Balancing Tradition with Technology

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 By Kerri Lambert, OIT Teacher Specialist


It’s been said a million times. The 2020-2021 school year was like no other. Teachers and students were suddenly faced with teaching and learning entirely online. In a matter of weeks, teachers had to suddenly learn and supposedly master new applications and new instructional tools; in short they had to learn an entirely new way to teach.

It was exhausting.
It was stressful.
It was heart-breaking.

And now that we are back in buildings face to face with our students every day, it’s easy to slide back into the way things were pre March 2020. Back to “normal” school.

But should we?

Should we revert back to doing everything with paper and pencil?
Should we revert back to keeping learning between the four walls of our classroom?
Should we revert back to using the technology as a time filler for early finishers?

Some may even be phrasing these questions as “Can we…?”

Regardless of how it’s worded, the answer is the same.

No.

We can’t go back. We came too far. We can’t risk our teachers and students losing the technology skills that they gained during that frantic time. Instead, we must find balance between traditional teaching methods and those that evolved during virtual learning. So how can that be achieved? Here are a few suggestions:

  • Station rotation/Choice Boards- create rotations or choice boards that give students opportunities to complete traditional tasks as well as digital tasks. Perhaps one station involves using physical manipulatives, where the next has them using digital manipulatives. This can also include small group time with the teacher.
  • Have students use hands-on manipulatives such as letter tiles or base ten blocks. Then, students use the Chromebook cameras to take a picture of what they’ve done. These pictures can be inserted into Wixie or Google Slides where the students can explain what they did. If using Wixie, this can be done using the built in video recording.
  • Have students write a story, newscast, or play. As they perform their writing, have them record it using WeVideo. They can then add music, voiceovers, title cards, etc to enhance their writing. Don’t want a video? Have students take still pictures of key scenes and insert them into Google Slides, Docs, or Wixie to create a digital book.
  • Have a digital gallery walk of student work. Have students complete digital projects, and then when completed have students display their work on their Chromebook screens. Have students walk around the room and leave comments for their peers using post-it notes.
  • Use a shared Google Sheet for students to record data from a hands-on science experiment. They can also take pictures at various stages of the experiment to share in a collaborative document. Students can draw on everyone’s results to draw their conclusions. This could be done across classes and even across schools.
  • Collaborate on research projects using shared documents. Research can be conducted using a variety of print and digital materials. At the completion of the research stage, students can share their research in a manner of their choosing, including creating a podcast.
  • Record students reading a physical book or article. This can be done using the built in camera on the Chromebooks, or by using the audio record feature in Wixie. Students and teachers can then play back the recordings to hear where they need to improve.
  • Provide students with choices on how to complete a task. Would they rather complete the graphic organizer on paper or in Google Drawing? Would they like to create a digital poster or a physical poster? For ideas, see OIT’s Paper to Digital website. If a student decides to use paper and pencil, they can still submit a picture of their final product.
  • Create videos in popular YouTube styles such as whiteboard tutorial or unboxing. These involve students doing hands-on demonstrations while recording. Have students use WeVideo, the Chromebook camera by itself, or the recording feature in Wixie. For content specific ideas, click here.
  • While watching a video or participating in a virtual conference call with an expert, students take notes using sketchnoting. Here are 12 ways to get started in sketchnoting from Ditch that Textbook.
  • Have students include QR codes onto physical projects that link to audio files explaining the project (or a part of it). The audio files can be created using WeVideo, and then stored in students Google Drive. We recommend qrstuff.com to create QR codes.

These are just a few ideas on how to blend and balance traditional teaching with the digital methods developed over the past year. We encourage you to find the combination that works best for you and your students, and if you have any additional ideas, drop them in the comments so that we can all benefit from each other’s expertise.

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