Technology for Teaching and Learning in the Elementary Grades

MODULE 3: Digital Education Tools for Teaching and Learning

LESSON 1: The Digital Education Tools for Teachers and Learners

Learning Objectives:
1. To define terms of digital education tools
2. To enumerate the different digital education tools
3. To apply the different digital educational tools through teaching and learning

Hundreds of digital education tools have been created with the purpose of giving autonomy to the
student, improving the administration of academic processes, encouraging collaboration, and facilitating
communication between teachers and learners. Here we present 11 of the most popular.

1. Edmodo

 An educational tool that connects teachers and students, and is assimilated into a social network. In
this one, teachers can create online collaborative groups, administer and provide educational
materials, measure student performance, and communicate with parents, among other functions.

 Edmodo has more than 34 million users who connect to create a learning process that is more
enriching, personalized, and aligned with the opportunities brought by technology and the digital
environment.

2. Socrative

 Designed by a group of entrepreneurs and engineers passionate about education, Socrative is a

system that allows teachers to create exercises or educational games which students can solve
using mobile devices, whether smartphones, laptops, or tablets.

 Teachers can see the results of the activities and, depending on these, modify the subsequent
lessons in order to make them more personalized.

3. Projeqt

 A tool that allows you to create multimedia presentations, with dynamic slides in which you can
embed interactive maps, links, online quizzes, Twitter timelines, and videos, among other options.

 During a class session, teachers can share with students’ academic presentations which are visually
adapted to different devices.

4. Thinglink

 Allows educators to create interactive images with music, sounds, texts, and photographs. These
can be shared on other websites or on social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook.

 Thinglink offers the possibility for teachers to create learning methodologies that awaken the
curiosity of students through interactive content that can expand their knowledge.

5. TED-Ed

 An educational platform that allows creating educational lessons with the collaboration of teachers,
students, animators—generally people who want to expand knowledge and good ideas. This
website allows democratizing access to information, both for teachers and students. Here, people
can have an active participation in the learning process of others.

6. cK-12 is

 A website that seeks to reduce the cost of academic books for the K12 market in the United States
and the world.

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  To achieve its objective, this platform has an open source interface that allows creating and
distributing educational material through the internet, which can be modified and contain videos,
audios, and interactive exercises.

 It can also be printed and comply with the necessary editorial standards in each region. The books
that are created in cK-12 can be adapted to the needs of any teacher or student.

7. ClassDojo

 A tool to improve student behavior: teachers provide their students with instant feedback so that
good disposition in class is 'rewarded' with points and students have a more receptive attitude
towards the learning process.

 ClassDojo provides real-time notifications to students, like 'Well Done David!' and '+1', for working
collaboratively. The information that is collected about student behavior can be shared later with
parents and administrators through the web.

8. eduClipper

 Allows teachers and students to share and explore references and educational material.

 In eduClipper, you can collect information found on the internet and then share it with the members
of previously created groups, which offers the possibility to manage more effectively the academic
content found online, improve research techniques, and have a digital record of what students
achieved during the course.

 Likewise, it provides the opportunity for teachers to organize a virtual class with their students and
create a portfolio where all the work carried out is stored.

9. Storybird

 Aims to promote writing and reading skills in students through storytelling. In this tool, teachers can
create interactive and artistic books online through a simple and easy to use interface.

 The stories created can be embedded in blogs, sent by email, and printed, among other options.

 In Storybird, teachers can also create projects with students, give constant feedback, and organize
classes and grades.

10. Animoto

 A digital tool that allows you to create high-quality videos in a short time and from any mobile device,
inspiring students and helping improve academic lessons.

 The Animoto interface is friendly and practical, allowing teachers to create audiovisual content that
adapts to educational needs.

11. Kahoot!

 An educational platform that is based on games and questions. Through this tool, teachers can
create questionnaires, discussions, or surveys that complement academic lessons.

 The material is projected in the classroom and questions are answered by students while playing and
learning at the same time. Kahoot! promotes game-based learning, which increases student
engagement and creates a dynamic, social, and fun educational environment.

Activity # 1
Answer the following statements coherently:

1. What are the implications of digital learning tools in the teaching learning process?
2. Select one digital educational tool and explain its advantage and disadvantages.

