daily updates about the education and institutional changes.

So it can be concluded that Technology have changed the scenario of the Education system. And the teaching learning process also has become easy for students and teachers both.

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Tips to have better student engagement in class for tutors

It is very much important to catch and keep students' focus; whether at the starting or midway through class. So to energies the students for effective learning in the class it is very important to follow some warm up activities at the beginning part of the session that make students feel relief, reduce their stress and can make themselves ready for the session learning with fresh mind.

Some activities also can be followed by educator that can increase the interest of student in subject the educator going to make them learn for which they can use different teaching and learning material to keep student’s interest in learning. And also incorporate academic games into lessons by which the students can relate it to practical situation and can remember it for a longer time period.

The work of education is troublesome, yet it is truly important to keep students cognitively engaged. It starts with picking up and keeping their attention and interest. Once we have that attention and interest, what we do with it will have the effect with arriving at our instructional objectives.

Using Questioning Strategies That Make All Students Think and Answer. It is the same situation of numerous classrooms that the instructor asks questions and, always, the same reliable hands raise up. This pattern lends itself to learner inattention. So some attention catching activities can be followed by the educator for students’ engagement during question answer session. So it is important to incorporate some questions you require every student to reply. Find a question you know everyone can address basically, and have the class react at the same time.

The educator can ask students to put a finger up when they're ready to answer, and once they all do, ask them to whisper the answer at the count of three. Encourage shy students to speak. Protect the soft-spoken and encourage shy students to speak. Don’t permit long-winded or loud students to command the classroom discussion.

Approach the individuals who don't talk much so everyone is heard from. There are some students who are shy and hated to come to the front of the class to talk. At the same time these types of students are excellent students and wanted to defeat their fear of public speaking. So it’s better to worked out an arrangement with these types of students to permit them, for the first few times, to present from their seat instead of coming to the front of the class.

This helped the students to improve and made great progress talking in class. An alternate thought is to ask a question and give the students couple of time this allows learners to formulate their thoughts before the discussion begins. 

Students enjoy problem-solving with their companions. When controversy is not too strong, it can update learning by adding excitement and fun into classroom activities. Incorporate organized debates and group rivalries to enhance student achievement.

"Encourage students to voice their opinions as you may never know what you can learn from your students." "If the educator reveals to students that they are confident in the abilities of learners and has a welcoming and well-spirited personality towards them, learners feel more capable of doing the things we couldn't do. Students are more engaged when they feel they are in a "partnership" with their educator."

Incorporate peer review is also an important task. When students make presentations, which they should do frequently it’s very effective to encourage peer review. By allowing students to teach each other and to learn from each other. It engages them more than the educator doing a solo act.

At the ending of the session a very effective activity of summarization can be used. In this activity students are given time of ten minutes to answer four things they have learned, three interesting things and two questions they have about the lesson. Allow time to share their findings with a companion. Let learners know at the beginning of the session that they will need to write down three things they learned.

And when students themselves choose the assignments, project directions, and more would engage students with studies after teaching hours also.

"Giving students choices helps us utilize qualities and provide freedom to make a project the way we want it to. When we do something we like, we're more focused and enjoy learning more." 

At the same time it is equally important for the educator to ask early for feedback from students. Three possible questions to ask are: What is helping you learn in this class? How much you are satisfied with the teaching and learning method of the educator? What are your suggestions for the rest of the semester? And provide students a leisurely ten minutes of silence to write their answers. It is effective to repeat this exercise about two months into the class. It will provide valuable information about what is and is not working, allowing you to change, modify or tweak what you are doing.

And as a result report over to the class on the things you learned from the feedback and the changes you intend to make. Make it clear that you invite open and productive feedback from learners and make sure you implement the changes you promise to make. This activity will empower students and send the message that you care about how they are doing in the course, and that you are open to making changes for their benefit.

Are there any other ideas you use or can suggest for better student engagement? Please share them in the comments space below.

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Attention catching activities

Planning is such an imperative part of anybody's profession. Just like writers need to plan a story and have marketing plans to sell their work, educators constantly must have various kinds of attention grabbing activities and especially in the question answer part of session.

So the further introduced are some of the attention catching activities that make them attentive in the class at the time of question answer part of the session. The educator use different types of activities to call students to answer the questions of the lesson so all the students in the class can be equally attentive and can get equal chance to represent themselves to answer the questions.

Use a pick name bowl activity to keep Students Thinking: Write each student's name on a chit and put the chits in a cup. To keep students on their toes, pull a random chit to choose someone to speak or answer a question. At the beginning of using your pick name bowl, prepare a range of questions, some of which all your students can successfully answer. This strategy allows the bottom third of your class to get involved and answer questions without being put on the spot.

Cold-calling is a productive activity to call on students who haven't volunteered to answer the question.

The next effective activity is to pick out the students by their roll numbers so that each and every learner can be attentive during the question answer session. And all the students get equal chance to participate.

The other activity is to call any particular student’s name and the student setting on his/her left side has to answer the question the educator is going to ask. So every student can be alert and attentive for their turn.

It’s very important to encourage the students by saying very good, excellent, perfect, awesome, etc. that encourage all the students to take part in the activity.

