The Oxford Dictionary defines “Innovative” as “featuring new methods; advanced or original.” Technology was trickling into our school systems at a pretty comfortable rate. Then, all of a sudden, it was forced down our throats at breakneck speed with the age of Covid-19. “Ready or not, I’m here!” With the coming of technology, there have come countless changes in teaching methods and materials and numerous innovations in the classroom. It’s incredible how many of those new innovative features in classrooms support EdTech. Let’s look at a few!

Paperless Environments (i.e., Google Drive or Showbie)

Schools are using these environments to send homework home digitally from cloud-based systems, which means that teachers can use a vast range of metrics to track their students’ progress. Students can access their homework from anywhere at any time as long as they have internet access. 

There are cons to this, however. What happens if they have a student that doesn’t have internet or that have poor connectivity? What if they don’t have a device at home that connects to the internet? This may present a problem. 

However, there are also solutions. Many schools have devices that they allow the students to borrow. They also have several ways around the low or no internet problems.

Screencasting

A screencast is a recording of what is happening on a computer screen along with an audio recording. This is especially useful in the classroom when used with a classroom projector via EdTech, such as Camtasia Studio, Adobe Captivate, or Screenflow.

Screencasting allows teachers to record step-by-step tutorials, lessons, or commonly asked questions and upload them to any digital platform they choose (i.e., YouTube or Vimeo) for the students to play back later. The only downfalls are that the technology can get expensive, recording can take time, and editing is a booger.

Plagiarism Detection Tools

There are so many tools out there to prevent plagiarism that it’s not even funny. Copyscape is widely used, and so is Turnitin. They compare the written work with publications, academic journals, and periodicals to detect plagiarism. Turnitin takes it a step further. It also compares the work against that of other students.

Turnitin is internet-based. It lets teachers provide feedback to students. It also comes complete with additional tools to help students write more confidently.

Screensharing (i.e., Skype, join.me., or Zoom)

Screensharing lets the person that is sharing his screen show his screen to the rest of the viewers on their devices in remote locations. This allows them to see what he sees, promoting collaboration, and sharing ideas between the teacher and the students. It draws the students in, maximizing student engagement.

However, while the teacher is screensharing, his face is typically off-screen, limiting face-to-face interaction. Also, screensharing uses a higher bandwidth than face-time, so it can be interrupted by connectivity issues.

Online Tutoring

Online tutoring is available for students from Kindergarten through college. All they must do is ask. Accredited teachers are available for one-on-one, live tutoring help for differing lengths of time. However, these services can be quite expensive.

Conclusion

All of these innovations support EdTech. You must have technology to use a paperless environment. Screencasting and screensharing are not possible without EdTech. Plagiarism detection tools support EdTech by supporting the paperless environment, and online tutoring is online, so it’s EdTech all the way.