Which Device Can Support Different Learning Styles?

This post is sponsored by Samsung Business. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

One of the strongest arguments for classroom technology is the ability it gives teachers to easily adapt curricula for different abilities and learning styles. Give students a choice in how they receive information—and how they interact with it—and their ability to absorb and recall educational material improves immensely.

Neil Fleming’s VARK model groups student learning into four styles:
1. Visual
2. Auditory
3. Read/write
4. Kinesthetic

Just how important is modifying curricula for different styles? Really important.

87% of students fall into multiple categories, while only 13% prefer only one learning style, according to a 2014 study from the Journal of Postgraduate Medicine.

So, which device makes differentiated instruction easiest on teachers and schools?

While there are many choices, tablets can provide the mobility and flexibility that teachers want and students need.

Tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Education allow students to choose how they learn through stylus-enabled drawing programs, audio and recording tools, speech-to-text and onscreen keyboard abilities and touch controls. These capabilities make differentiating instruction easier than ever, so teachers can focus on educating and inspiring their students.

Tablet technology goes beyond learning styles—it also helps special education students immensely. Special education technology includes built-in tools that help educators adjust material to individual education plans. This allows special needs students to communicate in their own way, and in many cases it fully integrates them into the classroom. Learn more and hear Lilly’s story here.

Students today are digital natives. They’re most comfortable using electronic devices with touch-screen abilities that give them immediate feedback—and when they’re comfortable, their ability to learn expands tenfold. With educational technologies and apps at their fingertips, our next generation of thinkers are primed for big things.

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photo credit: Padcamp 2012 via photopin (license)

The @ASCD Arias Series-Teaching With Tablets

Recently ASCD released 4 short books that are aimed at packing a big punch in a small package. Each are less that 100 pages but have loads of quality information. Over the next few posts we will look at each one to see what they are all about. Then we will give away 1 copy of each. Sound like fun? In the first post we took a look at Fostering Grit. Today we take a look at Teaching With Tablets. 

It seems like more and more classrooms, schools and districts are embracing and utilizing tablets for learning. Even Microsoft got in on the act at ISTE this year giving away a Surface RT to nearly every attendee at the conference. In my district we have many schools buying iPads and Android devices for everything from teacher productivity tools to class sets that will be used in reading and mathematics interventions.

Tablets are full of possibilities. With the proliferation of apps and app stores it is easy to take a device out of the box and make it do pretty much whatever you want. But the biggest question I still grapple with, especially with Administrators is what are you going to do with them? They know they have to have them, but don't really have a plan as to what they want to do with them.

The ASCD Arias Teaching With Tablets should be required reading for anyone who is considering buying tablets for the classroom or for anyone trying to figure out how to use them. The authors have skillfully laid out simple considerations and plans for anyone looking to integrate these devices into their classroom.

In addition to the suggestions for use and ideas for integration, they do caution (smartly I might add) that it is easy to use tablets as substitutes for worksheets or other isolating activities. We have to use the technology in a smart way and use it when appropriate. Just because we have the access, doesn't mean we always have to use it.

One of the things I like best in this Arias is the checklist in the back. Used for planning and reflection, the teacher really has to consider the use of the technology during the lesson and consider afterwards things like data collection and formative assessment. For example, to start the checklist asks the teacher to "Establish Purpose" by reflecting upon what is it you want students to do in the lesson in general broken into content purpose, language purpose and social purpose. It really forces, in the planning process that the technology is something that should help achieve those goals and not be the focus of the lesson.

This Arias, is short. At 46 pages this is a super quick read. But don't be fooled by it's length. There is great and practical information packed into those pages. At at $7 for the eBook it's a bargain.

What to learn more about Teaching With Tablets or any of the other ASCD Arias series? Visit this page to learn more!