Like so many educators, I'm ready to embrace new and innovative learning techniques. We want our students to learn in engaging, student-centered, standards-based ways that respond to children's needs, passions and interests. Hence, I offer you this short list of innovation and communication paths to capture educators' attention with regard to student-friendly tools.
- Create tools that are easy to understand and access 24-7.
- Create tools that provide educators with easy to utilize data reports.
- Let us use the tools for free on computers and iPads at first.
- Streamline and nest choices so that students essentially walk an interest/need path as they utilize the tool.
- Stay away from violence, and move towards life-enhancing adventures, quests, challenge--consider the fact that you're nurturing the future through your invention.
- Offer to visit and provide one-hour hands-on student/teacher targeted lessons and exploration in exchange for teachers' honest feedback, ideas.
- Create tools that engage students. Currently tools that have the following structures engage children:
- contests
- tools where a child sees himself or herself - multicultural, girls/boys, multiple landscapes.
- tools that spark the imagination.
- tools that give students power over their environment.
- tools that teach in efficient, deep ways so children gain understanding.
- tools that respond to students' current levels of skill, knowledge and concept, and serve to develop and grow those levels.
- tools that spark curiosity, further research.
There's a lot of great tools out there now, and the key is to create wonderful tools that engage educators and students in worthy, enriching ways. Let me know if you've got a tool I should try out--I welcome innovators to my classroom with the goal of teaching children well.
