Interactivity and Engagement with Educational Technology

      Hello teachers! Why do students come to school? What do they want to get from school? Christensen (2017) states “students come to school because they want to feel successful, and they also want to feel a sense of connection with their friends''. Interactivity through engaging activities are the keys to help students feel successful and interact with their friends. As teachers, we all know the importance of students' interactivity and engagement because when students are engaged they learn better. Karuppathal et al. (2021) states “the interactivity increases the involvement and perception increases significantly” (p.698). According to Martin and Bolliger (2018), “student engagement increases student satisfaction, enhances student motivation to learn, reduces the sense of isolation, and improves student performance” (para.1). As students, they hope to be included and engaged in the instruction because when they are involved they learn better. “When high school students talked about the types of teaching they wanted, they expressed that they preferred engagement,or just the opposite of boredom” (Himmele & Himmele, 2017, p.7). 

       Pechenkina et al.’s research finds (2017) “after measuring the relationships between students’ app usage and their engagement, retention and academic achievement in the subject, it is suggested that following the app’s introduction, student retention rates and academic performance increased, and there was a positive correlation between students’ scoring highly on the app and achieving higher academic grades” (p.1). Gamification provides the opportunity for students to feel successful by winning the games. Technology connects students with their friends and others during the game. According to the Gamify website, gamification is “the application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts. It can also be defined as a set of activities and processes to solve problems by using or applying the characteristics of game elements” (para.1). Aldemir et al. (2018) “investigated users’ attitude towards gamification elements, including leaderboards, points, badges and found that, in general, users have positive insights about the game elements inserted into a gamified course”. These gamification elements motivate students to compete with others and make them feel proud when they win. This is supported by the research of Tsay et al. (2018) that “some gamification elements, including badges and a leaderboard, and compared the experiment and control groups with results that suggest that students in the treatment group were more engaged and therefore had a better performance compared to the control group”.

       Meanwhile Biryukov et al. (2021) point out some disadvantages of the gamification. “No successfully solved complicated tasks as an incentive for emulation. Setting the goal to win the game, not the study.” For example, most digital games used in Chinese language classrooms focus on the vocabulary, such as Quizlet, Gimkit, Kahoot. Many of my colleagues and myself notice that after playing these online games many times, some students still struggle in handwriting Chinese characters and writing in sentences and paragraphs. I do not think a game can effectively educate on its own. “Educational technology is being used to simplify and improve learning but using technology in education does not directly impact student achievement as the technology tools have to be in line with the curriculum for them to be effective”, say Zirawaga et al. (2017, para.1).

       Before sharing with you three educational technology tools which can engage learners, I would like to introduce the connectivity and integration background of my classroom technology. I use the laptop provided by the district. It works well with my current network most of the time. HDMI cables are needed to connect parts together. I do not think there is a wireless option for the HDMI connection. Most educational technology tools support Windows, Androids, iOS systems. Users can access them with various devices such as Chromebook, computer, laptop, ipad, and cellphone. I can transmit data to learners and their parents through Email with the direct link. I can invite parents to join ClassDojo to view their children’s participation in class. I need to learn how to connect to cloud storage services. 

       The three educational technology tools I want to share with you are AnswerGarden, Padlet, and Quizlet. “AnswerGarden is an easy-to-use polling tool that allows a teacher to quickly collect students' thoughts and ideas. It adopts a minimalist design that allows users to create, share, answer, and manage topic questions without signing up for accounts. Although it is a simple app, it has the potential to be used to accomplish a wide range of educational tasks, such as brainstorming, polling, synchronous and asynchronous communication, and formative assessment” (EdTechBooks). “Padlet provides a virtual wall for interaction. The writing on the wall is similar to a common class activity in which the teacher asks students to write their ideas on “post-it” notes or a poster and then display them so that the collected ideas can be shared with the whole class” (Chen, 2021, p.1444). “Quizlet is a web tool and a mobile app that boosts students' learning through several study tools that include flashcards and game-based quizzes. You can either design your own study sets from scratch or search for pre-made sets to customize and use in your teaching” (Duotl, 2022, para.1).

