Innovative Uses of Classroom Tools & Technologies to Foster Students' Learning

According to many researchers, students learn best when they are actively engaged in the learning process. The more opportunities provided for students to participate and be involved, the better they ought to achieve from the course. In many cases, professors need to go beyond the institutional and technological barriers to deliver the best of class education. Many professors frequently use multimedia application such as PowerPoint, graphics, audio, video & animation in courses to promote student involvement in their learning. PowerPoint supports hyperlinks and sound features that can easily create an interactive presentation that provides opportunities for students to employ higher cognitive strategies. Digital video and animation are invaluable tool for demonstrating processes such as automation. This paper highlights some uses of classroom tools and technology in a particular institution which were proven effective. Nowadays online course delivery is a popular concept, but it has some issues with engaging students. There are some very effective common tools that can be used in online classes to improve students' engagement. It is very unlikely that a single tool or technique is enough for online learning. Creative uses of a combination of tools serve better in this case. Some of these tools are: email, discussion boards, application sharing, selective release, podcasting, vodcasting, and mass texting. Email is a teacher's best friend. Students should be encouraged to use email and discussion board extensively. They need to be monitored for their discussions on course management site continually and guided constructively. Discussions generate ideas, help create a learning community in online classes, provide discussion transcripts, provide a means of online conference and collaboration, and get students thinking in writing as they write. It is shown that archived lectures with the PowerPoint slides helps student the most. Competitive group projects are common course requirements. Technology such as selective release can create work environment so that students within the group use their specific room as virtual communication platform. It makes easy for students to do brain storming and share files with their group members without revealing information to other groups.