Using Digital Tools in the Classroom

I have been creating learning content at Playworks for almost a decade, without any formal training on content design.  One of the benefits of being involved in the organization in a period of rapid growth was the opportunity to be creative and involved in the professional development of our program and staff.  The flip side of that coin was learning (sometimes the hard way!) that creating lessons or trainings with vague objectives and/or poor assessment of understanding did not lead to long term learning for the participants.  Often managers were dealing with reoccurring issues for which people had already (sometimes recently!) been trained.

A few years after I took on a leadership position, we received a training on Bloom’s Taxonomy and objective writing.  It was at that point that I learned the difference between a vague objective  - Participants will be able to understand the value of group management techniques – and clear objectives with a demonstrable assessment – Participants will be able to name four group management techniques; Participants will be able to demonstrate one group management strategy to engage a distracted group. 

Needless to say, a better understanding of the purpose and strategy of objective writing made it much easier develop trainings. Identifying the learning needs informed the objectives and identifying the objectives informed the learning activities.  The process is the same when thinking about incorporating technology into lesson plans. If I am asking learners to memorize a process, I might ask learners to use a mind- mapping tool like X-Mind to demonstrate a process flow.   I would not ask learners to demonstrate a process flow using YouTube videos, as that tool does not best meet the needs of the learning objective. 

When selecting digital tools in a lesson plan, it is essential to reflect on the needs of the learner and the objectives being sought by the lesson.  Digital tools can be versatile as well as tremendously distracting so it is important to figure out if a tool not only addresses the learning objective, but is also a high quality method of meeting the learning objective.  As an educator, keeping learning objectives in mind, I imagine there will also be times when I will need to actively investigate new digital learning tools to assess their useful application in lesson planning. There may be times when relying on traditional teaching methods to meet a learning objective is easier and more accessible. With the intention of cultivating students with robust 21st century skills it may be the case that I will need to actively seek a new digital tool to support a learning objective. I look forward to the challenge!