STRATEGIES AND TOOLS TO SUPPORT DIDACTIC ACTION

When it comes to didactics, we are always thinking in ways that we can estimulate in students life-long learning skills such as : creativity, critical thinking , reflection , self and collaborative learning. In this blog, we would like to share practical tools and apps that can be incorporated in your classes as a complement of your pedagogical approach – This means you can combine tools and customize them based on the learning goals and path that you are already building together with your students.

KEY STRATEGIES : TO SUPPORT DIDACTIC ACTION ONLINE/ONSITE

Based on my learning journey as a teacher training student I have noted different groups of strategies that have worked in classes.

Below I have framed some of the tips and tricks I have found for the online and offline education situation.

  • Motivation and engagement:
    • Increase your learners motivation by using games as a way to promote engagement and active participation. This forces students to be active behind their screens but also be active as creative makers.
    • Motivated students are students that understand what is expected from them and know how they can bend it to their own personal growth. Keep this in mind while explaining your new lesson.
  • teaching and didactics in the (online) classroom:
    • Minimize teacher talking time and provide more time for student talks. Make time for students to talk about their lives outside of school and what goes on there. These things influences their school work and motivation as well and are important to talk about.
    • Use the time you have productively. Make hands on activities for your lessons that engage students to work collaboratively in groups, learners want to be active, create something and want to use their time wisely. Reading and preparation can be done at home, so you have more time to work in class.
  • Feedback:
    • Don’t underestimate the value of feedback, feedforward and feedup. Especially in the online situation, students need personal contact.
    • The use of personalized feedback is more intimate and private and provides students with the understanding that you are really focussed on them in the moment.
    • Make time during the semester for not only feedback but also feedforward and feedup. These two are as important if not more for students to continue working and being motivated.
    • There are many tools that can help with providing feedback/feedforward/feedup, an example of this is «FeedbackFruits peer feedback». More on this tool down below.
  • Assessment:
    • The key aspact with assessments is giving the students clarity of what is expected from them. There needs to be an open communication line between teacher and student.

TOOLS & APPS TO SUPPORT DIDACTIC ACTION

Tools and Apps that I recommend:

  • Wikiwijs: Engage with online videos, images, text and interactive questions to create challenging lessons for your students.

  • FeedbackFruits: FeedbackFruits is an all-in-one solution to increasing student engagement & collaboration synchronously and asynchronously.

  • FeedbackFruits peer feedback: The importants of peer feedback is so big that I wanted to zoom in on this tool. Here you can activate peer learning by guiding your students to review each other’s work

  • Confluence: It is an online documentation tool in which, for example, projects or procedures can be documented. It is an open and shared workspace designed to encourage collaboration: not only can you work on documents simultaneously, but Confluence also keeps stakeholders informed of changes made to the system.

  • Lessonup: With this tool you create or arrange digital and interactive lessons. You can create word webs/drag questions/open questions and video questions to keep students present.