Learning with Tech

Miss Mehrotra – Teacher, Marist College

What are some innovative ways you have used technology to enhance your students’ learning experience?

Technology is an asset that I use in my teaching practice as it is a fantastic way to engage students in their learning in a modern way. Students love the self-efficacy of exploring and discovering new ways to utilise technology to complete their learning tasks. Technology always helps bring life to lessons and a new lens on learning in the classroom!

How has technology made teaching easier? (Share an example if you can) Technology has made teaching easier by creating a way for me to share lessons with students without them needing to take note of everything I am saying during the lessons. This means that students have access to learning resources at the touch of a button at home which is especially fantastic when revision time comes around!

What are some devices or tools that you use that your students love?

My kids have their own devices as our school is BYOD, but tools that students love include, Writers Toolbox, Mathletics, and Education Perfect. They also love Canva to create beautiful digital designs for their learning and Google Classroom to stay in touch with their peers and stay on top of their learning! There are so many more amazing tools available that I could list, the opportunities are endless!

Aidan – Year 7

What is your favourite technology app or tool to use when learning and why?

My favourite app is One Note. I love to use it because my teacher can upload work and I can do the work directly on too.

How do you think technology can help make learning more engaging and fun?

Technology can make learning fun when the teacher puts interesting activities/apps on the device that you use.

Do you think technology will play a big role in the classroom in the future? What do you predict?

Yes, technology will be a big part of learning, because I think it will be a big help to teachers so they don’t have to write everything on the whiteboard. Also, with the click of a few buttons teacher can now upload everything and not a sweat dropped at all, easy peasy! In the future, I am sure all schools in New Zealand will at least have digital screens in the classrooms! Technology is a great invention, and I love using it when learning. I am team technology, which team are you?

Olivia – Year 13

What is your favourite technology app or tool to use when learning and why?

My favourite app to use at school is Microsoft OneNote. OneNote can be challenging to initially understand but once you’ve got it, it’s easy. It has a great organised structure for taking notes, like an online filing system. It’s also really helpful for teachers to be able to insert activity and re-scores either into your own section or into the ‘content library’ for all students to be able to see but not edit or in the ‘collaboration space’ for all students to be able to collaborate on. There are so many different way to personalise you OneNote pages so it is appealing to you to encourage you to enjoy working in an organised space.

Why do you think technology is important in Education?

I think technology is important in education because it is such a big part of our world now. It’s important to be able to have a good understanding of how to use different apps and platforms and be able to effectively use places like Google to do research which is essential in life. I think it also allows us as students to develop a greater sense of the wider world outside our classroom, to be able to access information so we are able to learn more than just what’s in an 10 year old textbook in the classroom cupboard.

What technology (apps, tools, or devices) would you like to use more in your studies and why?

I would like to be able to use Mail and Calendar more in my studies. This is because, from what I have seen, there are so many ways to effectively use these two tools (whether it be on Google, Microsoft, Apple or another platform) together to organise emails, events, homework and assignments. I would love to be able to learn how to utilise these tools together to increase my time management and organisation skills even further.

What is your favourite technology app or tool to use when learning and why?

When learning there are so many apps and tools that are beneficial to me. One in particular that I have used from primary through to secondary school however is Google Classroom. Google Classroom is a tool specifically designed by Google for educational environments. It is used as a means of communication between the teacher and students as well as a way to access resources and complete assignments. In addition to this it is also interconnected to the other Google apps like Google drive, Google meets and Google read and write. For me as a student who was completing part of my foundational learning during lockdown, Google Classroom allowed me to stay in the loop and still be able to learn what I needed to away from the classroom. It still proves to be one of the best tools I use for learning as when coming back for revision everything is in one place, it’s easy to find and most importantly forgetting to press ctrl + s doesn’t mean all the work you did is lost.

Why do you think technology is important in education?

I think technology is important in education because we revolve around technology. We use technology for everything from waking up on time to powering a country.

By using it in an educational environment we not only get accustomed to it but it speeds up the learning process. We no longer have to spend half an hour of a class copying notes by hand, instead we can do it in 10 minutes giving us more time to learn. In doing this we make better use of our class time and learn skills we can use outside the classroom in the ‘real world’ as well.

What technology (apps, tools, or devices) would you like to use more in your studies and why?

A tool I would like to use more in my studies is ChatGPT. While many educational facilities have frowned upon the idea of using ChatGPT in education I believe if it was promoted more as an education tool that we can reference rather than a way to cheat on our papers it would be a lot more beneficial for us students. ChatGPT’s greatest advantage is the ability to refine. Rather than spending hours combing through Google for a piece of information it is delivered to you within a matter of seconds. You get direct answers to your questions and don’t need to get around all the extra fluff. If teachers demonstrated how we could use ChatGPT in an effective manner for study, reminding us to reference and double check the information I believe it could change the way we learn all together.