Tips for Using Technology in Professional Education or Training
By Angela Baca

Learning how to use technology in the educational or job training classroom is challenging for educators and trainers. You may have technical skills and awareness of resources, but you must also incorporate technology in ways that increase student understanding. Your students will depend on you to guide them towards gaining the knowledge and skills they will need for future success. Try these suggestions for using technology in the classroom.

1. Use technology to inform your students what they will be learning and how their learning will be evaluated at the end of the course. In a computerized classroom, you can display information quickly on the SmartBoard or LED projector. Remember that too much information means you might overwhelm your audience. Provide just the right amount of information to complement your oral presentation.

2. Use a computerized survey to quickly assess student learning styles. People learn in different ways, especially in terms of how they are stimulated. Learners may learn best through visual, auditory, or kinesthetic stimulation. Your job as the facilitator of learning is to design lessons so that people with different learning styles can learn together. Getting the information on student learning styles in the beginning of the course is important for future lesson planning.

3. Work around the barriers presented by technology integration in the classroom. Sometimes you will have a plan for using technology, and something will go wrong. You always need a backup plan. In your mind, you need to think through how technology can make presenting a lesson more effective. Consider what other strategies can be used when your first plan for using technology goes awry.

As a professional educator or trainer, one of your biggest jobs is deciding what to teach and how to teach it. Learn when to include technology and when to teach the old-fashioned way. Don’t use technology as a substitute for teaching what your students need to understand. Your use of technology will make more sense if you first consider the potential value of each technological application before you present it.

 

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