Tag: classroom

Padlet – a fab tool to invigorate your classes

Padlet is just such a fabulous tool that can support classroom teaching in a variety of ways. It is one of our favourites. Think if a virtual wall on which anyone can easily post notes – not long diatribes – but notes, view on things, questions, ideas. Visible to all in the class, a lecturer can use padlet to collect questions, suggestions prior to a classrooms session.

I have often used padlet for several days before a session to get ideas for what to focus the session around – especially at the start. In addition padlet is often used to collect feedback after a class or even during a class. One powerful and valuable classroom scenario where padlet can come in to its own is in group work. As the work a group can record its thoughts on a padlet wall for the group and then this can be displayed at plenary for all to see.

It’s free with limits but even the free version is very usable for many scenarios.

Find out more about using padlet in the classroom.

Get your padlet account at www.padlet.com

Classrooms

A physical classroom is still where it ‘happens’ most often for university and college lecturers. That almost private, very personal space within which a relationship between a teacher and many students is so crucial to student learning and to the teacher’s personal fulfilment and enjoyment.

Good things can happen in a classroom without any ICT or AV (audio-visual) tools but normally these days a teacher will tend to use slides coupled to a projector screen. Of course they can also now make use of the internet in class and show videos and websites. That’s great but what is perhaps not so great always is the fact that the content displayed is against one presentation wall and a session can become one long presentation, with not much intervention or interaction from the audience.

In SMART teaching a classroom will see much greater participation from the students. They will tend to work in groups more and they will use technology for a variety of meaningful reasons, including at times presenting to the rest of the room. But the technology in a SMART classroom is not just about ICT and AV, it is also about the furniture in the room and several ‘basics’ such as writing surfaces and lighting.

So what’s wrong with online learning?

Online learning has been with us for a long time and has obviously led to major changes in the way that distance learning courses have operated. However there has always been the conundrum of how best to integrate online learning into the activities of universities that are campus based and teach primarily in physical classrooms. The reality of blended learning at most universities has in the main been little more than online Word and Powerpoint files made available as a supplement to lectures.

Sadly such exploitation of such powerful technology has inevitably not moved universities forward much in terms of changing the predominant learning and teaching paradigm of lecture, seminar, assessment.

In SMART teaching, online learning is central and something that feeds into and can actually take place within the physical classroom, so as to enhance the student learning experience and the teacher’s teaching experience.

What is SMART Teaching?

‘Smart teaching’ is a phrase we use to represent changes to teaching practices and processes underpinned by technology, new, different physical spaces and an interest to use more flexible, adaptable approaches to curriculum delivery.

The use of technology is often key in ‘freeing’ teaching from the constraints of place, time and paper and when combined with innovative use of physical space can help teachers to work with students in more flexible and mutually beneficial ways.

‘Flexible or adaptable teaching in an organisation encompasses:

  • a range of ways to deliver classes face-to-face
  • changes to the way teachers interact with students in class
  • changes to the furniture and other tools within a classroom
  • integration of online learning with what happens in the classroom