By Mark Mallardi & Kent Brings, NSSEA Suppliers
One of the most daunting challenges facing educators in today’s media-saturated culture is the task of maintaining student interest in the classroom. With kids awash in IM, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, blogs, podcasts, iPods, iPhones, et al, the task of successfully engaging students in the classroom is an exercise in futility for those teachers choosing to go it with traditional methods – paper, pencil, chalk and blackboard – alone.
In stark contrast to the classrooms of our generation, or even those of a mere ten years ago, today’s classrooms require a very different set of “teaching tools” and teaching methods in order to insure that kids are engaged, inspired, and motivated to learn. Given that kids have available to them, 24/7, the means to access information, interact with others, and remain connected to the world in a real-time fashion, the classroom, in order to remain relevant, must adapt to fit within this new landscape.
The fundamental needs of the new classroom instructional paradigm are:
Social Engagement: The explosion in the popularity of social networking sites – MySpace, Facebook, etc. – is indicative of the need that kids have to be a part of something larger, to be connected to those with common interests, and to canvass available opinion before reaching conclusions. That being the case, the greater the degree to which small group and team activities can be incorporated into the classroom instructional environment, the greater the level of involvement on the part of students that will result.
Active Involvement: Asynchronous communication is a thing of the past. The “stand-and-deliver” lecture-style of teaching doesn’t work in today’s classroom. Students now expect a two-way dialogue, and increasingly see the process of learning as a living, breathing thing that isn’t subject to conventional parameters. This suggests that a classroom environment that encourages active involvement on the part of students will produce a level of commitment that is far superior to one that doesn’t. In fact, the more fluid the classroom discussion, and the greater the interest of the teacher in embracing students in the experience, the more genuine will be the involvement of the students in the instructional experience.
Interactive Learning: Kids are now quite accustomed to having “hands-on” access to content, both literally and figuratively. This is starkly in evidence in the proliferation of handheld devices in the marketplace – cell phones, iPhones, PlayStation Portables, etc. In concert with this trend, educators need to increasingly offer hands-on, tactile learning opportunities in the classroom in order to create an atmosphere that is both familiar and comfortable for students, and therefore encourages a much greater level of participation on their part.
Custom Content: With the availability of sites such as YouTube, kids are creating their own original content in ways that we couldn’t possibly have envisioned a decade ago. This suggests that a classroom learning experience that encourages students to provide fresh perspectives on traditional content, to develop their own original content, and to think outside the conventional lines of instruction, will produce superior results as a result of superior buy-in on the part of the students.
Competitive Play: As evidenced by the proliferation of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games (MMORPGs) and myriad other forms of team-based competitive play, kids are motivated by engaging in healthy, competitive, team play. Whereas the word “play” was looked upon as a negative in the classroom in generations past, an increasing body of research is becoming available that attests to the positive cognitive benefits of game play. That fact, combined with the availability of a growing array of “game products” that are standards-compliant and classroom-appropriate, provide teachers with a new generation of resources to help address the needs of today’s students.
There are a growing category of supplemental educational products that meet all of the above criteria. Examples of such products are Classroom Jeopardy! and GeoSafari Quiz Bowl, both of which feature wireless host controllers and player remotes, customizable electronic scoreboards, and the ability to deliver any type of curriculum content with all the sights and sounds necessary to create a highly engaging learning experience. Classified as Classroom Test Prep Systems, these products offer highly dynamic, hands-on, interactive, team-based, competitive methods of delivering instruction and performing assessment across virtually any curriculum area.
Given the availability of these types of products, and continued advances in interactive whiteboards, handheld student responders, classroom countdown timers, and a host of other “new-age” classroom resources, today’s educators increasingly have available the tools necessary to make instruction at once more engaging, inspiring, dynamic and fun!
It’s the task of the Educational Supply industry to keep our collective finger on the pulse of developments in technology and shifts in popular culture, all in an effort to insure that the products we produce continue to facilitate the ability of teachers to engage students in classroom instruction in a deep and meaningful way.
