By the time most children reach school age, they have already been exposed to myriad forms of technology. Sitting passively in a classroom taking notes with paper and pencil is simply not a productive way to engage children. Interactive learning emphasizes a more real-world, active discourse among students through group work and a more hands-on approach to learning. This includes digital teaching tools as well as brainstorming techniques, role playing, peer partner and cooperative learning.
Significance
Interactive teaching methodologies come back to the basic understanding of how interdependent the world has become. Teaching students how to collaborate is a key component. As more businesses and work environments become team-oriented, it is important that from a young age, students are cognizant of how to provide and articulate educated feedback with their peers within a definitive structure.
Types
This type of learning demands a teacher who is good at moderating, motivating and helping with the direction of the group. Interactive learning also includes digital teaching aids as well as the use of whiteboards. Both of these tools are actually bringing the fun back into learning subjects such as math and science. According to Chronis Kynigos, a researcher at the Research Academic Computer Technology Institute (RACTI) and director of the Educational Technology Lab at the University of Athens, as reported in "ScienceDaily," learning math through the use of new software tools known as Dynamic Digital Artefacts (DDAs) can be enjoyable.
Features
Kynigos and a team of other researchers realized what students were using at home in the form of digital games was far more advanced than what they were using to learn math and science at school. The developers of DDAs realized that the simple recall of facts was not enough to keep complex science and math concepts fixed in the minds of students. With animation and games, DDAs help students understand the principles of Newton and allow them to formulate and move mathematical objects in a virtual milieu.
Considerations
The developers of these interactive math and science games also recognized they needed to provide teachers with instructional rules with which to monitor and assess what their students were learning. They translated their didactic plans into five languages and adjusted them to fit different curricula.
Whiteboards
Another interactive technique that draws students in is the use of interactive whiteboards. Whiteboards have been around since the early 1990s, but now they have become almost indispensable in classrooms K-12. Animated by simple software, the whiteboard is transformed into a computer screen that projects content visible to the whole class. The teacher might incorporate several different components into a lesson plan such as websites, photos or music with which students can engage. All this technology has helped in the effort to make learning much more multisensory and hands-on.
