How to Use Edtech to Engage Introverted Learners

When I take into consideration highschool, I vividly bear in mind my eleventh grade math class. There’s an enormous whiteboard on the entrance of the room. As the instructor lectures, I’m scribbling down every thing that I see on the board, verbatim, in my pocket book. The instructor pauses to ask a query and I really feel butterflies in my abdomen instantly. My palms are getting sweaty, so I sit on my palms and hope the instructor doesn’t randomly name on me subsequent.

I’m paying consideration. I’ve achieved all my homework. I’m getting an A within the class.

But when it comes to having a solution on the spot, I’m scared, unsure, anxious. I haven’t had time to course of all of the notes I’ve scribbled down. What if I give the wrong reply in entrance of all of my classmates? I don’t need to be improper.

My pal raises her hand and solutions the query. I’m so relieved. But, I additionally really feel defeated. Clearly, I need to not be as sensible as her; if I used to be, I might have been elevating my hand. Right?

Here is a basic flaw in what number of lecture rooms function: Students elevate their hand to contribute or academics cold-call on them to reply. Students who recurrently communicate up earn participation factors and obtain optimistic reinforcement for contributing. Teachers may even mistakenly assume they’re having a very dynamic class due to a strong and full of life dialog with a couple of hand-raisers.

And this doesn’t simply occur at school. Even as adults, we regularly do the identical, we simply don’t assign a letter grade for contribution. We nonetheless assign worth, although. We nonetheless give weight to the concepts of those that are most vocal and fast to have one thing to add. What’s extra, we persistently miss out on the contributions of so many after we don’t make the area for everybody’s concepts and ideas to be represented.

Everyone loses after we don’t hear from all voices.

But we are able to leverage know-how to create extra equitable and empowering boards for dialogue—to shift from a tradition that praises the primary individual to elevate their hand, to one the place each particular person has a platform to make their concepts seen and heard. I’m speaking about utilizing easy internet apps.

As an introverted perfectionist who wanted time to course of and formulate a response earlier than I used to be prepared to share, I started to confuse quicker with smarter. Because I noticed my friends answering extra questions than I used to be at school—and getting praised for it—I struggled to really feel like I measured up.

And this took a toll on me. I began to imagine that I used to be not ok.

And so, as a math instructor, it has change into my mission to discover methods to highlight all the distinctive voices and personalities in my classroom, and to have fun the various approaches college students select to share, somewhat than valuing one.

Technology has helped me present a protected area through which all college students can contribute to a dialog. The loudest voice isn’t the one voice in my classroom. And the final individual to reply has the identical alternative for his or her reply to drive the dialog additional as the primary.

I would like to assist educators perceive how they’ll use know-how to:

1. See what all college students are considering with out calling a person scholar out;
2. Emphasize course of over product;
3. Celebrate a number of approaches to an issue;
4. Provide an setting the place all college students really feel protected and comfy in sharing in order that we’re ready to construct next-level relationships and belief.

Providing All Students a Space to Share

Let’s begin with that first thought—offering all college students an area to share their ideas, whether or not or not they select to elevate their hand and share. Pear Deck was a recreation changer in permitting me to assist every scholar really feel protected contributing to the dialog. It’s an interactive presentation instrument the place I can embed questions straight into my Google Slides. Students can reply to every query from their very own gadget, and as college students are typing, drawing or choosing their response from an inventory, I can see what every particular person respondent is contributing in real-time.

This instrument provides these college students who want time to craft a reply from behind a display the possibility to do it. This is not to say that tech integration is about college students hiding behind their laptops, typing or drawing their ideas. But we do need to use it to enable each scholar to actively interact and contribute. For college students who’re extra vocal, their finest work may occur after we deliver the dialogue to the board to discuss in regards to the varied solutions. What we’re doing right here is offering a chance to see all concepts represented, and we are able to shine the highlight on contributions that might have gone unheard.

With a instrument like Pear Deck, solutions are displayed with out names connected in order that we are able to talk about errors and analyze errors with out calling particular person college students out. Creating that security is a vital issue. So helps college students perceive that errors are an necessary ingredient of studying, which leads me to emphasizing course of over product.

Emphasizing Process Over Product

How we are able to leverage instructional know-how to emphasize course of over product? As I try to assist my college students see that errors are a essential part of studying, I can use tech instruments to draw consideration to an incorrect reply with out the category understanding who submitted that response, serving to me construct a classroom tradition that honors errors as a part of our collective development.

In addition, the real-time nature of seeing college students work in a instrument like Pear Deck offers a snapshot into how college students are considering by means of an issue. To assist, I’ve a category set of Wacom tablets, which my college students merely plug into their laptops so they’re ready to write out their math with an precise pen.