Lesson 2: Teaching Aids and Instructional Materials

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Learning Objectives:
1. To differentiate teaching aids to instructional materials
2. To familiarize the classifications of teaching aids and instructional materials
3. To apply the use of teaching aids and instructional material in the teaching learning process

Teaching aids (TAs)

 Teaching aids are objects (such as a book, picture, or map) or devices (such as a DVD or computer)
used by a teacher to enhance or enliven classroom instruction (Merriam-Webster).
 They could be audiovisual teaching aids such as videos and guest lectures or tactile like 3D models

Instructional materials (IMs)

 Instructional materials are defined as resources that organize and support instruction, such as
textbooks, tasks, and supplementary resources (adapted from Remillard & Heck, 2014).
 It refers to the human and non-human materials and facilities that can be used to ease, encourage,
improve and promote teaching and learning activities.
 They are whatever materials used in the process of instruction (IGI global).
 The great Soviet encyclopedia defines IMs as educational resources used to improve students’
knowledge, abilities, and skills, to monitor their assimilation of information, and to contribute to their
overall development and upbringing.

What are Teaching Aids?

 Broadly speaking, any device that helps teach can be called a teaching aid.
 These devices can be traditional items such as blackboards and flannel boards as well as modern
devices such as tablets and projectors.
 Scientific tools such as telescopes and microscopes could also be used as teaching aids in a given
context. Two overarching common factors between most teaching aids: mediums that promote
sensory engagement and stimulation.

Examples based on classification systems:

Classification 1:

Non-electronic – Chalkboards, flip boards, slates, photos, telescopes,

Electronic – PowerPoint slideshows, videos, augmented reality/Virtual reality goggles, AV-room equipment

Classification 2:

Auditory: radios, tape recorders, CD players

Visual: Slides, projectors, digital screens
Audiovisual– YouTube content, Vines (yes, they are helpful), Ted Talks, Live streams, documentaries
Audiovisual and tactile – 3D models, plants, rocks, field visits

What are Instructional Materials?

 Instructional materials are those items that assist the information aspect of teaching. Not teaching
holistically. These could take the form of textbooks, worksheets, 3D models, charts, infographics, etc.

 Instructional materials also include assessment and testing methods. Basically, any material, any
information containing resources which that the teacher uses while instructing. Now testing materials
don’t necessarily contain information, but they help the retention and learning of information, thus,
they are instructional materials. Sometimes, they are a means to an end, the end being the
assimilation of information.

Classification

Traditional resources

 lectures, talks, writings, project rubrics, guidelines, textbook primers, reference books, extra-
readings, teacher and student-created summaries, workbooks, supplementary material such as
flashcards and charts
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Digital media: Videos, photos, presentations

Open resources: Expert blogs, open-source journals, public databases, open courseware, forums

Testing resources: Standardized tests, classroom assignments, online submissions, quizzes, essays,
collaborative projects

Key differences between Teaching aids and Instructional materials

As you’ll see in this article, TAs and IMs work together to reach teaching goals. However, the traditional
separation of TAs and IMs is superficial and needs revision. It breaks down based on who uses a specific
tool and how it is used.

Dictionaries don’t define Instructional materials clearly. This term (IM) is largely restricted to the literature
on specific pedagogies. In fact, the term ‘Instructional materials’ is used in the context of reaching course-
based learning goals.

IMs are specifically designed to be aligned with learning objectives and outcomes. Whereas teaching aids
are not always designed to meet course-based goals. You might have guessed, the same object can be a
TA or an IM.

Example 1: A teacher is using a book in the class, each student has a copy.

If a book is used as a course prescribed resource, it is an instructional material.

If the book is a student engagement activity (reading and discussing a story to build vocabulary) and isn’t a
part of the syllabus, it would function as a teaching aid

Example 2: if you are studying algae under a microscope.

A microscope would be an instructional material if a course-based learning goal is ‘using a microscope to

study microscopic entities’

However, a microscope would be a teaching aid for a theory class on algae. A teacher could use one to
show students what it looks like in order to engage the class in learning about algae.

Traditionally speaking, teaching aids have been thought of as devices that can be used – white and
blackboards, computers, calculators, projectors, slideshows, tape recordings, television, etc.

They are tools that help the delivery of information. A TA isn’t information, or to put it in a different way,
information is not directly embedded in a TA. But IMs, they often have information embedded in them.