Are there any other ideas or activities you use for better student engagement at the time of question answer session? Please share them in the comments space below.

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Warm up activities at the initial part of the session

The more the educator can manage classroom to be a supportive environment, where students are encouraged to take risks without fear of being put down or teased, the easier it will be to use these activities regularly, without feeling that you are setting students up for failure.


Good at the beginning of class to wake everyone up! Call out commands such as: sit down, stand up, walk in a circle, clap your hands...stop, jumping jacks...stop etc. At first students will copy you but later they should be able to do the commands by themselves. Let the students stand in a line and give them instructions: "Jump 10 times", "Turn around 4 times" etc.

A two or five minute Omkar activity will also help student to refresh their mind and to have more concentration in the class. So that the further learning can become better and effective.

The activity of asking questions regarding their hobbies, favorite cartoon or television show, favorite game, and favorite place etc type of questions at the initial part of session will also make them fresh for the further session.

Do a inter connection exercise: In some of the early classes in the semester, give students a three-minute “interconnection” exercise. Before it starts, teach them the importance of making contacts and meeting key people to their careers. Then tell them to stand up, move around the room and find a student they don’t know or know very little. Give them an exercise such as a question relevant to the class or finding out something unique about the person and then have them report back to the whole class on what they learned from each other.

These activities are important as they provide proper refreshments to the students that refresh their mind and also body. It helps educators to create good rapport and can be a good link between the educator and student for teaching and learning activities. These types of activities help the educator to make students ready mentally and physically for the further session and activities.

Are there any other ideas you use as warm up activities at the initial part of the session? Please share them in the comments space below.

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Save Environment

To spread the worldwide awareness of environmental issues 5th of June is celebrated as world environment day instituted by United Nations. It is a day to promote caring of planet, earth and to initiate with positive environmental actions. World Environment Day started in 1972 as a day for individuals from all kinds of different backgrounds to meet up to guarantee a cleaner, greener and brighter standpoint for themselves and future eras.

The 2014 theme for World Environment Day will focus on 'Small Islands and Climate Change', the official slogan for the year 2014 is 'Raise Your Voice Not The Sea Level.

The UN General Assembly proclaimed 2014 as the International Year of Small Island Developing States (SIDS). World Environment Day (WED) 2014 will be celebrated under the theme of SIDS, with the objective of bringing awareness of their unique development challenges and successes regarding a range of environmental problems, including climate change, waste management, unsustainable consumption, degradation of natural resources, and extreme natural disasters. UNEP is likewise requesting votes for the 2014 WED slogan through 5 March 2014. The winning slogan will be utilized to approach the global WED community to take action for islands.  

There are several easy steps you can take to help create a clean environment and a healthier planet including the following ideas:

A little bit simple life can contribute more to the clean environment. This can be done by using properly the things that you have and not to buy that you really not need. And that will result in to less waste that has to go into our already full landfills. And it will create better environment.

Utilize fewer items that hail from trees in your home and at work. This is referred to as having a tree free home. Utilizing less tree items will mean more trees will be spared and that prompts better air quality. Simple approaches to utilize less tree items incorporate utilizing clothes rather than paper towels, material napkins rather than paper ones, utilizing tissue that holds no less than 80% reused waste, utilizing both sides of papers you have and print in your home, and just utilizing wood within your home that is effortlessly reestablished.

In the event that you can have less waste left your home, the landfills won't be so flooding for future eras. You can do this by buying items with as little packaging as possible and recycling as much of your waste as possible. Likewise, purchasing just what you need will lead to less waste and that will help the earth.

An alternate approach to help a clean environment and to prevent the environmental issues is to make moves to get less garbage mail so the papers don't get sent to landfills. Likewise, you can purchase reusable shopping bags for all your shopping needs so you don't utilize plastic and paper bags that simply escape. Plastic bags particularly are terrible for nature. In the event that you have unused things, you can give them to somebody who can utilize them as opposed to discarding them.

It is easy to take steps to create a clean environment. If everyone makes a few small changes, it will have a big impact on our environment. We all need to be focused on creating a clean environment.

The following activities can be arranged at schools to aware the children about the environmental issued and also the importance of clean environment to have better present as well as future also.

A Skit can be performed by students to create awareness about planting trees.

All the Students contributed unused papers from old notebooks; senior students bound them into notebooks which can be distributed to economically backward children.

Collage making competition on Environment.

All students can plant a tree each in their neighborhood.

Plantation of environment friendly tree saplings

Talk on Environment Protection

Art Competition on Environment Protection amongst students of nearby schools

Displaying of movies related to Environment Protection

 

Keeping the Earth clean improves the environment in many ways. Keeping the environment clean reduces pollution, which is bad for the environment. Rubbish such as plastic bags frequently finds their way into oceans/rivers where they tend to trap and suffocate aquatic life such as fish. So reducing paper bag use is an important step. Cleaning the environment is important because it will protect our health, this beautiful and wonderful world is turning into a garbage heap help clean it. If you don't have clean environment; pollution will spread and nature will die. Remember cleanliness is close to godliness.

Comment below if you have any other ideas to save environment to have better present and future life.

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