EMPOWERING STUDENTS THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

It’s a pretty standard routine where students are using technology every day. Often, they can use these
tools to navigate their learning fully on their own, and are engaged in the learning process. But is the
technology being used to its potential? That’s a question I find myself asking a lot lately, as a teacher.
Many schools have seen dramatic increases in technology’s use and availability in teaching and learning,
but when does it really make a difference? And how do we know?

Reflecting on these questions, I’ve realized that it’s generally easy to engage students with technology.
Devices, interactivity, and the potential for collaboration are great technological hooks that can drive
students towards real intellectual engagement in learning. Overall, my students work hard, they are
focused in class, and they are engaged in learning. It can be easy to engage students on a basic level
with a bright screen or shiny piece of new technology and that can lead to meaningful intellectual
engagement, too. But we need to use technology because it provides students with opportunities to
learn in ways that were impossible before, and we need to embrace the technology’s role in
empowering them to take control of that learning. 

For my students to really benefit for the power of technology, they need to have more power in
designing the learning. Here are three simple ways to promote student empowerment through
technology in our classrooms:

1. Choice

Ask for student input in designing learning goals and assessments so that they can help decide
how to show what they know and can do. With all of the world’s knowledge a few clicks away and
so many free tools for online creation, the power of technology is in this opportunity and its
potential. Students should be encouraged to make informed choices about the technology they
are using to enhance their education. For me, this means not only providing students with
choices in tools, but asking them to design the tasks or rubrics, and to make connections to
standards, too.

2. Audience

When I’m the only person reading my students’ work, the power of their voices are silenced. I
want my students to share with each other, with families, with our school community, and with the
world. We should provide students with authentic opportunities to showcase their learning, and
their choices for a real audience. Many students are sharing their voices and lives on social
media already, so let’s help them do so responsibly and intelligently, and leverage their drive to
share for their learning. This can start small, with simple peer or class-to-class collaboration and
can evolve towards sharing on social media or with digital portfolios.

3. Reflection

Choices are more powerful when we know why they were made. If we are asking students to
make choices about their learning, reflecting on these choices is essential to real intellectual
engagement. Whether it’s a 30-second video reflection, a Google Form self-evaluation, peer
assessment, or any other strategy, reflection helps students process their own learning and
understanding and provides valuable data for educators to understand it, too. My students often
 create these forms of reflections, taking on the role of the teacher to design the questions for
reflection themselves.

The Real Power of Technology

Technology can do a lot of things in our classroom, but one of its most important impacts is the
ability to put the power of learning in the hands of the learners. The potential for knowledge, skill-
building, and creation is available online for everyone, levelling the playing field for students to
become the experts. I know that my students are usually engaged in our learning, but I want to do
more to empower them to be in control of their learning and their futures.

https://www.ascd.org/blogs/empowering-students-through-technology-moving-beyond-engagement

WHAT IS DIGITAL TOOLS?

The 21st century learners have come a long way.Today’s learner is self-motivated who has
access to unlimited information, and hence in this scenario, it becomes imperative for
educators to be cognizant of the exponential growth of ICT of which education and teaching
learning have become an inalienable part.Technology has become an integral part of the
education process in this technological era. The 21st century instructional tools have made
their way into almost all the spheres of education.  A variety of activities are provided to
cater to different kinds of interactive learners. Internet, blogs, virtual classrooms enhance
the knowledge and understanding of students.

DIGITAL TOOLS IN PROMOTING CONNECTED LEARNERS

There are so many digital tools available today that offer opportunities for promoting
student creativity, student voice, and expanding where and how students learn.

Each of these offer multiple ways for students to create, connect and engage in more
authentic learning experiences.

EDMODO

1) Edmodo: Virtual learning space, where teachers can set up a digital classroom to
connect students with the resources they need, in a safe learning environment. Edmodo
can be used for assessments and integrates with Microsoft Office and Google, making it
easy to share files with students. Students relied on Edmodo to connect with students in
Argentina, Mexico and Spain for their PBL. One student said “these connections enabled
me to sculpt my PBL, and learn in ways that books, videos and regular classroom
lessons cannot provide.”