I take advantage of Pear Deck for sophistication warm-ups, providing college students a chance to present how they had been working by means of every drawback. With much less of a deal with the ultimate reply, I’m ready to see distinctive approaches that might have in any other case gone unnoticed. And, after I deliver these concepts to the board for dialogue, extra college students are all of the sudden keen to contribute as a result of they see quite a lot of resolution strategies highlighted on the projector.

Celebrate Multiple Approaches to a Problem

Celebrating varied approaches can also be a key ingredient of studying. Providing all college students a chance to verbalize their considering course of on video has opened up superior pathways for peer-to-peer studying in my classroom. To give each scholar an area to discuss by means of their concepts out loud, I take advantage of Flipgrid, a threaded video dialogue platform that permits college students to file and publish a video straight to a grid of replies from their laptop computer or cellphone.

I’ve college students clear up math questions on video with an emphasis on instructing their classmates how to clear up the issue they’re tackling. This provides me nice perception into how college students are going about issues. But even higher, by posting to the grid, we are able to have fun a number of approaches to the identical drawback and college students study a lot from their classmates.

This turns into much more highly effective after we prolong the exercise past the partitions of our classroom. I’ve been ready to arrange collaborations with different colleges, the place all of our college students are posting to the identical grid of video replies. In this manner, my learners can see how college students with a distinct instructor, in a distinct district or state, would strategy a subject. We’re ready to discover similarities and variations, and college students can study new methods from each other. This is such a easy approach to arrange highly effective peer-to-peer studying moments for everybody concerned. Just check out a number of the engagement numbers we’ve got tracked in Flipgrid. My AP Calculus group has picked up 10,938 views and 366.5 hours of engagement to-date.

It’s been unbelievable to see a few of my quietest college students discover their voice on video. Some college students have the time and area to script a response earlier than recording if that’s their model. Others casually discuss issues out to their webcam. Though college students know that their classmates will watch their response as soon as it’s posted, they nonetheless have the chance to file within the setting that’s most comfy to them. Some college students solely file at their desk at residence, whereas others file wherever and in all places. And there are all the time one or two college students who file on their cellphone whereas pacing their room. What’s necessary right here is that college students get to select the place to file, how to file and whether or not they need to re-record earlier than submitting.

Provide an Environment Where All Students Feel Safe and Comfortable in Sharing

Tech instruments will be leveraged to present platforms to assist all college students discover a area the place they really feel protected and comfy in sharing in order that we’re ready to construct next-level relationships and belief. Flipgrid’s video moderation function helps me with this. It permits a scholar to publish a video that’s solely seen to me. I name these “private Flipgrid check-ins.” Before each evaluation, I’ve college students publish to a non-public matter in order that they’ll discuss out what is going on nicely, what they’re nervous about and something that they need to share. Students have lots to say after I open up this discussion board for them to discuss.

When I say that giving college students an opportunity to share by means of video has remodeled the relationships I’ve been ready to construct in my instructing, I’m not exaggerating. Take Derek, a scholar I’ll always remember. It was October, and I sat down to hear to his personal Flipgrid check-in. When the video began, he’s sitting there with a stack of papers specified by entrance of him. And he picks one in every of them up and begins speaking to me.

“Hi, Ms. Roshan. OK, so, the first question is what mistakes did I make on the last quiz. So on number 1, I confused the bounds of the integral …”

And then he holds his paper up to the webcam and says, “I don’t know if you can see it, but I highlighted how I should have drawn this problem out. So now, I definitely understand that and will make sure to sketch out the picture next time.”

He continues on, exhibiting me which issues he struggled with initially and why he now feels comfy fixing them. He talks to me about how my corrections have helped him higher perceive the ideas.

I get this snapshot into how Derek is processing suggestions and rising from it. This was a aspect of Derek that I wasn’t ready to see within the classroom. After watching his video, I reply again to his Flipgrid, proper contained in the platform. So we’re ready to have this two-way communication channel, and Derek is ready to obtain personal and really personalised suggestions from me. He knew I had listened to every thing he had to say, intimately, and so he continued to open up increasingly more on the Flipgrid assignments. I advised him how impressed I used to be by his considerate reflection and the time he was taking to look again at prior work. And with this, his confidence grew.

This confidence increase carried over to the general public Flipgrid assignments, the place college students had been tasked with recording an answer their classmates may study from. The movies Derek recorded had been so detailed and clear, as if he was a instructor making a tutorial for the category. It’s not simple to make tutorial movies however Derek put within the additional effort and time to ensure that his classmates may simply study from his explanations. I by no means would have had an opportunity to see Derek tackle this stage of management if I hadn’t constructed that trusting relationship early on after which supplied the chance for him to share on the platform that labored finest for him.

And that’s the guts of it. When we give our learners the precise discussion board to categorical their concepts and combine instruments that enable them to reply in a approach that’s most comfy to them, we enable every scholar’s strongest voice to shine. We present college students that there are a selection of the way for them to contribute their ideas and make an influence. We enable them to really feel protected in sharing and are ready to coach them primarily based on what they want, as people.