New school year brings new apps as teaching tools
For educators and students, ‘There’s an app for that’ is now more than just a trademarked slogan from the creative marketing minds at Apple.
The influx of technology has revolutionized the classroom.
“From a teaching perspective, my role is more as a facilitator than five years ago when I stood in front of the class and shared my knowledge,” said John Chittaro, social science department head at Holy Names Catholic High School.
“It’s refreshing to let students experience the freedom of learning within some parameters. It’s more enlightening for students to find out on their own.”
Technology has ushered out the era teachers jokingly call the “sage on a stage.”
While social media has been criticized for allowing kids to become isolated in their communications, Chittaro has found the opposite has happened in the classroom.
He said technology has made teaching a far more personal experience.
“My teaching is now more oneon-one and in small group collaborations,” Chittaro said.
“I get to spend more time with a student sharing ideas on a more personal level.”
Even Bokure, a Grade 9 student at Holy Names, experienced using just textbooks in his native Eritrea before his family moved from the northeast Africa nation.
“Books are limited,” Bokure said. “I like this better.
“Chromebooks give me access to everything and it’s up to date,” he added.
“I’m really comfortable with electronics. “It makes school easier.” The Windsor-Essex Catholic School Board has opted to use Google Classroom and its suite of products.
The Greater Essex County District School Board uses Microsoft’s Office 365 and Edsby. Edsby is a mix of social connections and class and student management.
“Technology is amazing and it’s doing great things, but you have to be careful not to fall into the trap that technology is how we learn,” said Kyle Pearce, a math consultant for the public board who conducts seminars for the Ministry of Education around Ontario.
“Some apps out there are not effective ways of learning.”
Pearce said his measuring stick for bringing new technology into the classroom is it must provide a functional benefit to student learning or take the lesson to a transformational level.
He also looks at whether the technology will modify (positively) a lesson significantly. Does it provide an experience he couldn’t recreate in the class or does it help make things easier?
“If I use this technology, is it to just replace something I’m doing?” said Pearce, a Google certified teacher. “I’m hoping to get augmentation, functional improvement.”
With math posing a challenge to so many students, Pearce said there are dozens of good apps to help students.
Among his favourites are: the Dragon Box series aimed at different grades; Endless Numbers (preschool); Zorbit Math Adventure (up to Grade 3); Motion Math (22 different programs aimed a building basic skills in different grades); Math Tools; Fraction Strips; Math Learning Center; Number Pieces; Mathies.ca; and Algebra tiles (Grade 7 and up).
Holy Names teacher Liana Cote is a big believer in using technology in her English class. She said the latest trend in educational apps is toward “gamifacation” and virtual reality apps.
“It’s the idea of making learning fun by doing it in a game,” said Cote, who heads the English department and is a technology teaching contact at the school.
“Technology is really good at doing that. If it makes (learning) more accessible to everyone, that’s another thing I’ll bring in.
“I like those apps that enable us to share out with the world and bring the world into the classroom.”
Among the apps she recommends to help students with English are Grammarly (writing); Newsela (reading, vocabulary); and Reminder (organization and communication).