Main features of Edmodo are:

 Facilitate learning goals
 Create polls for students
 Award badges to individual students
 Assess student progress 
 Online classroom discussions
 Personalization 
 Free admin account activation
 Network that connects students, administrators, parents

2) 

3) Schoology allows access to course materials anytime, anywhere, for teachers,

students, and parents. Access to Schoology means students and teachers have access to
course material anytime and anywhere they have an internet connection, including on snow
days, after school, and sick days.

For students, it is a place where you can manage all your files, assignments, assessments,
learning outcomes, and badges. Best of all, it has unlimited storage. You can import files,
create new resources, and copy or move them into any or all of your courses quickly.

From this navigation bar, you can navigate to the three main areas of Schoology: Courses,
Groups, and Resources. You can return home at any time by clicking Schoology in the left
corner.

Overview of Schoology Features

 Advanced analytics.
 Align content to Common Core and State Standards.
 Automate grading system and performance-based analytics.
 Automatically updating online grading system.
 Calendars, messaging, and personal/shared content.
 Centralize online educational activity.
 Collaboration-based interface.

4) Socrative Designed by a group of entrepreneurs and engineers passionate

about education, Socrative is a system that allows teachers to create exercises or
educational games which students can solve using mobile devices, whether
smartphones, laptops, or tablets. Teachers can see the results of the activities
and, depending on these, modify the subsequent lessons in order to make them
more personalized.
Socrative is a cloud-based student response system developed in 2010 by Boston-based
graduate school students. It allows teachers to create simple quizzes that students can
take quickly on laptops – or, more often, via classroom tablet computers or their own
smartphones.

As soon as you pose a question, students can access it from their devices and their
responses will update automatically on your device. Socrative is a great option for quizzes,
too, because you can randomize the questions, making cheating impossible.

What is the features of Socrative?

Socrative maintains a reports section, where teachers can download an Excel
spreadsheet with data on overall class performance. Individual student reports are
also available to download in PDF format. Aggregate and individual results can also be
e-mailed to teachers. One noteworthy feature is the Quick Question.

Using Digital Tools to Promote Social and Emotional Learning

Educators can take advantage of digital tools that students want to use to enhance social and emotional
learning efforts.

Educational technology has opened up a new world of learning

possibilities. Virtual reality and infographics help visual and kinetic learners in a
way not possible with lectures alone. During the coronavirus pandemic,
technology helped schools keep students safe while maintaining a high standard
of teaching and learning. It’s essential that schools provide educational
technology and apply it to social-emotional learning as well. 
Through these competencies — self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship
skills and responsible decision-making — students can improve their classroom contributions, which
can then lead to better academic outcomes. 

Why Are Social Emotional Learning Competencies Important?

Although educators began paying attention to social-emotional competencies decades ago, Osher
believes the increased focus is due to a larger accumulation of research and an increase in
support from educators who have tried SEL and found it to be successful.
“There is now enough data to conduct meta analyses and, through this, researchers have
consistently found out that good social-emotional learning programs tend to impact other aspects
of academic performance,” Osher said. 
In addition, employers have identified a need in the workforce for young adults who have SEL
competencies. A Bloomberg report found that only 35 percent of employers are confident that
new hires will have the soft skills they need to succeed on the job. 

Why Social and Emotional Learning Is Essential for Students

Today's schools are increasingly multicultural and multilingual with students from diverse social and
economic backgrounds. Educators and community agencies serve students with different motivation for
engaging in learning, behaving positively, and performing academically. Social and emotional learning
(SEL) provides a foundation for safe and positive learning, and enhances students' ability to succeed in
school, careers, and life.

