Is it possible to improve the classroom experience? Yes, but only if you know how.
E-learning in the classroom today. In the light of the experiences of recent years, a highly verifiable finding is that classroom learning with the support of e-learning technologies is very useful especially in terms of technical subjects compared to the more traditional forms of frontal training.
Obviously there is no mention of projected slides loaded with text, in front of which the participant can get lost, or worse, get bored. In this case very few traces of the topics covered will remain in mind.
Nor are we talking about Blended Learning, a mix of traditional classroom lessons with integrations and training courses available online, where real and virtual mix.
Instead, let's talk about the technology that can be "improved", once put at the service of the classroom.
For example, the exercises, which represent a valid tool to test the preparation and discover any areas for improvement, can make the most of the technology. If through digital the classroom exercise is placed in a realistic context, based on real simulations, the collaborative side is evident, and there is much more involvement on the part of the learner (development of transversal skills, team working, etc.). Again, there is much more interaction, both digitally and with the trainer.
Do traditional classroom lessons no longer work? It is not so.
Generalizations are usually imprecise, though often reassuring. It is still nice to think that the involvement must start from the teachers, who have the not very simple task of stimulating the interest and sharing of the learners.
Nothing wrong with traditional lessons, this must be said clearly. But what if we had the opportunity to make it more dynamic and engaging?
Calculating a bit the tints, one could say that the walkman has evolved up to streaming services on demand. As if to say that things must necessarily evolve.
But this does not mean that "new" must necessarily rhyme with "better". For example, e-books potentially had the potential to permanently supplant the paper book. But it didn't happen. Same goes for online newspapers. This is because it is true that the sensation of leafing through a book or a newspaper with your hands is and will remain irreplaceable for many.
So that something can be said to bring about improvement, it must not make you miss what was there before.
And above all, there must be gods perceived benefits.
The initial reticence in combining new digital learning tools with a classroom experience is failing in favor of a more method dynamic and coherent.
How does this reticence in the face of new technologies take root? Probably the trainer feels his heels touch that fear that intelligent software can somehow learn to manage classroom relationships and dynamics. When in reality everything should be seen as grasping the reins of teaching even more firmly, since the technology represents a learning tool and not a result.
In fact, it remains the trainers' task to follow the participant for the duration of the training course.
1) Do you use technological tools to integrate your classroom lessons? How?
2) How is this type of approach usually understood by the participants?
3) Have you found any benefits in implementing e-learning tools?
“Beyond pc and projector, at the moment I don't use technological tools in the classroom.
This is because I believe I am not yet able to exploit the enormous potential of other tools. I am still in a study phase and I am trying to see how they can add and support the training process.
I would like to use these tools to their full potential and not only to replace pen and paper, nor to speed up stages. The "times" within the training are fundamental, therefore I believe that a technological tool can expand and stimulate our sense organs and therefore allow for a wider and deeper learning.
I believe that technology, through its tools, presents itself as the possibility of increasing the space through which we can promote the learning process, so all those tools that allow this are welcome. Just as a musician is able to play his instrument, so the trainer must be able to master technology, otherwise it can represent an obstacle rather than an added value.
Furthermore, as well as musical instruments, the technology that we can use in a training context allows us to stimulate the trainer's creativity and efficiency.
Technological tools yes, but without ever forgetting that the training relationship between trainer and participant always remains a relationship between people. The technology can be used to enrich the possibility of establishing an even more functional relationship to the set goals.
Technology then it adds and certainly does not replace. It enriches, increases the chances of creating an increasingly satisfactory training context. It touches areas with respect to the curiosity of the new, to play, to the possibility of expressing yourself in a different way; intrigues the participant and promotes the expression of creativity. In addition, the use of tools now entered into daily use allows you to discover a new function of these: a tablet, an i-phone etc. will allow and give the possibility of new forms of interaction and operation within a context training.
I believe that as usual the introduction of technology it will depend a lot on the style of the trainer. It will be important for him to believe in the advantage of using them, he will have to be familiar with the tool used and perceive if this can encourage greater interaction, understanding, stimulating creativity and arousing curiosity on the part of the participants in the classroom.
The instrument, moreover, cannot live its own life, but lives thanks to the person who uses it, and therefore the “one to one” relationship or with several people remains, only that in addition to the conventional channels that mark the relationship, thanks to technology I have the possibility to expand and stimulate different channels.
Technology is neither heaven nor hell, the person can be it and we should start from this.
Thanks to technology, the human being can make any interaction and relationship in which he finds himself function better.
I recently used some tools within an outdoor training. Tablet, mobile phone and PC (editing and image management programs), were used by the participants to photograph, film, find information, and then edit scenes and create slide shows, to then complete the tutorial with a presentation in plenary of the work done, using pc and projector.
This allowed to involve the participants, stimulating and acting on their creativity, as well as increasing their skills.
I can conclude by saying that beyond innovation, there are things done well and things done badly, always bearing in mind that things done well can always be done better and when technology can help us in this process of continuous improvement, then: hurray technology! But always with a trainer who is able to manage it and then use it to the fullest. "
E-learning is not a technological solution but it is a new way of developing knowledge (Edgar Morin)