Best PracticesClassroom ManagementTechnology

5 Reasons Why your Technology-infused Lessons Don’t Work . . . and How to Fix Them

Bryan

We’ve all been there.  We learn about a new technology tool and we pick the perfect lesson in which to use it.  We are excited to see what the students produce and then, suddenly, the whole lesson falls apart.  Students are confused or underwhelmed by the technology tool, anxious from frequent delays in getting instructions from the teacher, or stifled by the number of steps involved in the activity.  We scramble to salvage the lesson, sometimes abandoning the technology tool altogether, and wonder how it all went so wrong.

How can we avoid some of these issues BEFORE they tank another lesson?

1. Be Prepared

Downtime caused by students retrieving and logging into computers or waiting for the teacher’s live demo to load will ruin your lesson’s momentum.  Once that happens, it can take a lot of time and effort to get the students back on track.

SOLUTION:

  • Have all computers setup on desks and turned on including at least 2 backup computers for any unexpected malfunctions — dead batteries, lengthy system updates, missing keys, WiFi connectivity issues, etc . . .  Think this takes too long?  Watch me setup 35 laptops in less than 7 minutes!
  • Setup your computer by opening all the websites you need to show students how to use the tool or do the activity.  Pre-load them in separate tabs.
  • Test everything BEFORE the students arrive.
    • Make sure you are logged into any applications you are using.
    • Make sure all videos are loaded and queued up at the right starting time.  Check the audio levels as well.
    • Make sure any website URLs or join codes are displayed either on the board or on a “frozen” screen on your Interactive Whiteboard (IWB).  For long URLs, use a free service like bit.ly or tinyurl.com to shorten them.
  • Don’t wait for every student to be logged in and ready before you start demonstrating the tool or previewing the lesson.  They can be caught up later.  Or better yet, ask another student who is done setting up to assist students who are lagging behind.  You don’t want the majority of your students idle because of a few who aren’t ready.  This will only lead to disruptions.

2. Manage Student Attention

Talking while all of your students are staring at their screens will not effectively communicate important instructions.  As a result, students will be very confused and frustrated when you ask them to start.  Many hands will go up and you will spend additional time repeating directions.

SOLUTION:

  • Tell students to “Pac-Man” their computer screen — tilt their screen down at a 45° angle so that they can’t see it.  The key is to NOT start explaining the tool until ALL STUDENTS have “Pac-Man”ed their computer screens.  Holding the students accountable shows that what you have to say is important and that it warrants their full attention.  An alternative method is to have students turn the computers around so the screen is facing away from them.
  • If using smartphones, tell students to flip them face down on the table.

3. Sell AND Explain the Technology Tool

A lot of great teachers are great salespeople.

Just because you are using a fun technology tool doesn’t mean that the students are going to be hooked.  If you say, “We are doing a hyperdoc today so everyone log in and go to Google Classroom,” don’t expect your students to jump for joy, especially if they’ve never done it before.  In fact, their confusion about the tool will cause anxiety and lead to defiance.  This can be exacerbated if you fail to clearly explain how to use the tool.  No one will learn the content or practice the skills that you want if they are busy learning how to use the tool.

SOLUTION:

  • Show your excitement about the lesson and the technology.  Introduce your lesson by saying, “Hey kids, today you’re going to do a hyperdoc which is an interactive set of activities that include watching amazing YouTube videos, sharing your thoughts and ideas with your classmates, and creating a digital poster using Google Drawings. Instead of me talking to you about the Theory of Evolution, you are going to explore it on your own and discover your own understanding of the concept.  You can go at your own pace, ask me questions, and have some fun creating your poster!”  The difference a good first impression can make on your students’ attitude toward your lesson cannot be understated.
  • Explain the steps for using the tool clearly.  If the tool is quite simple, this will only take a few minutes.  If it requires a longer explanation, break up (chunk) the explanation by modeling a few steps followed by the students executing the steps.  For example, “I just demonstrated to you how to create a textbox and how to add a shape to a Google Drawing.  Un-‘Pac-Man’ your computers and try it.”  After that, explain a few more functions of Google Drawings — after the students have re-“Pac-Man”ed their computers of course.The underlying logic of this practice relates to the concept of cognitive overload which states that the brain can only assimilate so much information in a given time period before it can’t hold anymore.  Think of a potted plant being filled with water.  Once the soil is saturated, the excess water simply spills out of the pot rendering it useless.  Our brains are the soil and the water is the information.  My advice?  Don’t spill any water by giving too many instructions at once.  Give the water time to soak into the soil before adding more water.

4. MAC Attack – Monitor, Ask, Comment

Technology is NOT a babysitter.

What makes me cringe the most is when I see teachers at their desks catching up on personal errands, grading, or doing other things rather than engaging with their students as they use technology.  What message does this send to the students?  Is technology meant to replace the role of the teacher as this practice implies?  When technology is involved, should students be expected to learn on their own?  These are rhetorical questions, of course.  Students NEED your attention, your involvement, and your expertise in all learning environments.

SOLUTION:

  • Monitor what your students are doing by walking around the room.  Make sure they are following directions, interpreting the lesson objectives correctly, and, of course, staying on task rather than playing games, chatting with friends online, or conducting in other off-task behaviors.  Doing this shows you are engaged with your students’ learning and it also gives them opportunities to flag you down for questions.  They are much less likely to get up and approach your desk to ask a question — especially the quiet ones.  But if you are walking by, they know you are available and present.
  • Ask the students UNSOLICITED questions about their work.  Again, this shows your engagement with your students, builds relationships, and gives them a chance to articulate their thought process and understanding of the material.  As a result, you may notice a pattern of misconceptions throughout the room that you can address to the whole class before the students get too far off track.  Ask them “Do you have any questions about the video you watched?” or “How would you describe osmosis based on what you learned?” or “What can you add to this sentence to clarify your explanation of evolution?” or “What image or video clip could you use to enhance this infographic?”
  • Comment.  Students LOVE to hear directly from you about their work. Giving feedback DURING the activity rather than afterward produces the largest gains in learning because this is when the students are most engaged in the material.  Comment verbally or remotely by accessing their Google docs via a Google Classroom assignment post, for example.Comments should be detailed, specific, and actionable.  “Great job” doesn’t help students understand what was great.  Add details like “I really like how you added this graph to enhance your written explanation of the relationship between sun exposure and skin cancer.” or “I think you made a good point about Truman’s decision to use the atomic bomb, but it needs some supporting evidence.”  Questions are good as well.  You may ask a student “Why did you talk about the treaty before the turning point of the war?” for example.

Continually monitor, ask, and comment throughout a technology-infused lesson to maximize learning by showing your students that you are there for them.

5. Hold Students Accountable

Most students need some kind of structure and accountability to keep them on track.  An open-ended activity with no deadlines, time limits, or products often result in unfocused, off-task behavior, and epic time wasting.  Students will spend too much time on one part of the activity, they’ll procrastinate, or they will rush through the activity and claim they are done without truly applying themselves to any of it. Read my blog post, “A Tale of 2 Flipgrid Lessons” for a more detailed example of this.  As students progress through the activity, how do we know they are learning anything unless we hold them accountable?  This is especially important if your class is a little more rambunctious than a typical class.

SOLUTION:

  • Chunk your technology-infused lesson into segments and give students time limits for each segment.  For example, “You have 20 minutes to watch these videos, read this article, and take notes.” or “You have 30 minutes to get into groups and create your 2-minute PSA (public service announcement) video.”  These deadlines reduce off-task behavior and procrastination.  Even if students don’t meet the deadline, they most likely will only need a few extra minutes to finish.  Without chunking, they may not even get started for several minutes.  Display a stopwatch on your IWB using tools like online stopwatch, classroom screen, or by searching YouTube for a timer that fits your lesson.  For example, check out this YouTube search for “10 minute timer“.
  • Assess your students throughout the lesson.  The assessment doesn’t have to be graded.  It could be answering a Google Classroom question post, posting a response onto a Padlet or Socrative prompt, adding a slide to a shared Google Slides presentation, or submitting a quick, five-question Google Forms quiz.  This not only gives you a  snapshot of how your students are thinking about the content, but they can also learn from their classmates by reading and replying to each others’ responses.  Finally, the students get an opportunity to synthesize and communicate their understanding.As teachers, we need to constantly monitor what the students are learning and that can only occur with some kind of assessment.  Don’t wait until the end of the activity to realize the students didn’t learn the objectives of the lesson because by then it will be too late to correct.  Assess early and often.  You can also share some of these responses as part of a whole class discussion to highlight student insights or to challenge the class to correct poor responses.  This is a nice culminating activity to summarize the content and objectives of the lesson.

Hopefully, these tips will help your next technology-infused lesson be successful. Technology can definitely enhance learning, but it can’t overcome a lack of classroom management, student relationships, or organization.  Take care of these 5 things and your lessons will run more smoothly.  Everyone will be less frustrated, more engaged, and more excited about doing it again!

As always, I welcome your comments below.  Where did I go wrong?  What did I miss?  What other ingredients must be in the mix to conduct effective technology-infused lessons?