5 Keys to Successful SEL

Chart like a wheel with Social, Emotional, and Academic Learning as the hub with Self-Awareness, Self-
Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision-Making branching out.
Classroom Curriculum and Instruction; School Climate, P

Research shows that SEL not only improves achievement by an average of 11 percentile points, but it
also increases prosocial behaviors (such as kindness, sharing, and empathy), improves student attitudes
toward school, and reduces depression and stress among students (Durlak et al., 2011). Effective social
and emotional learning programming involves coordinated classroom, schoolwide, family, and
community practices that help students develop the following five key skills:

Self-Awareness

Self-awareness involves understanding one's own emotions, personal goals, and values. This includes
accurately assessing one's strengths and limitations, having positive mindsets, and possessing a well-
grounded sense of self-efficacy and optimism. High levels of self-awareness require the ability to
recognize how thoughts, feelings, and actions are interconnected.

Self-Management

Self-management requires skills and attitudes that facilitate the ability to regulate one's own emotions
and behaviors. This includes the ability to delay gratification, manage stress, control impulses, and
persevere through challenges in order to achieve personal and educational goals.

Social Awareness
Social awareness involves the ability to understand, empathize, and feel compassion for those with
different backgrounds or cultures. It also involves understanding social norms for behavior and
recognizing family, school, and community resources and supports.

Relationship Skills

Relationship skills help students establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships, and to act
in accordance with social norms. These skills involve communicating clearly, listening actively,
cooperating, resisting inappropriate social pressure, negotiating conflict constructively, and seeking help
when it is needed.

Responsible Decision Making

Responsible decision making involves learning how to make constructive choices about personal
behavior and social interactions across diverse settings. It requires the ability to consider ethical
standards, safety concerns, accurate behavioral norms for risky behaviors, the health and well-being of
self and others, and to make realistic evaluation of various actions' consequences.

School is one of the primary places where students learn social and emotional skills. An effective SEL
program should incorporate four elements represented by the acronym SAFE (Durlak et al., 2010, 2011):

Sequenced: connected and coordinated sets of activities to foster skills development

Active: active forms of learning to help students master new skills

Focused: emphasis on developing personal and social skills

Explicit: targeting specific social and emotional skills

The Short- and Long-Term Benefits of SEL

Students are more successful in school and daily life when they:

Know and can manage themselves

Understand the perspectives of others and relate effectively with them

Make sound choices about personal and social decisions

These social and emotional skills are some of several short-term student outcomes that SEL programs
promote (Durlak et al., 2011; Farrington et al., 2012; Sklad et al., 2012). Other benefits include:

More positive attitudes toward oneself, others, and tasks including enhanced self-efficacy, confidence,
persistence, empathy, connection and commitment to school, and a sense of purpose

More positive social behaviors and relationships with peers and adults

Reduced conduct problems and risk-taking behavior

Decreased emotional distress

Improved test scores, grades, and attendance

In the long run, greater social and emotional competence can increase the likelihood of high school
graduation, readiness for postsecondary education, career success, positive family and work
relationships, better mental health, reduced criminal behavior, and engaged citizenship (e.g., Hawkins,
Kosterman, Catalano, Hill, & Abbott, 2008; Jones, Greenberg, & Crowley, 2015).

Building SEL Skills in the Classroom

Promoting social and emotional development for all students in classrooms involves teaching and
modeling social and emotional skills, providing opportunities for students to practice and hone those
skills, and giving students an opportunity to apply these skills in various situations.

One of the most prevalent SEL approaches involves training teachers to deliver explicit lessons that
teach social and emotional skills, then finding opportunities for students to reinforce their use
throughout the day. Another curricular approach embeds SEL instruction into content areas such as
English language arts, social studies, or math (Jones & Bouffard, 2012; Merrell & Gueldner, 2010; Yoder,
2013; Zins et al., 2004). There are a number of research-based SEL programs that enhance students'
competence and behavior in developmentally appropriate ways from preschool through high school
(Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, 2013, 2015).

