6 Essential Educational Technology Equipment for Classrooms

Today’s schools have started to take on different shapes and educational trends than schools 20 years ago. The integration of technology has become indispensable to classroom teaching as well as learning beyond the classroom. Educational technology equipment is the use of computers, tablets, and mobile phones in the process of learning. 

Teachers prefer incorporating technology in education to gain access to a wider variety of learning materials, improve students’ skills like communication, IT, and self-learning,  allow students to learn in an engaging, fun atmosphere, and introduce new teaching techniques to enhance the learning experience. 

We’ve managed to combine the most needed equipment that classrooms need to effectively implement educational technology today. 

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Educational Technology Equipment 

For a school to implement educational technology, smart technology for classrooms is vital. This ranges from hardware and software equipment that can be print, visual, audio, audiovisual, and interactive devices.

According to Grand View for research, the global education technology market in 2019 was estimated at $76.4 billion.

This shows how the market size for Edtech is rapidly increasing as schools and educators have come to acknowledge it as indispensable to learning. 

The above study made by  The Common Sense Census polled a sample of more than 1,200 K–12 teachers to measure the state of education technology in America’s classrooms and explore the growing need for technology in education. As indicated in the findings, digital tools are now more commonly used in the classrooms of today. 

Types of Educational Technology Equipment  

This section discusses several examples of educational technology in the classroom so that schools and academic institutions can fully grasp the scope, usage, and importance of this equipment.

• SMARTboard

A SMARTboard is an interactive whiteboard that allows you to write and move things around by touching. It is typically connected to a computer and acts as a computer screen mirror to maximise vision for viewers. 

They usually come with special pens to write with so this is convenient for teachers to avoid using several markers at the same time. A SMARTboard can now function simultaneously; in other words, teachers and students can touch it at the same time to work on a question for example.

SMARTboards can boost student engagement in the classroom which allows them to be more alert and participate in active classroom learning.

Teachers can even include game-based learning using SMARTboards to carry out fun group activities that act as additional learning support or play videos while highlighting key lesson elements simultaneously.

• Digital textbooks

A digital textbook or an e-textbook is the digital equivalent of physical textbooks that are typically used in either online or hybrid classes. Teachers love incorporating digital textbooks as an alternative to traditional ones as they are more convenient so students do not have to carry heavy books every day to class, they can hold hundreds of other books, and they usually increase student productivity as they become more interactive with the learning material at hand. 

 

Schools have also started to take interest in digital textbooks to cut down on textbook prices and to facilitate the school’s digital transformation. Schools can significantly spend much less on learning materials as many publishers have the option of renting or buying textbooks. The publishers’ websites also usually feature a demo option to take a quick look at the contents of the book before committing to a purchase. 

Therefore, one of the best decisions to make when buying educational technology equipment is to think of digital textbooks and how they greatly benefit both the school and the teacher.

• Projectors

An overhead projector can be a quite useful purchase for the school’s classrooms. First of all, students will be able to view teachers’ presentations in a magnified and clear manner and they will be able to carry out more efficient class presentations. 

For teachers, projectors can be a great tool for integrating educational technology in the classroom. For example, they will make better use of class time when presentations are prepared before the lesson. They can also start gamifying the lesson as projectors share basically everything coming from a computer screen. 

Projectors are a great way to integrate blended learning into the classroom where technology can be used for different learning techniques like collaborative, game-based, peer or project-based learning. 

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• Laptops and/or tablets

Laptops or computers are definitely one of the most essential purchases a school can make to integrate educational technology into the classrooms. They form the basis of any digital media introduced into the learning class. 

Teachers typically carry out all their academic and logistic class work on school computers. Also, having laptops for the students in the classroom would be a great addition to the class equipment as teachers will be able to communicate with them directly and efficiently.

A laptop can be an essential tool for maintaining a student’s focus and engagement with the learning material. This will also be a great opportunity to teach students important life skills like IT, decision-making, and self-learning. 

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The learning capacity is basically infinite with laptops or tablets being incorporated into the classroom; teachers can integrate games, and online group activities, take the students on virtual tours or even use VR lessons.

• Headphones

Headphones can be quite the valuable purchase a school can make to own valuable gadgets. They can be great for listening activities, speaking exercises or simply educational movie watching. 

They will allow students, especially young ones, to focus on the task assigned to them at the moment, and eliminate any chances for non-concentration and daydreaming.

• Internet connectivity

Without a doubt, being connected to the internet is what the world thrives on today. The classroom is a no different medium. In fact, being connected to the internet in the classroom has several benefits for both the teacher and student.

Having good internet connectivity throughout the school is an integral part of education nowadays. For example, if the school has a contract with a Learning Management Software provider, the internet would be quite an essential purchase. It would simplify teachers’ academic and administrative tasks within and outside the classroom.

This ranges from creating quizzes and quick assignments to generating reports and analysing students’ data on a monthly basis. 

Read more: Learning Management System: Features and Benefits

The internet can also simplify hybrid learning within the classroom where technology is the essence of students’ understanding and retention. Also, if the teacher assigns group class activities, students can use the internet to do their own research and exchange valuable information. 

The list of ways to use the internet in the classroom is quite endless as the key is to properly plan technology-induced lessons beforehand and make use of teacher resources online for inspiration.

Educational Technology Tools for Classroom Use

Apart from educational technology equipment, teachers in schools can definitely benefit from incorporating educational technology tools as well. These tools can range from apps and websites to useful teaching resources. 

Below are some educational technology tools that will be quite useful if you’re a classroom teacher.

• Increase interaction using FlipGrid

Flipgrid is a platform that allows teachers and students to interact effectively in a fun environment. It’s an excellent educational technology tool since it allows users to create short videos on a shared app while discussing a certain topic. Teachers upload “themes” based on class subjects, and students, in turn, create videos in response to the theme. 

 

One of the advantages of this technique is that it provides students time to respond, removing the burden of needing to respond immediately.

It’s also an exciting tool because it lets users add emojis, stickers, and text to their videos. Thus, this tool can greatly boost class interaction among students and help you build a fun learning environment.

• Gamification using Scrabble

For English classes, in particular, scrabble competitions will undoubtedly improve your class’s spelling and vocabulary abilities. You may play scrabble every now and then instead of a standard pop spelling quiz to keep students interested. First, teach them the rules, then divide them into groups and let them handle the rest!

You can find lots of Scrabble apps that will allow you to create groups and play during class. Your students will undoubtedly benefit from the collective learning experience that is fun at the same time!

• Flipped classroom using EdPuzzle

A flipped classroom is a kind of learning technique that puts focus on the student as he/she is responsible for practising class content at home and working on it at school. It is basically the opposite of the common teacher-teaching-student technique. 

You can hit two birds with one stone by introducing the concept of the flipped classroom while using educational technology at the same time! EdPuzzle is a great app for this specific purpose; you basically create an engaging class video by adding comments, notes and questions to the video. 

This app will be effective at implementing the flipped classroom experience and will help your students develop critical thinking, communication and presentation skills as students are watching the learning videos.

After all, the integration of educational technology tools and equipment can be intimidating at first, but once you get the hang of it, it will definitely take your teaching experience to a whole new level!

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