Smart Ways To Make Classrooms More Innovative During Covid-19 (Part 1)

Smart Ways To Make Classrooms More Innovative During Covid-19 (Part 1)

Achieving quality education is a must. In these times of change, both teachers and students have had to manage their learning differently. From the educational point of view, this learning enriches collective experiences that seek to achieve a quality education. In this blog, we share new methodologies, tools, ideas, or tricks. In short, a selection of proposals to facilitate student learning.

 

#1. LEARNING BY PROJECTS

Learning by projects, also called Project-based learning, is one of the methodologies for promoting educational innovation. This teaching method is based on the student as the protagonist of their own learning, equaling the acquisition of skills and attitudes with learning on the scale of importance. In this methodological approach, the most important thing is the students’ learning and deepening path, who carry out an extensive research process to answer a question or problem. So the student is assigned a project that they must develop with autonomy and decision-making capacity. They can face challenges, solve problems and work with their peers in that autonomous but organized environment. The teacher’s role is to advise and evaluate throughout the project.

 

#2. GAMIFICATION

The use of games to motivate learning and create fun study situations improve communication encourages student participation, makes difficult and tedious activities more fun, or promotes perseverance. The term gamification is an Anglicism that comes from the English gamification and consists of applying the principles and techniques of games to other less playful activities. Thus, the natural predisposition towards play is used to improve motivation towards learning, acquiring knowledge, or developing skills. This technique is explored in many fields such as marketing, HR or business; it is also recommended to apply it to all areas and academic levels. And it is precisely within the classrooms, in teaching, where a more significant growth of the applications of playability principles is expected.

 

#3. FLIPPED CLASSROOM

Faced with a changing educational reality, teachers become aware that their role as a simple transmitter in the classroom no longer works. They must become a guide and content creator in this learning process. Flipped classroom or reverse class is a pedagogical model that transfers the work of specific learning processes outside the classroom and uses class time, together with the teacher’s experience, to facilitate the participation of students in the classroom through questions and activities that promote the exploration and application of ideas and, ultimately, active learning, thus reversing traditional teaching models.

 

#4. MOBILE LEARNING OR MOBILE LEARNING

Hand in hand with the growth of the use of mobile devices, mobile learning or learning through mobile phones opens up new possibilities and challenges. Among other things, mobile learning is characterized by being accessible from anywhere and at any time; flexible, adapting to the needs of each student; portable, allowing user mobility; immediate, for the possibility of accessing the information at any time; economic, compared to other tools its cost is lower; promotes a more active role of the student; It is multifunctional as it has elements (GPS, camera, etc.) that can enrich the learning processes; and it is personal, allowing a learning experience of their own to each student. And although it increases the motivation of the student, its use is straightforward because it is integrated into the lives of the students; facilitates understanding of knowledge by including multimedia elements; attend to diversity, and it allows the use of games to support teaching, a large part of the teaching staff is still reluctant to incorporate it into their classes for fear of the improper use that their students may make of mobile devices during classes.

 

#5. STORYTELLING

Storytelling is a technique advertisers use to entice the user through the account of experiences that can feel identified. But this art of storytelling is now being taken to other areas beyond advertising, such as education, to teach knowledge and values. The need to tell and listen to stories is essential, but it must be adapted to the recipient and connect emotionally with him to be compelling. Storytelling facilitates teaching skills and encourages students to use their imagination, increase their creativity, and improve comprehension and expression. In addition, as with technology, storytelling in education works as one more resource to enrich learning experiences. And the inclusion of technology precisely multiplies its possibilities by allowing stories to be presented in many different formats: text, video, photos, interactive sites, songs, video games, or even virtual reality.

 

Stay tuned for the second part for more ways to make classrooms more innovative.