 

       After knowing these tools’ benefits, I believe you wonder about the price of each. AnswerGarden is a free online tool. It accepts donations. Padlet has memberships for personal, team, business, and school. It offers three free padlets topics for free in each tier and charges different prices for different amounts of the padlet topics. For example, under personal membership, three padlets are free and twenty padlets are $6.99 monthly or $69.99 yearly. Quizlet offers a free option with limited features and a paid subscription called Quizlet Plus for  $35.99 annually for teachers. Students do not have to pay once they join the teacher’s Quizlet class. They are user-friendly for first time users. There are tutorials for these apps. Users can contact these apps’ customer service for support when something does not work. My students tell me and I connect these tools’ customer service when something does not work. While waiting for their response, I usually provide students with the printed out copies for them to complete the assignment or activities. These tools can be used for asynchronous and synchronous distance learning and face-to-face classroom. I display work on the projector and Promethean screen to the entire class at the same time. I can invite and encourage synchronous learners at a distance to join Zoom or Google Meet online learning platform to participate. 

       Now, you are invited to use the interactive asset to share your opinions and experiences of educational technology on the tools I created for you. Please share your favorite educational technology tool’s name on www.AnswerGarden.ch, post your favorite educational tool’s pictures and videos and comment on others on www.Padlet.com, and study, review, test, and match the vocabularies of educational technology on www.Quizlet.com. Thank you for your participation and inspiration. 

       In conclusion, regardless of the tool, it is about the teaching and learning, not the technology. We only use technology as a tool to improve teaching and enhance learning. The ultimate goal of education is to improve students’ academic performance and social emotional learning. Some of the roles of the instructor when implementing technology for learning include: choosing the age and content appropriate games, providing related learning materials and assessment standards, and facilitating the use. It is true that technology brings many benefits to education, for example, it makes learning more accessible, affordable, and interactive, it helps teachers save time in designing games, grading, and delivering the lesson. One-to- one Chromebook programs made remote learning possible. However, it does not guarantee quality education. Only when teachers mindfully guide students to use technology in learning, demonstrate how to explore information, train them in the ability of concentration, and teach them cyber safety skills, can technology be a beneficial tool in education, instead of a distraction. “Given the human interactions at the heart of learning and the plethora of demands on teachers' time, the best measure of most K-12 technology may be whether it makes it easier for teachers to do their job well”, says Hess (2022, p.24). Tuma (2021) adds “technology can enhance interactive learning in well-designed and structured formats based on educational objectives” (p.231). I hope this blog could illuminate your mind with the core of education which is the interactivity and engagement in education and technology can be an effective tool to enhance the outcome of teaching and learning.  

       Thank you for reading and sharing.

References

Anonymous. AnswerGarden. EdTeach Books. https://edtechbooks.org/onlinetools/answergarden

Aldemir, T., Celik, B., & Kaplan, G. (2018). A qualitative investigation of student perceptions

       of game elements in a gamified course. Computers in Human Behavior, 78, 235–254.

Biryukov, A., Brikoshina1, I., Mikhalevich, N., Sycheva, S., Khalimon, E. (2021). Gamification 

       in education: threats or new opportunities. Russian and Foreign Experience in the System

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       https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/202110302001

Christensen, C. (2017). Disrupting class book to education commission of the States.

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hewX1Wmqrb4&t=1865s

Duotl. (2022). Introduction to Quizlet.       

       https://otl.du.edu/knowledgebase/introduction-to-quizlet

Hess, F. (2022). Education after the pandemic. National affairs. 

       https://nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/education-after-the-pandemic

Karuppathal, R. (2021). Impact of augmented reality education on students interactivity.   

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Martin. F., Bolliger, D. (2018). Engagement Matters: Student Perceptions on the Importance     

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       https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1179659

Himmele, P., Himmele W. (2017). Total participation techniques. Making every student an  

       active learner. ASCD Member Book. 

Pechenkina, E., Laurence, D., Oates G., Eldridge D., Hunter D. (2017).  Using a gamified     

       mobile app to increase student engagement, retention and academic achievement. 

       https://doi.org/ 10.1186/s41239-017-0069-7

Tsay, C. H. H., Kofnas, A., & Luo, J. (2018). Enhancing student learning experience with 

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Tuma, F. (2021). The use of educational technology for interactive teaching in lectures. Annals   

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Zirawaga, V., Olusanya, A.,  Maduku, T.Gaming in Education: Using Games as a Support Tool 

       to Teach History. Journal of Education and Practice, v8(15), 55-64.   

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