Using Technology to Better the Classroom Experience
When smartphones were coming up, the teen and youth population were the first to take to the trend. It took some time for the adult population to leave behind the old technology and adapt to the smartphones but once they did, there has been no turning back. Research shows that more than 60 percent of parents around the world have smartphones glued to their hands during most of their free time. This has created a detachment between the parents and their children’s school work. For this reason, innovators have developed a variety of classroom communication apps.
The purpose of these communication apps is to allow parent-teacher communication without the use of traditional methods like newsletters or notes. With time, so many apps of this sort have been created. In order to kick things up a notch, innovators found it necessary to incorporate students into the communication circle using the apps. Therefore, classroom communication apps were developed. These apps aim at connecting teachers, students, and their parents as well as other students by the use of a smartphone. One of such applications is the Qipoint.
Description of the app
This application is a collaborative learning tool that allows students to come together and tackle the question and academic questions that they have been assigned with through a simple process. The first step is determining the topic to be tackled and then developing a problem or a question to be presented to the students. This is done by the educator. The teacher then has to give the students guidelines on what is expected of them.
The process then requires that the students individually ponder on the topic of their assignment and try to come up with the solution to the problem or an answer. After this, the individuals share their ideas with other classmates which lead to the following step which is the pairing process. Once the pairs are made, then the pairs discuss the subject deeper and come up with a joint solution to the assignment which they later present as a team. During the entire process, the teacher acts as a monitor and gives constant follow up guidelines.
How is the app useful?
The app allows students to think critically on an individual level. This is because they have to present their ideas to their partner and the entire classroom as well and no one wants to look stupid in front of others. The app also teaches the students to bounce ideas off each other and share their knowledge. By doing so, they learn more than they already do and end up gaining more knowledge. Furthermore, the students also gain focus in learning.
These classroom communication apps have not only helped develop a platform for parents and teachers to share on the students’ progress but have also helped better the students’ learning experience. since the young are usually the first ones to grasp and comprehend new trends in technology, adapting to the use of apps in classroom affairs has not been so hard.