First Step: Learning Habits in a Digital Environment

Ziva is teaching several themes in a digital environment. She has been contemplating how to best guide the students and ensure that they are performing the intended task in class. Ziva understands that the task isn’t always clear to the students, otherwise they wouldn’t keep asking “haMora Ziva, where did you say we should click? What activity are we supposed to do?” Here are a few tips we’ve assembled on classroom management in a digital environment: Defining the digital task: Be sure that the task the students are required to complete is well defined. Teachers often explain the task, but children may forget the explanation; or, they may arrive at the computer station 40 minutes later following a rotation, and in the interim forget what the task was. It is important, therefore, that you keep the instructions visible on a board or poster, as demonstrated in the following images:

 

1. Completing the task successfully and obtaining the maximum number of points: Model the activity you want the students to complete on the board (especially when it’s a new activity), showing them how to complete it properly, without guessing. This demonstration will take up 5-10 minutes of your class time, but will ensure the students’ understanding, as well as accuracy in completing the task.
2. Independent learning habits in a digital environment: Students can work independently when the task at hand is clear to them, and when they have good learning habits. Invest in your students’ learning habits and nurture them. For example, when you are explaining something, laptop computers should be in “Pizza mode—i.e. mostly closed, iPads should be covered. There should be complete silence and attentive listening. Proper digital work is done with proper noise-canceling/reducing equipment such as earphones and a microphone.

 

In subsequent blog posts we will discuss additional tools for efficient independent learning in a digital environment.