Using technologies in my teaching practice

We have an incredible chance as educators to help our pupils to achieve success in any subject. As professional teachers, we must implement educational technology in our practice to prepare the students to become independent learners and thinkers. I try to embed technology in my teaching practice as much as possible to make teaching and learning more interactive and would like to share with you some of them.

      

-IXL is the most incredible and useful tool which I have found as a mother and a teacher. Our family utilizes it since many years. My youngest child is seven years old now and we use IXL in daily basis to strengthen her knowledge from Maths and English. Recently she started learning Spanish from IXL with great interest too. Also, I use this application with my tutoring ten years old student as well. My point is that you can find various learning activities from Pre-K till 12 grades. System automatically does knowledge diagnostic test before learning Math, English Language Arts, Science, Social Studies and Spanish subjects to reveal exactly what students know and helps educators to take actionable steps to foster growth at every level. It offers hundreds of skills, lessons and games to explore and learn from each subject with visuals and videos, making learning more interactive and fun. Moreover, it provides opportunity to learn with examples to make understanding easier, if child struggles on any task at any stage. Besides of that, it has got a writing tool which allows to write directly on the screen which is really helpful while solving Maths problems. Finally, it motivates users by awarding medals and allowing to reveal and discover virtual prizes, which can be used as an avatar of the users, kids love it!

There are some drawbacks of using this application alongside with many listed advantages. Firstly, IXL application is not free. It has different payment packages depending on the number of the subjects you would like to enroll the child. The cheapest plan is $9.95 per month for a single subject. It limits families with low income to get access to this wonderful educational application because of the expensive price. Even more local parents from Uzbekistan might find hard to make a payment for this application, if they do not have an international bank card. However, it offers 30-day trial period where children can explore it for free. Moreover, learners need a device to use any educational application such as IXL. It can be one of the biggest issues which constraint children from accessing the endless learning opportunities! 

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 Another great tool is Padlet. Padlet is an online discussion tool, in which users can post their ideas on a certain subject and view others' posts too. It works as a digital notice board, and it is a great tool to embed in teaching practice in order to collaborate with the students. Not only students, but also other teachers and even parents can be involved in Padlet wall discussions. I create exit tickets on Padlet and ask students share what they have learned during the lesson on the discussion wall at the end of the lesson or at the beginning of the next lesson. Learners find this way of revision and learning very engaging and fun. Moreover, this way of assessment gives opportunity to every student express their thoughts and to be heard. Check below shared video for more ideas on how to use Padlet in the classroom.

Furthermore, images, videos, audio files, or any other type of documents can be uploaded onto Padlet. Posts may be shared with a certain group, or can be open to public, either can be kept private. You just need to share the link or QR code with the people who you would like to invite, to provide them easy access to the platform. It can be integrated with Google Classroom or any other LMS.

Padlet's most basic plan is free, however it limits users to three Padlets and limits file size uploads. You can always utilize one of those three, then remove it and start over. Teachers can utilize the Padlet Pro plan, which costs $8 per month. This subscription includes unlimited padlets and 250MB file uploads.

As we can see Padlet platform is less expensive compared to IXL platform, though it is similar to IXL on offering 30-day free trial period to explore the platform.