Transform Boring Lessons into Exciting Adventures with Tech Savvy Strategies
Technology has become a transformative force, reshaping traditional teaching methods and offering innovative ways to engage students. The integration of technology in education has opened up a world of possibilities, allowing educators to transform mundane lessons into exciting adventures. This article explores how tech-savvy strategies can revolutionize the classroom, enhancing student engagement, fostering personalized learning experiences, and leveraging tools such as gamification, virtual reality, and collaborative platforms. By harnessing the power of technology, educators can create dynamic and interactive learning environments that inspire curiosity, creativity, and a lifelong love for learning.
Include Visuals
Including visual elements in your lesson presentation is a great way to display information and illustrate relationships. Simply put, it helps get your students eyes on the material and keeps them contemplating it for longer.
Projecting diagrams such as those found on Science A-Z Science Diagrams or showing videos from Grammaropolis can make a big difference in student engagement.
Don’t have the budget or facilities for a messy science project? Use Online Dissection Resources, Science Games, or Interactive Simulations.
Can’t pack another expensive field trip into your schedule? Platforms like Stellarium and Google Arts & Culture can let your students inspect amazing things right there in your school.
Didn’t find exactly the visual you are hoping for? Make your own graphics using Canva or SlidesGO!
Dabble in Augmented Reality
For a more immersive visual experience, try bringing augmented reality into your classroom. There are some truly innovative apps out there that will send students on a real learning adventure.
Math Ninja AR lets you explore every nook and cranny of the 3D Ninja World to find the villager with the correct answer to the math question. Physical movements of stretching, bending, squatting, crawling, reaching and peering will stimulate a child’s memory whilst providing a parent an opportunity for easy exercise.
Through Wonderscope you can see the story take place all around you, read your lines aloud to engage with and talk to characters, and help them solve problems along the way.
Civilisations XR comes with the ability to superimpose ancient artifacts onto the real world.
You can also use apps such as Jig Space or Adobe Aero to create your own drawings to share in augmented reality.
Get Everyone Involved
While looking at images can generate interest, it is even more engaging to get each student to be hands on, actually interacting with the material they are learning.
Interactive diagrams like those on Eco System for Kids and NeoK12 are great options for getting your kids involved in their own learning. In our guide for How to Create Interactive Digital Activities for Elementary Students you can learn to build interactive tasks tailored specifically to your own lessons.
Using virtual math manipulatives can be fantastic solution for getting students to understand problems concretely without making the huge mess of paper manipulatives or carrying the expense of buying enough materials for every student to have all they need.
Students can use a drawing program such as Draw and Tell or Paper 53 to accomplish many tasks that will involve students in their learning. Try out visual notetaking, a method that includes pictorial representations of ideas and relationships. Have each person draw and label their own scientific diagrams, timelines, schematics, and plot diagrams.
Get & Give Instant Feedback
Utilizing data analytics in real time lets both you and your students know what they still need to work on right away. Additionally, these tech-savvy activities administer quizzes in an exciting way!
Pear Deck assesses progress, offers real-time feedback, and provides the differentiated instruction and gamified practice that keeps students engaged and excelling.
Socrative also lets you watch the answers to every student’s quiz populate your screen in real time.
Kahoot! is a popular online quiz platform that allows teachers to create and share engaging quizzes with their students. It features a variety of question types, multimedia capabilities, and gamification features.
Educandy is another fun platform where you can create interactive learning games in minutes. Enter the vocabulary or questions and answers and Educandy turns your content into cool interactive activities.
Facilitate Collaboration
Collaboration can get students involved, thinking, and learning not only the material but how to work well with others. As it happens, there are many tech-savvy strategies that can promote collaboration in your classroom!
Frankenstories is a fast-paced, multiplayer creative writing game.
Collaborative whiteboard tools like Microsoft Whiteboard are great for interactive classroom activities.
Padlet allows teachers to create online discussion boards and interactive lesson plans that encourage student participation and engagement. How To Use Padlet For Collaborating Digitally In The Classroom can give you more practical ideas for implementing this app in your classroom.
These tools enable students to collaborate on group projects and brainstorm ideas together.
Turn it Into a Breakout
Using technology and problem solving skills, students decipher codes and complete activities to learn about a topic. This is a great opportunity to make engaging and tech-integrated resources for your classroom. It becomes a digital breakout because students enter the final codes into a locked Google Form so there is no need for physical boxes and locks!
Digital Breakout Tutorial and Templates to Make Your Own
14 templates in 6 different colors plus a 21 minute instructional video. Everything you need to make your own digital breakouts for any topic and any grade level. I’ve even included a list of my favorite digital tools for making breakout puzzles.

If you want to really play up the beginning of the breakout, you can download the Fake Call Me! app to get your class assigned to a “special mission” by some important person. You could also use an program like LanSchool or GoGuardian to throw up a “wanted poster” on everyone’s screens!
Gamify Review & Skill Practice
Flash card practice can look a whole lot better than staring at black print on white paper. Educational games can accomplish the same skill practice and fact review as boring flash cards while manufacturing way more interest and buy-in from your students.
Websites like Arcademics and Mr. Nussbaum feature games that offer skill practice in a variety of subjects.
Tips for Trying New Tech
When trying out new tech-savvy strategies in your class, here are a few things to keep in mind.
Juggling is Overrated
Don’t feel the need to try out everything all at once, or even all in one week. Pick one or two new tech strategies per semester and really explore the possibilities in it to find what works for your classroom.
Test Your Tech
To whatever extent possible, test out a new technology beforehand so you can work out the kinks. You don’t have to be an expert, you can definitely to learn a tech tool along with your students. However, by doing a dry run you often troubleshoot simple issues to avoid during your lesson.
Engage, Don’t Distract
If the tech-savvy strategies you are using are so engaging that they have become more of a distraction then take a break. Your learning objectives should always shine through! Try something different, or change to implementing the tech on a less frequent schedule. You can save Kahoot for end-of-unit study sessions, bring out games as bell ringer or an early finisher activity, or use virtual math manipulatives as a station.
That said, we do recommend giving tech a try at least a couple of different times! Sometimes once the excitement wears off (or the initial struggle to master a new technology subsides) things even out.
Conclusion
Embracing technology in education is not just about keeping up with the times, it’s about unlocking the full potential of every student. By implementing tech-savvy strategies, educators can create a learning experience that is not only informative but also engaging and inspiring. As we continue to explore the endless possibilities that technology offers, we can also strive to transform every lesson into an exciting adventure! In doing so we might just ignite a passion for learning that will last a lifetime.
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