Jacking my classroom into the Matrix

The world is shifting more and more into the digital realm. Therefore, it seems logical that educators shift away from traditional forms of information distribution and make efforts to digitize their classrooms. Moving towards a paperless classroom may be one way that I can improve the quality of my classroom environment. In a my previous post I commented that I would like to improve the connection I have with my students and digitizing my assignments might be one way that helps me achieve this.

There are several benefits to digitizing my assignments. From a teaching perspective, using a digital medium will give me the ability to be a lot more creative in the assignments that I can give. There is a plethora of online resources that a teacher can access to create an assignment that will be engaging and informative. For example, letting students use a resource like Prezi to give a presentation about, let's say the weather, would definitely give them the ability to be more creative in their approach and would most likely result in a better learning experience.

This in turn would generate an improved classroom environment. If students are relating better to the materials I provide or the assignments I give then no doubt a much livelier discussion on the classroom content would ensue. Letting students utilize a digital medium in their work would undoubtedly foster a better peer to peer learning environment as well. When students are able to interact with each other in a way that excites them then only good things can come of that. More and more I am finding that students are not interested in traditional methods of teaching. They lose interest and focus quickly when there is a lack of stimulation in the classroom. I have found overtime that the classes that seem to garner the most attention are the ones where I use some sort of digital medium. So, for certain topics I have developed digital content for my lessons but after the discussion in class, I'm mulling over ideas to create accompanying assignments to give my class.

From an organizational state point, digitizing assignments could definitely lighten some the workload teachers often find themselves burdened with and by utilizing the various software programs/online resources available ,teachers should be able to keep better track of when assignments are submitted and the scores for each assignment. I often run into trouble with students submitting work late or not at all and because I have so many individual students to keep track of, it can lead to a lot of wasted time sorting through assignments or even test papers to see if my students have completed their work. Using a digital medium, such as an online quiz can definitely relieve some of the difficulties I face when trying to track down individual students assignments. And from a purely practical stand point, not having to print, copy and lug around stacks of paper is definitely appealing.

There might come a day when students are able to plug themselves directly into a computer and upload Kung Fu lessons but until that day it is my responsibility as an educator to seek out the best methods to teach my students in a fashion that they can relate to and embrace. Digitizing my assignments is just one small step I can take to build a better learning environment and if it means that I never have to unclog another photocopier in my life then insert me into the Matrix.

**Picture provided courtesy of Warner Bros.**