How students learn better with smartphones, tablets & Co.
devices can become useful learning aids and which learning tips you can give the students. How students learn better with smartphones,
Even if there is a ban on cell phones in your class: Smartphones and tablets can actually make it easier for students to learn (not only) at home. These eight new media ideas show how mobile devices can become useful learning aids and which learning tips you can give the students. How students learn better with smartphones, tablets & Co..
Smartphones and tablets: Always with you - and surprisingly good learning aids
Facebook, WhatsApp, Pokémon Go: The fact that the students seem to have grown together with their smartphones and tablets can of course be viewed critically. But precisely because the young people are so familiar with the devices and use them so extensively in their free time, the new media turn out to be clever helpers for better learning.
The students are particularly motivated and have various opportunities to learn the subject individually and playfully. We have collected eight creative learning tips. Let yourself be inspired - you and your students are sure to come up with even more great ideas!
- Game apps as an introduction to learning
Important for successful learning: a positive attitude. Those who force themselves to learn with an inner aversion will only torment themselves unnecessarily. Encourage your students to start their learning units with a (concentration) game. Instead of immediately starting to cramming with acute reluctance, take 10 minutes for the game app that you enjoy most.
Whether Sudoku or classics such as solitaire or bubble shooter: When playing, students clear their heads, become receptive and get the momentum going for learning. In such a positive mood, it will definitely be easier for them. But be careful: The best thing to do is to set an alarm clock so that the students don't "get stuck" and forget about learning because of all the fun they play.
- Use streaming services
Deezer, Napster, Spotify, Apple Music, or Google Play Music: There are many music streaming services that your students are likely to be using already. Give them the tip to search for playlists with keywords like "Study", "Classic" or "Instrumental". After all, calm music can be a nice support as background music during learning.
If you like, you can then share your favorite playlists with the class or create your own learning playlists. So everyone has a nice pool of "learning music" up their sleeves.
- Notes and photos instead of index cards
In theory it sounds great: write down important formulas, content or mnemonics on index cards so that you can repeat them anytime and anywhere. In practice, however, the index cards are usually left on the desk at home and learning in between is canceled.
Things look very different when the students store the little mnemonic aids in their smartphones - because most of them leave their breakfast at home rather than their smartphones. Bullet points and mnemonics can be saved as notes; The students simply photograph more complicated formulas or equations. So you always have your "digital index cards" at hand and can quickly repeat something on the bus or in the corridor.
- Memo sentences as voice messages
Writing down a memorandum once and then reading it over and over again is of course an option. If you want to add another "channel", you can also use the smartphone for acoustic learning aids. The students can easily record catchy, helpful and / or funny memos as voice messages and also add important information or a few more in-depth explanations.
- Group chat as a learning group
If you don't have time to meet up with your classmates in a study group (or just don't feel like it), you can use chat media such as WhatsApp, where many young people prefer to talk anyway. The pupils can easily clarify small questions about the material, ask each other tasks or send voice messages in which they explain the content to each other.
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- Make learning memes yourself
Memes are pictures with short texts that spread quickly on the web and usually make you smile. Striking or bizarre photos of celebrities, children or animals or illustrations or comic characters are given a new context by a slogan or a funny shoot is missed. For example, almost everyone knows memes with the musty Grumpy Cat today.
Challenge your students to create small learning memes themselves. If you are looking for "Meme Generator", you will find plenty of uncomplicated options. Regardless of whether you have a cute baby dog ‹‹recite binomial formulas or a thoughtful dinosaur ponders an important technical term: there are no limits to the creativity of your students. The main thing is that you understand the link yourself and have to smile. The students should only save the memes well dosed for the really important content - this way they have the greatest effect and actually stay in the memory.
- Search or rotate videos
From formulas to experiments to discussion tips: there are learning videos on almost every topic on video platforms such as YouTube. Encourage the students to look for such illustration or explanatory videos so that they can repeat or deepen the subject matter independently and in a varied manner. If you like, you can of course also make short explanatory videos and share them with the class.
- Record possible solutions
Videos are also great for recording possible solutions so that they can be traced back at any time. For example, when the students solve a calculation that is complicated for them, they simply film the whole thing on their cell phone and "think out loud". In this way, even weeks later, you can understand the trains of thought and solutions at any time, instead of sitting helplessly in front of your own bills. In other subjects, for example, they can record important work sequences step by step or document for themselves how a certain conclusion was reached.
You can give the students the learning tips either verbally or on a small leaflet. Or you can link individual ideas specifically with homework. Whichever way you go about it, encourage students to try and test, and let them share their experiences. After all, everyone benefits from good learning tips!
