Using Technology to Empower Children

Technology has become a part of every day life for a majority of the population.  As schools increase the use of technology in the classroom, it is important to notice that technology can be used as a wonderful tool to help empower students!  Students deserve a voice, and technology can help students communicate their thoughts and opinions.  Allowing students to teach each other is just as an important skill as being a learner.  It is said that the best way to learn is through teaching, so what better way to allow students to learn and share their own knowledge with others!  There are many ways to empower students, and this article from edutopia shows different ways to incorporate listening to the students' voice.  One of the ways this article suggests is to use meaningful technology in the classroom.

One very fascinating and meaningful technology tool is called Write Our World. Write Our World is a tool where kids can create their own stories and share it with other kids around the world!  Students can share their culture AND native language for other children to see and hear.  Giving the students the ability to create their own ebooks is a way to let children share their voice!

Image Source: iClipArt for Schools

Zoom Technology

In Educational Technology and Design, students had the opportunity to use Zoom Video Conferencing. Zoom is a tool that, as a future teacher, I could use with my own students!  During my experiencing using Zoom, I was working on a group collaboration project.  Zoom not only allowed all of us to come together to discuss what we needed to use, but we were also able to talk with our instructor, Dr. Ping Gao.  Dr. Gao was able to look at the work we had done so far on our project and provide constructive comments to my group.  She was also available to answer any questions that we had about our project. Using Zoom in the classroom could be a way to communicate with students over projects, like I was able to experience in this class!  It could also be a great tool for inviting guest speakers to the classroom.  It would be possible to use my connections from people around the world to share their expertise and knowledge in a classroom of any grade level! 

Image: Screenshot captured by me (Catherine Moeller) during a Zoom Conference with my group and Dr. Gao! 

If you're interested in learning how to join zoom and schedule a meeting, watch this video from Zoom to help you get started!