Jóhanna Birna Bjartmarsdóttir
Tech Space
The technologies I would implement into my classroom to make it more successful and increase each student's autonomy are Grammarly, Focus To-Do, and Mobile Language Apps. Firstly the students would need to have a Lenovo laptop—they could also use their phones—be able to use the technology tools used in the classroom.
Grammarly is a tool that is especially useful to international students and students with dyslexia. I would not suggest using this for young children or for English grammar classes, but students should be allowed to use this platform when being graded on how well they understand and can synthesize material. It gives students more autonomy and an opportunity to truly shine in the subject they are being tested on instead of having their lack of correct English grammar or dyslexia hinder them from showcasing their understanding of the material.
Focus To-Do allows students to see exactly how much time they spend studying and how much time they spend on each subject and be able to keep track of upcoming assignments. At the start of the semester, students will put all of their courses into the app and all the assignments due for that course throughout the semester. Then they will assign each assignment a level of importance to know what assignments count for the most points and should then require
more time than most assignments. The app will color-code each class, and when a student is studying for a given subject, they can go into the assignment they are working on and start a timer.
Moreover, you can link the app to your phone so that when you start the timer, your phone will automatically go on do not disturb mode. At the end of each day, you can see how much you studied, what you were studying, and how many tasks you completed. At the end of the week and month, you can see exactly how many hours you spent on each subject and a pie chart of how much time you spent on one course in relation to the other courses. This helps with accountability and being able to meet your goals. Perhaps if a student did not do well on an exam, they could see how much time they studied for it, and either know that they needed to study more to get a better grade or reach out for help if they had studied a lot and still did not do well. Also, for each task completed and minute spent on studying, you get "sunlight" to nurture your tree, which with time, you see grow the more you study. This can also motivate students to finish more assignments to get more sunlight and points. This tool might not be effective in educating on a specific topic, but it gives students more accountability and autonomy in their academic performance.
I would integrate mobile language apps into the classroom to teach students about languages. For example, I would use a learning language app (either Duolingo or Mesmerize) and have students pick a language that they want to learn aside from their native language (unless that language was not taught in the school). This will enhance students' autonomy over their education, which is proven to improve students' willingness to engage in the activity and their academic performance. When the students have picked a language, they will have assigned practices to do each week in the app. In the classroom, students would have 10-20 minutes to complete a dedicated section in the app, and then they would be required to know how to say a given phrase in the class in their chosen language, which would then be followed by a class discussion. Then there would be a final presentation at the end of the semester about some aspect of the culture associated with the student's chosen language that each student would give in the language that they picked. This method would combine both traditional educational methods with the resources that language apps provide us today.
