One of my roles as district digital resource teacher is to facilitate a cohort of secondary teacher leaders who support 1:1 digital implementation (DI) at their schools I
know that most of these blogs focus on how students use technology, but I want to share how these same tools can have an impact on teachers. When teachers engage with digital tools in meaningful ways, they are better able to implement them in their instruction in ways that matter to their students.

Thank you to our special guest blogger Michelle Flicek, first grade teacher in Green Bay, Wisconsin and SMART Exemplary Educator.  

In Part I of this post, I talked about the lessons we learned as we brought gamified learning to classrooms at scale, providing support for teachers and making it easier for them to use games in class. This time I’ll cover the other half of what we learned in doing this: the many interesting and fun ways to engage learners.

Research is discovering the impacts of game-based learning on learner outcomes, and finding correlating benefits. Teachers who have employed games in some capacity in their classrooms have seen how engaged and excited the learners are. The love of learning emerges. And of course, one of the core attributes of their learners – Generation Z, who are all digital natives – is that gaming is core.

From America to Australia and everywhere in between, the value and importance of game-based learning is only growing. Discovering unique ways to engage students with their learning, including through the use of gamification, has been shown to have a positive impact on learning outcomes.

SMART Technologies advances its vision of inspiring greatness in students and teachers around the world to achieve better learning outcomes.

Have you ever had a great meal at a restaurant, but the service was so horrible that your entire experience was poor? This simple example illustrates the importance of end to end user experiences. It is not enough to create an excellent product; companies must strive for excellence everywhere users interact with them.

It’s leaps and bounds forward for Saskatchewan students as a new agreement provides teachers with added access to SMART Learning Suite and professional development. 

Recently, the SMART ANZ Team held a two-day training event at Sheldon College, Queensland. The College is an outstanding example of careful implementation of technology for learning and innovative practices. Set amongst beautiful grounds, the College has over 1400 students including, an Early Learning Centre and the LINQ Precinct where students learn in industry standard contexts of manufacturing, robotics, 3D Printing, the ability to create digital media products at broadcast quality, using business entrepreneur practices.