Resource books, worksheets, graphs, etc. are all IMs because of this embedding. However, tools such as
microscopes are IMs if they are precisely aligned with a teaching objective.

Sometimes, graphic media can be used as both – infographics could be a teaching aid if they are
consequential yet not a core teaching resource or they can be embedded within a book or used as a way to
summarize a larger concept directly.

Digital media is often considered as an Instructional material because information is embedded in it and it
needs planning. This planning eventually is integrated into the coursework.

Activity # 2
Using the Venn Diagram form, compare and contrast Teaching Aids and Instructional Materials.

Lesson 3: Classifying Instructional Media

Lesson Objectives:
1. To distinguish the classification of instructional media
2. To familiarize the hierarchy of cone of experiences and abstraction
3. To demonstrate the use of instructional materials in teaching and learning process.

Cone of Experience
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  Consists of bonds which arrange media used in learning experiences from the most concrete to the
most abstract

 Cone of experience composed of eleven stages starting from concrete experiences at the bottom of
the cone then it becomes more and more abstract as it reaches the peak of the cone.

 Not based on its difficulty but rather based on abstraction and on the number of senses involved.

11. Verbal Symbols – includes textbooks and other printed materials and plain lecture about the group.

Examples: tables, symbols, maps, charts (pictures that need to be interpret)

10. Visual Symbols – contains graphs, cartoons, comic strips, and other visual symbols

9. Recording Radio/ Still Pictures – involves recording of folk songs or conventions in the native dialect
and or still pictures showing costumes or any significant activities of the group. (Anything that was recorded)

8. Motion Pictures – It is about movies or films on a certain group.

7. Educational Television – televised lecture or show about the group is an excellent too to raise
awareness and sharp understanding.

6. Exhibits – exhibits of artifacts, tools, costumes, and other material aspects of the culture is a good types
of educational tool.

5. Study Trips – conducting a field trip to a local community is a tool towards experiential learning.

4. Demonstration – demonstration by an authority or a resource person about a certain activity or ritual of

the group is a form of actual learning.

3 Dramatized – dramatization by some members of the class who may have done some research about
the cultural group is a result of participating learning (dramatized to talk – closed to the org. only)

2 Contrived Experience – simulating certain activities or physical aspects of the local culture so that the
experience become more real is a valuable way to learn and expose ones learning. (Tried to be like them –
nearly closed to the org.)

1 Direct Purposeful Experience – directly involving the class in a certain activities of the group like
planting, harvesting, praying and the like is both experiential and participating. ( hands on experience – real)

Abstract Verbal Symbols

Visual Symbols

Recording Radio/Still Pictures

Pictures
Motion Pictures

Educational Television

Exhibits

Study Trips

Demonstrations

Dramatized Experience

Contrived Experience

Direct Purposeful Experience

Concrete

Cone of Experiences – Edgar Dale

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Three Folds Analysis – Jerome Bruner

1. Symbolic – represents the forming of images in the absence of concrete object.

 Verbal symbols
 Visual symbols

2. Iconic – refers to abstract experience in the forms of picture

 Recording Radio/ Still Pictures
 Motion Pictures
 Educational Television
 Exhibits

1. Enactive – this refers to direct or actual experiences

 Demonstrations
 Dramatized Experience
 Contrived Experience
 Direct Purposeful Experience

Hierarchy of Abstraction

Words
Diagram
Maps
Flat Pictures
Slides
Stereographs
Films
Models
Objects
Total Situation

Lesson 4: Non-Digital and Digital Skills and Tools in Delivering Technology-Enhanced Lessons

Lesson Objectives:
1. To determine the non-digital and digital skills and tools
2. To give examples of non-digital and digital skills
3. To create concrete instructional materials for teaching and learning
4. To apply non-digital and digital skills and tools in delivering technology for teaching and learning

Teaching becomes rewarding when learners get the most from instructions as manifested in their
performance. An important element in engaging learners is when the strategy used in delivering the lessons
uses an instructional material. When properly and appropriately used, it can spice up a classroom activity.

These instructional materials may come in varied forms. One group refers to the conventional and non-
digital tools.

A classroom will always need a chalkboard or a writing board that may come in varied forms and shapes.
Bulletin boards, flip charts, dioramas, puppets, terrarium, and the like, will always find their significance in
any classrooms. However, nowadays, lessons can be made more relevant and engaging for learners as
digital tools are integrated.

