How Technology Can Empower Students’ Peculiarities

Through the use of technology, teachers can overturn their teaching method, transforming lessons in a more engaging way. One of the most important impacts is the possibility to put the power of learning in the hands of the learners, empowering their peculiarities and offering them a customized educational experience, so that they can control their learning, and their future.
It is now too easy to take technology for granted, even in the classrooms; many of them already have LED projectors and document cameras, an increasing number of schools give teachers the possibility to work with smart boards or personal student devices. It is wise to stop for a moment, and try to understand how these powerful tools can influence the learning experience of students – and educators too.

The power to choose

The world’s knowledge is a few clicks away and today learners can decide how to get in touch with it. Thanks to technology, students can design their own learning road, setting up their goals and deciding how to show what they know, what they learn and what they can do. Teachers can help this process, encouraging them to make informed choices about the technology they will use for their education – so that they can work with the most suitable one for their needs – and asking them to continuously re-design the tasks, exploring new standards and connections.

Sharing differences to improve

Classrooms are no longer considered a uniform identity, but a connection of different voices that can grow up and get better and better experimenting with their peculiarities. Thanks to technology, these voices are no longer silenced, they can interact inside and outside the classroom, sharing ideas and points of view with each other, with families, with the school community and with the entire world.
Educators can help students guiding them through the opportunities to showcase their learning and making them choose an authentic, helpful audience. Social media are the most common place where students share their voices and life experiences, so teachers can help them to do it responsibly and intelligently, to achieve the most positive result from this practice.

Changing student-teacher roles

Technology gives more chances to interact and communicate in new conditions and with new, less formal rules. Students have become a lot more active and engaged in the classroom while teachers have become more facilitators than just a dispenser of information.
Classrooms are a more collaborative environment where roles have changed and educators and teachers stand on the same level, sharing information and emotions, with a deeper contact that brings out the inner peculiarities of each of them.
This can be a positive consequence to be fueled to reach the goal of working in a more confident, safe environment, where everyone can feel free to express himself.