Teachers, it’s 2022, stop lecturing all period! Here’s what to do instead.
I hope you didn’t lecture all period when you were on Zoom with your students. You thought your students were engaged, hanging on your every Zoom word, starring at you through their computer screens while you lectured away. But I hate to break it to you, while you were lecturing, they had most likely tuned out or were chatting with friends on their other devices.
Lecturing via Zoom or any other communication tool is just a bad use of edtech. The pandemic has exposed what lecturing all period is — boring. It’s boring for the teacher and it’s boring for the students.
One key to engaging your students is letting them work at their own pace. Since not all students learn at the same pace, let them engage with the content at their own speed. Another key is giving your students choice. Present them with a choice board of activities, asking them to complete certain tasks while giving them a choice of others to complete.
If you want your students to learn what you’re teaching — and really retain it — stop lecturing and let the students do the work by engaging them with technology.
This engagement might include:
- students working through an interactive presentation on the topic at hand in Peardeck or Nearpod.
- students watching a video of your lecture that you’ve posted on Edpuzzle and having them answer questions imbedded in the video.
- students using Canva to create an infographic or poster about the topic.
- students using Gimkit to test their knowledge of a particular topic by playing games.
The bottom line is that lectures are an outdated tool for teaching and communicating knowledge. Instead of lecturing, use technology to give students the ability to explore new ideas at their own pace through experimentation and discovery. Do not lecture; instead try using technology in your classroom today!