This lesson presents both non-digital and digital tools. Explore the possibilities of learning about these tools
and how to effectively integrate them in instruction. The teachers need instructional materials to enhance
teaching and learning. Instructional materials are defined as print and non-print items that are rested to
impact information to students into educational process (Effiong and Igiri, 2015).

Examples of instructional materials are:

Drawings, kits textbooks, posters, magazines, flipchart, newspapers, diorama, pictures, recording videos
and like.

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Instructional materials have several roles in teaching and learning which include the following:

(1) They promote meaningful communication and effective learning;

(2) They ensure better retention, thus making learning more permanent;
(3) They help to overcome the limited classroom by making the inaccessible accessible;
(4) They provide a common experience upon which late learning can be developed; and
(5) They encourage participation especially if students are allowed to manipulate materials used (Brown et
al., 2005; Effiong and Igiri, 2015).

Instructional materials are the supplementary materials, which help the teacher to make his/her presentation
concrete, effective, interesting, meaningful and aspiring. Instructional materials are a great help in
stimulating and facilitating the learning of the learners.

According to Wright (1976:1) as cited in Cakir (2006) many media and many styles of visual presentation are
useful to the language learner. All audio-visual materials have positive contributions to language learning as
long as they are used at the right time, in the right place. In the teaching and learning process, learners use
their eyes as well as their ears; but their eyes are basic in learning.

1. DIORAMA

It will make the classroom to be creative and innovative. It is a fun way to build an exciting scene a
small space. Dioramas are small scenes created of layers of materials, all depicting a similar concept or
theme. They usually display a historical time period, a nature scene, or a fictional situation.

2. NATURE TABLE

This is a table that contains objects and/or scenes related to the current season, or upcoming festival
or a symbol of an ecosystem. Children love to follow the natural changes that the world offers each month
and classroom decorations reflect these.

3. WRITING BOARD

A writing board can display information written with chalk (chalkboard or blackboard) or special pens
(whiteboard).Although there are usually more effective methods of transmitting information, the writing board
is still the most commonly used visual aid.

4. FLIP CHART

It is a large tablet or pad of paper, usually on a tripod or a stand.

5. ZIGZAG BOARD

It is a multi-board series of three or four rectangular boards. They are joined together along the sides
by hinges so that they can be easily folded up and carried. Each board can be of a different type, for
example, a whiteboard, a chalkboard, a flannel board and so on. The size of the boards for the zigzag multi-
board depends on what you want to use them for
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6. WALL DISPLAY

Displaying items on a classroom wall is a well-known, tried and tested educational method. A wall
display is a collection of many different types of items and materials put up on a wall to make an interesting
and informative display. In a classroom, the display can consist of the students' own work. In development
work it can be used to convey information to the community.

7. ROPE and POLE display board

This board consist of two parallel, horizontal poles tied loosely together with rope. Visual aids such
as posters can be pinned to the rope. This kind of display board is invaluable where there are few solid walls
for displaying information. It has no solid backing and can be made quickly for teaching, training and when
working with community.

GUIDLINES when designing conventional instructional materials;

1. Unity - Use only one idea for each visual aid include a headline.
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2. Simplicity - Make ideas and relationships simply and easy to recall.
3. Legibility - Make letters big and readable for all in the audience.
4. Consistency - Use the same type style and art style.
5. Clarity - Avoid type that is too small to read; avoid all caps.

List of Instructional Material

1. Filmstrip
2. Movies
3. PPPs
4. Globe
5. Model and mock-ups
6. Specimens and objects
7. Recordings
8. Radiobroadcast
9. Maps
10. Comic strip
11. Graphs
12. Charts
13. Diagram
14. Drawing and sketches
15. Posters
16. Cartoons
17. Flashcards
18. Illustrations
19. Photographs
20. Flat pictures
21. Collage
22. Diorama

Reference: ETI by garo

Output # 1: Choose one instructional material to create. Make a project plan as your basis in creating your
selected instructional material. Place your project plan into a letter size bond paper.

Project Plan

I. Project: (Chosen Instructional Material)

II. Purpose: (The purpose of making an instructional material through teaching and learning)
III. Description:
IV. Materials:
V. Budget:

VI. Procedures:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

VII. Lesson Significance:

VIII. Subject Applicability:
IX. Method/Strategy in Teaching:

Signature: