Teaching Millennials: Technology in the Classroom

Generation Y have come to expect a screen or two accessible at all times, and those with secondary teaching jobs and other jobs in education these days must expect to be constantly telling students off for texting, WhatsApping and Facebooking in class. So how do you get through to a generation who have short attention spans destroyed by their addictions to technology? Using technology of course.

Use Videos
A great way to stop your class from focussing on their own screens is to draw their attention to a bigger one! Queuing up a few YouTube videos will allow you to get some time out of the lesson and help you explain what you are teaching in a different way. However be careful to ensure the class are paying attention and make sure to follow it up with questions or get them to explain it in their own words afterwards.

Encourage the Use of Social Media
Social media can be both a blessing and a curse especially for those of you with secondary school jobs, where the students you work with are likely to be more active on social network sites than you. Obviously the spam articles and comments flying all over Twitter and Facebook can be a pain. But if you find the right accounts to ‘Follow’ and ‘Like’ then you can find some excellent information and articles that your students can engage with. It is worth suggesting a few of the accounts for your students so that they will continue thinking about the topic after the lessons when they pop up on their social media feeds.

Set Homework Around Research
Getting your students thinking in their own time is easily achieved if you set homework involving research. After a lesson you could ask the class to write about their favourite part of the lesson and do their own internet research. Just make sure you read their work afterwards and ask them a couple of questions about it, or you may find your students are getting away with copy and pasting.

Online Learning Spaces
Plenty of schools now use online or virtual learning environments. These can help teachers set tasks and monitor student progress remotely, and many of them come with great resources as part of the package. Some of the best virtual learning environments available at the moment are Canvas and Oxford Owl, an award-winning website for supporting children’s learning at home and school.

Look to the Future
One final way to ensure your students are engaged is too keep up with emerging education technology. For example, one of the latest and most exciting pieces of tech is virtual reality, and companies such as Expeditions are at the forefront of creating virtual reality trips. So one day you should be able to arrange for your class to dive around the Great Barrier Reef or walk the surface of Mars, all without leaving the classroom.