How can you introduce technology into the classroom without losing student collaboration?
Digital Day of Learning is coming up on February 17. Many teachers will be trying new things but going digital does not mean that students are put in front of a device where they only communicate with the device and no longer talk to other students. Making sure students are still talking to each other, collaborating with each other, and sharing ideas and thoughts is very important especially for our language learners.
One way you can go digital but still make sure students talk and discuss the information is by having them work in pairs and use GAFE (Google Apps for Education). For example, if you are having them do an online investigation or watch a video, one partner could have their device open to the online investigation and the other partner could have theirs open to a Google Form. They can work together to go through the investigation and answer the questions about it on the Google Form. In my example, in the picture, the students are filling out an investigation handout on a Google Slide as they go through an online simulation to discover the relationship between speed, distance, and time. This was part of my speed blended learning stations.
You can learn more about blended Learning Science Stations