Teachers can also naturally foster skills in students through their interpersonal and student-centered
instructional interactions throughout the school day. Adult-student interactions support SEL when they
result in positive student-teacher relationships, enable teachers to model social-emotional
competencies for students, and promote student engagement (Williford & Sanger Wolcott, 2015).
Teacher practices that provide students with emotional support and create opportunities for students'
voice, autonomy, and mastery experiences promote student engagement in the educational process.

How Schools Can Support SEL

At the school level, SEL strategies typically come in the form of policies, practices, or structures related
to climate and student support services (Meyers et al., in press). Safe and positive school climates and
cultures positively affect academic, behavioral, and mental health outcomes for students (Thapa, Cohen,
Guffey, & Higgins-D'Alessandro, 2013). School leaders play a critical role in fostering schoolwide
activities and policies that promote positive school environments, such as establishing a team to address
the building climate; adult modeling of social and emotional competence; and developing clear norms,
values, and expectations for students and staff members.

Fair and equitable discipline policies and bullying prevention practices are more effective than purely
behavioral methods that rely on reward or punishment (Bear et al., 2015). School leaders can organize
activities that build positive relationships and a sense of community among students through structures
such as regularly scheduled morning meetings or advisories that provide students with opportunities to
connect with each other.

An important component of schoolwide SEL involves integration into multi-tiered systems of support.
The services provided to students by professionals such as counselors, social workers, and psychologists
should align with universal efforts in the classroom and building. Often through small-group work,
student support professionals reinforce and supplement classroom-based instruction for students who
need early intervention or more intensive treatment.

Building Family and Community Partnerships

Family and community partnerships can strengthen the impact of school approaches to extending
learning into the home and neighborhood. Community members and organizations can support
classroom and school efforts, especially by providing students with additional opportunities to refine
and apply various SEL skills (Catalano et al., 2004).

After-school activities also provide opportunities for students to connect with supportive adults and
peers (Gullotta, 2015). They are a great venue to help youth develop and apply new skills and personal
talents. Research has shown that after-school programs focused on social and emotional development
can significantly enhance student self-perceptions, school connectedness, positive social behaviors,
school grades, and achievement test scores, while reducing problem behaviors (Durlak et al., 2010).

SEL can also be fostered in many settings other than school. SEL begins in early childhood, so family and
early childcare settings are important (Bierman & Motamedi, 2015). Higher education settings also have
the potential to promote SEL (Conley, 2015).

Classroom Technology Creates Opportunity for SEL

Integrated classroom technologies such as Chromebooks and videoconferencing platforms have
made it easier for teachers to create teachable moments around the key SEL competencies.
 A recent study by Microsoft found that three pieces of technology tend to be especially helpful
for SEL: 
 Collaboration platforms: Platforms such as G-Suite and Office 365 help students learn to work
together and facilitate SEL skills. In the Fresno Unified School District, administrators adopted a digital
collaboration platform with the intention of improving social emotional learning, but also saw academic
benefits. After adopting the platform, participating middle school students were 25 percent more likely to
meet or exceed language and math standards. 
 Artificial intelligence: Personalized learning has played a significant part in evolving SEL in the
classroom. Teachers can now target the SEL competencies students have not yet mastered by adjusting
course material to more closely align with the areas they need to work on. AI-enabled technology allows
teachers to improve personalized learning, in part by making student assessment and course correction
more efficient so that teachers have more time for one-on-one interactions. When the Tacoma Public
School District incorporated AI-powered technology and Azure cloud computing in an initiative to “focus
on the whole child,” graduation rates increased from 55 percent to 83 percent. 
 Mixed reality: Virtual and augmented reality gives students a chance to practice SEL skills in a
low-stakes, virtual environment. “One especially effective teaching method is to provide students with
opportunities to observe social-emotional skills and then practice those skills,” report Microsoft
researchers. “Such experiences can help raise awareness of bias and improve skills, such as empathy and
collaboration, among other benefits.” 
In previous iterations of SEL, Osher said, educators often focused on creating SEL-specific
curricula. Although such classes were often rich in information, they failed to contextualize the
lessons. More effective, he said, is to incorporate SEL into daily classroom activities to show
students what these competencies look like in practice.
“Students develop these skills at school, but also at home and in the community within
environmental contexts that are supportive of social-emotional learning,” Osher said. “It is the
interactions in the classroom in which social and emotional learning develops.”

