Teaching Technology to your Students (It's not just for Tech Class anymore!)

If you want to learn more about teaching tech to students, check out my The Language of Technology: Teaching Technology Skills to Students blog post here!

You give students directions and plenty of time to work and when things are just wrapping up a student asks, “What were we supposed to be doing?”

I saw this happening all of the time and I was getting tired of that defeated feeling I would get every time I heard something like this. In trying to get to the bottom of this, I discovered that a lot of my students didn’t understand what I meant when I said, “Go to Language Arts in Moodle” or “Find the Doc in your Google Drive.” I just assumed they knew what I was talking about because they all seemed so good with technology, but in reality, they are good with phones, but they aren’t so great with educational technology. 

Imagine giving students the directions, and everyone goes to work. Maybe a reasonable question or two, but they all know what to do and how to access the resources they need. No more “Wait, what are we doing?” or “I’m confused!” 

The solution here is explicitly teaching students about the technology you are using. Give them a tour of your learning management system. Show them how to “Make a Copy” of a Google Doc. Have them learn technology vocabulary! 

I realized that my students did not understand what Google Drive was or how it worked, so I prepared a whole lesson all about the different Google Apps and how they all work together. 

Making sure you explain the technology so that students understand what you mean when you say “Share it with me when you are done” is going to help students feel more confident and help them to be less overwhelmed by directions they didn’t understand. Now they will understand and be able to move forward with less confusion!

Making sure you explain the technology so that students understand what you mean when you say “Share it with me when you are done” is going to help students feel more confident and help them to be less overwhelmed by directions they didn’t understand. Now they will understand and be able to move forward with less confusion!

If you are unsure about what students know or do not know, grab my FREE technology pre-assessment here and see what they know.