The Future of Education is Now: 8 Technology Tips for Tech-Savvy Teachers
Teaching is a wonderful job that brightens the minds of tomorrow. As a schoolteacher yourself, you know how rewarding the job is, and that’s what keeps you coming back each year.
However, every job comes with its own challenges. One of the challenges you have to face is using the latest school technology.
It’s ironic how it all works, really: teachers tend to get some of the latest and greatest technology for classroom use, yet many don’t really know how to use it to its fullest potential.
Does this sound like you? If so, don’t worry; we have a load of technology tips just for you to help you out.
Technology Tips for the (Not So) Tech-Savvy Teacher
These tips will be able to turn you into a tech genius in no time. Keep reading to find out more.
Use Self-Check Quizzes
Sometimes, it can be a little annoying to have to manually create quizzes just to turn around and manually grade them. It would be great if you could get a hand with all of the testing, wouldn’t it?
Well, look no further. Thanks to technology, you can have the option of using self-checking quizzes that automatically do the grading work for you.
The quizzes are very quick and easy to create as well; simply set up some multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank questions in a computer program, and you can use software such as Google Spreadsheet to automatically score the quizzes.
Hotspot, Anyone?
A number of schools still don’t like to use the internet in classrooms, which is a shame because there’s so much that you can do on it.
However, if you’re one of the lucky teachers that get to work in a WiFi friendly environment, consider using it to your advantage to help teach your students.
There are few things more exciting than using the internet to interact with the class. There are loads of online activities that you can check out that are classroom friendly and easy to use. Why not try a few for yourself?
Games Are Great, Too
Remember when you use to come through school and having fun times in the classroom was generally discouraged? Well, contrary to that belief, it’s been shown that fun times are beneficial, even necessary, to overall student learning.
Help your students engage in the classroom by using games. Of course, there are loads of board games that are fun as well as educational, but the tech world can get them even more involved.
The internet has a ton of great games for math, science, English, and History that you can play that deal with educational learning. A simple search should pull up a long list of popular ones like Kahoot that can be fun as well as intellectual.
Want an even cooler option? You can have your students interact with technology in a hands-on manner. There are a number of school projects that allow kids to create simple robots or build a basic circuit system to engage them in learning.
Soup up Your Computer Defenses
It’s going to be pretty hard to teach a class if a virus takes over your computer. With that in mind, you need to worry about the well-being of your device.
This is more of a tip to help you out instead of the class, but by doing this you can offer your students a safe and consistent approach to their education.
Viruses and malware are in a larger number than ever before, and they continue to grow in number each year. These dangerous programs can infiltrate your computer and corrupt your files, even going so far as to ruin your computer.
That could mean having to recreate a lot of your important files – or even worse, having to order another computer.
You can keep this from happening by using a strong antivirus software on your computer. A number of computers already come with programs like Windows Defender Antivirus or Microsoft Security Essentials which can cover most threats.
If you’re looking for something with a bit more power and security, you’ll want to upgrade to something like the free Avast Antivirus or the Norton antivirus software. That way, you’ll know that your important things are protected.
The Cloud Is Your Best Friend
Are you still stuck in the era of flash drives? As useful as a flash drive can be, it’s about time that you were also introduced to the cloud.
No, we’re not talking about those puffy white things in the sky. In technical terms, a cloud is an area online where you can upload, download, save, and share files, all from your computer.
It works kind of like the flash drive you know and love, only better, faster, and with more security features.
Sounds pretty cool, right? And it’s totally classroom friendly, so you can use it with the students as well.
Next time you want them to save assignments or share files, you can do it all in a server like Be Structured IT services and enjoy the classroom collaboration.
Print onto Sticky Notes! (Kind Of)
Yes, you read that correctly. You can learn how to print onto sticky notes – and we know how much teachers love their sticky notes.
Though this tech tip may not be used directly for classroom interaction, it can most definitely be used to make your life as a teacher less hectic. And the best part is, you can do it using programs that you already know.
All it takes is using either Google Presentation or Microsoft PowerPoint. Change the size of the slides to match the size of the sticky notes (this is usually 7.5 by 7.5) and place whatever information you have to put on there.
After that’s done, add clip art of a sticky note onto the paper you plan to print on, matching the clip art to the text itself Then you can print as many sticky notes as you need to keep important classroom events in mind!
Speed up Your Computer
Is your computer slowing down? Then you better go clean it!
No, seriously, you need to clean your computer. After years of teaching and saving important files, your work computer may be slowing down tremendously. This could hurt your overall ability to effectively teach your classroom.
One of the easiest ways to fix this problem is to clean it up, and you can do that with a short series of simple steps.
First, make sure that your recycle bin is emptied. Contrary to popular belief, files just don’t simply vanish into thin air once they’re placed in the recycle bin; they’re compressed and stored there to be retrieved should you need them again later.
If you want to make sure they’re gone for good, go to your recycle bin and permanently delete the files. Just make sure you save the ones you want to a flash drive first.
Another way to clean your computer is to uninstall any files you don’t need anymore. Simply go into the control panel in your computer and type “uninstall a program” in the search box. You’ll see all of you programs you want to get rid of.
These simple notions should automatically improve the speed of your computer, so you have more space to get things done!
Long URL? Shorten It
There are few things more annoying than a long URL glaring at you from the pages of a student assignment. It looks completely unprofessional, and almost impossible to type out correctly in order to check out the website.
Thankfully, there is a way around it. There are a number of programs that you can use to make this happen, such as embedded software in Google Sheets, or in web programs such as Bitly, that can make your life easier.
All you have to do is take the super long link and place it into the bar on the site. Then the program takes care of the rest. In less than a second, you could have a shortened URL that’s easy to remember and place in a paper.
Make sure to tell your students about this amazing software so they can be informed and give you a crisp Works Cited!
The Place to Go to Stay in the Know
You now have all of the technology tips you need to become the most tech-savvy teacher in the classroom. But of course, there’s always more than you can do to upgrade your know-how – and we can help you with it.
We make it our job to give you the latest info on everything you could want to know about. Learn more about what’s happening in education, ways to improve your livelihood, important business steps, and so much more.
Don’t know where exactly you should start? Not a problem. You can check out our blog to see the latest news we have to offer. We’re pretty sure it’ll benefit your life in so many awesome ways.
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