DEEPENING CONNECTIONS WITH STUDENTS DURING THE PANDEMIC

Student engagement increases student satisfaction, enhances student motivation to learn, reduces the
sense of isolation, and improves student performance in online courses.

Engagement is crucial to student learning and satisfaction in online courses. The definition of
engagement has been extensively explored in distance and online learning literature for decades.
Student engagement is defined as “the student’s psychological investment in and effort directed
Engagement Matters: Student Perceptions on the Importance of Engagement Strategies in the Online
Learning Environment Online Learning Journal – Volume 22 Issue 1 – March 2018 206 toward learning,
understanding, or mastering the knowledge, skills, or crafts that academic work is intended to promote”
(Newmann, Wehlage, & Lamborn, 1992, p. 12). Student engagement in online learning is very important
because online learners seem to have fewer opportunities to be engaged with the institution. Hence, it
is essential to create multiple opportunities for student engagement in the online environment. The
need for engagement has resulted in the development of guidelines for designing effective online
courses (Roblyer & Ekhaml, 2000). Engagement strategies are aimed at providing positive learner
experiences including active learning opportunities, such as participating in collaborative group work,
having students facilitate presentations and discussions, sharing resources actively, creating course
assignments with handson components, and integrating case studies and reflections. Banna, Lin,
Stewart, and Fialkowski (2015) stress that engagement is the key solution to the issue of learner
isolation, dropout, retention, and graduation rate in online learning. Meyer (2014), Banna et al. (2015),
and Britt (2015) assert the importance of student engagement to online learning because they believe
student engagement can be shown as evidence of students’ considerable effort required for their
cognitive development and their given ability to create their own knowledge, leading to a high level of
student success. According to Banna et al. (2015), if content played a central focus in the past,
engagement plays an important role in stimulating online learning today. To boost student engagement,
three basic engagement techniques of online learning have been identified: student-content,
studentinstructor, and student-student (Bernard et al., 2009). Lear, Ansorge, and Steckelberg (2010) say
that interactions with content, peers, and instructors help online learners become active and more
engaged in their courses. Interactivity and sense of community result in high-quality instruction and
more effective learning outcomes.

“TECHNOLOGY IS JUST A TOOL. IN TERMS OF GETTING THE KIDS WORKING TOGETHER AND
MOTIVATING THEM, THE TEACHER IS THE MOST IMPORTANT”

Technology will never replace great teachers but technology in

the hands of great teachers is transformational

Can technology replace teachers? Absolutely not. We believe that technology will never replace
great teachers, but technology in the hands of great teachers will be transformational.

The role of a teacher is not merely confined to imparting knowledge. It goes far beyond that. A
good teacher inculcates values to the students, and also becomes an inspirational role model
for kids. Many times, even parents are not able to impart all the values which a teacher does
effortlessly. Especially in the case of small children and young students the importance of
teachers can not be undermined.

A good teacher understands the needs of students with different learning abilities and grasping
capacities and accordingly modifies her way of explaining lessons. With a live and personalised
classroom teaching student has the liberty to ask questions and clarify doubts then and there. 

No doubt, the best teachers will always play a pivotal role in educating and inspiring students
for decades to come but technology must be seen as a tool to enhance the teacher’s potential
and not as a replacement for the teacher. There are many advanced tools, like online platforms
for virtual meetings and interactive sessions which can be treated as a support system for our
teachers. Rather than treating technology and teachers as some diverging source we can think
of the two as a converging source of knowledge. Technology in a way also facilitates teachers
to increase their reach and simplify the teaching process. The advancement of technology has
also given the opportunity to the teachers to enhance their ability and depth of knowledge
through regular upskilling.