One of the most daunting challenges facing educators in today’s media-saturated culture is the task of maintaining student interest in the classroom. With kids awash in IM, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, blogs, podcasts, iPods, iPhones, et al, the task of successfully engaging students in the classroom is an exercise in futility for those teachers choosing to go it with traditional methods – paper, pencil, chalk and blackboard – alone.
In stark contrast to the classrooms of our generation, or even those of a mere ten years ago, today’s classrooms require a very different set of “teaching tools” and teaching methods in order to insure that kids are engaged, inspired, and motivated to learn. Given that kids have available to them, 24/7, the means to access information, interact with others, and remain connected to the world in a real-time fashion, the classroom, in order to remain relevant, must adapt to fit within this new landscape.
The fundamental needs of the new classroom instructional paradigm are:
Social Engagement: The explosion in the popularity of social networking sites – MySpace, Facebook, etc. – is indicative of the need that kids have to be a part of something larger, to be connected to those with common interests, and to canvass available opinion before reaching conclusions. That being the case, the greater the degree to which small group and team activities can be incorporated into the classroom instructional environment, the greater the level of involvement on the part of students that will result.
Active Involvement: Asynchronous communication is a thing of the past. The “stand-and-deliver” lecture-style of teaching doesn’t work in today’s classroom. Students now expect a two-way dialogue, and increasingly see the process of learning as a living, breathing thing that isn’t subject to conventional parameters. This suggests that a classroom environment that encourages active involvement on the part of students will produce a level of commitment that is far superior to one that doesn’t. In fact, the more fluid the classroom discussion, and the greater the interest of the teacher in embracing students in the experience, the more genuine will be the involvement of the students in the instructional experience.
Interactive Learning: Kids are now quite accustomed to having “hands-on” access to content, both literally and figuratively. This is starkly in evidence in the proliferation of handheld devices in the marketplace – cell phones, iPhones, PlayStation Portables, etc. In concert with this trend, educators need to increasingly offer hands-on, tactile learning opportunities in the classroom in order to create an atmosphere that is both familiar and comfortable for students, and therefore encourages a much greater level of participation on their part.
Custom Content: With the availability of sites such as YouTube, kids are creating their own original content in ways that we couldn’t possibly have envisioned a decade ago. This suggests that a classroom learning experience that encourages students to provide fresh perspectives on traditional content, to develop their own original content, and to think outside the conventional lines of instruction, will produce superior results as a result of superior buy-in on the part of the students.
Competitive Play: As evidenced by the proliferation of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games (MMORPGs) and myriad other forms of team-based competitive play, kids are motivated by engaging in healthy, competitive, team play. Whereas the word “play” was looked upon as a negative in the classroom in generations past, an increasing body of research is becoming available that attests to the positive cognitive benefits of game play. That fact, combined with the availability of a growing array of “game products” that are standards-compliant and classroom-appropriate, provide teachers with a new generation of resources to help address the needs of today’s students.
There are a growing category of supplemental educational products that meet all of the above criteria. Examples of such products are Classroom Jeopardy! and GeoSafari Quiz Bowl, both of which feature wireless host controllers and player remotes, customizable electronic scoreboards, and the ability to deliver any type of curriculum content with all the sights and sounds necessary to create a highly engaging learning experience. Classified as Classroom Test Prep Systems, these products offer highly dynamic, hands-on, interactive, team-based, competitive methods of delivering instruction and performing assessment across virtually any curriculum area.
Given the availability of these types of products, and continued advances in interactive whiteboards, handheld student responders, classroom countdown timers, and a host of other “new-age” classroom resources, today’s educators increasingly have available the tools necessary to make instruction at once more engaging, inspiring, dynamic and fun!
It’s the task of the Educational Supply industry to keep our collective finger on the pulse of developments in technology and shifts in popular culture, all in an effort to insure that the products we produce continue to facilitate the ability of teachers to engage students in classroom instruction in a deep and meaningful way.
