8 Simple Ways to Implement New Technology in Your Teaching to Benefit From It
In 2019, it is difficult to imagine an ESL lesson without the use of modern technologies. Every tutor, language center or school tries to use audio and video presentations, interactive whiteboards, smart toys and so on. With the help of modern technologies, the learning process becomes more interesting, dynamic and informative. It is promoted by the developing market of educational services, growth of the competition, and also inquiries of students. In this article, we will try to find out how a modern teacher can use technology in his lesson.
This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Andrei B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
1. Plan Before You Go
A good teacher always knows what his students will do in the classroom. Not so long ago the preparation took long hours of handmade, required artistic abilities and excellent imagination, but now any necessary material can be printed or presented in a visual presentation. Referring back becomes easier with e-copies of all the lesson plans used and sorted on the computer. The quality of the lesson depends only on the teacher himself.
Also Read: Teaching English to Groups and Individuals
2. Breaking News!
Imagine a lesson that will start as a news story. The contents can be anything, like the missing article or Past Simple practice. The teacher can play videos, use a microphone, camera, record interviews only to gain the student’s interest at the ENGAGE stage and diversify the lesson. And that’s only one idea.
3. Look And Listen
With the growing popularity of a variety of smart toys, it is worth thinking about purchasing smart pens and books which can be found everywhere these days. They will definitely help you in drilling exercises and can make the STUDY process more fun. Add various video and audio materials to that and you are set.
Also Read: What Really Is the Role of the Parents in Education?
4. Make it Fun
A variety of technologies will help breathe new life into the Activate Stage. Students can make their own movie, vine or record their own song. The evolution of the internet can make interesting online conference sessions possible, for example with the other class on the different side of the Earth.
5. A Star Goes to…
Pretty much every teacher was ever using a rewarding system with their students. That could be stickers, stars, candies, fake money and so on. Now you can combine them all! With the help of projectors and smart boards, your reward may vary from an Avenger's sticker to a PPT about the best student of the week/month/term. You can easily split the class into teams, which will have their own designed name, logo and a scoreboard. That would serve as a nice team-building thing and develops the student's imagination and production as well.
Also Read: Leaders Are Readers: How to Develop Children’s Interest for Reading
6. How to Say That?
Different students may have completely different needs. For the young learners, it is very important to get acquainted with the sound of a foreign language, practice in the pronunciation of new words, and for the proficient, students may be interesting to learn the accents, intonations, and ways of speaking. For example, many online platforms offer Phonics courses for the very beginners with all the games, songs, chants and videos needed. And, thanks to the Internet again, you can always find videos of people speaking British, American or Australian English and present them to your students, pointing out the differences and breaking points of each of the speakers.
7. Click it – Touch it – Say it.
Due to the huge competition between the educational publishers, all of them are trying to keep up with the times. Almost every coursebook of a famous publisher is presented as an E-book. If the classroom is equipped with a smartboard, the students can interact with it in any possible way, like click, touch and write in it whatever they want.
Also Read: The Subtle Art of Building Relationship in The Classroom
8. Are You Ready?
Testing and evaluating the students can be upgraded to the whole new level. If you don’t want to waste the time during the lesson you can always assign a test to students as homework without worrying about their cheating. Professionally developed testing software can help you with assigning a personal task for every student and provides you with all the information about their mistakes, errors, typos and even time spent on each question. Or, If you still want to test your students yourself you can make it in a more interactive and interesting way turning the test day back from being less favorite among children.
Do you want to teach English abroad?
As you may see, there are dozens of ways how to use modern technologies during the ESL class. The TEFL course was an inspiration for creating all these ideas and I hope I will have a chance to try them all being a certified teacher.
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