No one likes to feel powerless; people like to think they have some control over what they do. That's why offering students
choice in the classroom is an effective way to increase engagement. Phillip Schlechty's book,
Working on the Work, explains, "What students are to learn is usually not subject to negotiation, but they [should] have considerable choice and numerous options in what they will do and how they will go about doing those things in order to learn."
Technology offers hundreds of choices when it comes to end products and sharing learning. The tricky part is that teachers and students need to know what technologies are available to them and know how to use them.
As a fifth grade teacher, I spent the first part of the school year having students do several mini-projects to become familiar with a selection of technology options and experiment with what mediums they like best. After experience with movie-making, slideshows creation, audio show recording, website creation, and graphic design in those mini-projects, I was able to offer my students those options later in the school year. It was always helpful when certain students became known as experts in one technology or another, because their assistance was very valuable to fellow students.
Here are a few of the many, many technology choices teachers can offer students when it comes to ways to reinforce and share their learning:
- Create a slideshow in PowerPoint, Keynote (Mac), OpenOffice, Google Docs, or SlideRocket.
- Use Word, Pages (Mac), or a graphics program to design a brochure or poster.
- Create an interactive game in PowerPoint or Keynote (Mac).
- Make a presentation using Prezi.
- Author a comic strip using Comiqs, or Super Action Comic Maker.
- Make a movie using iMovie (Mac) or MovieMaker (Windows).
- Create an narrated slide show using GarageBand (Mac), PhotoStory (Windows), or VoiceThread.
- Record a radio show using GarageBand (Mac) or Audacity.
- Author a website, blog, or wiki. Places to do this include Google Sites, Blogger, and PBwiki.
- Create a glog, a virtual online poster at Glogster. Read more about glogs in a previous post.
- Combine voice with an image at Blabberize or StoryBlender.
- Draw an animation using Ajax Animator, Xtranormal, or Aniboom.
What are some of the choices you offer students? Please leave a comment!
