Delving into the world of ICT tools for education

Have you ever asked yourself how to make your lessons more interactive, engaging and attractive for your students?
This week, together with 13 teachers from different schools in Romania, which decides to participate in our course Integrating ICT and new technologies into teaching and education, we tried to answer this question by exploring a vast range of technological tools which, without doubt, helped to make their classroom more enthusiast. 
​We had a look at the most simple, yet quite efficient tools to edit pictures and video which can be used to prepare engaging multimedia, sum up or introduce a subject or challenge the students to create their own work of art. The teachers also learned how to energize their students and get their attention thanks to a extremely effective tool which helped them to create video presentation.
But there was more: are you wondering how to easily create a website in very few steps? Our group learned to do that thanks to our class, where they had the chance to experiment the easiest drag and drop tool to build their school website.
Since during this very difficult year the teachers had to manage online classes, it seems inevitable to explore some applications to conduct a virtual lesson: the participants therefore delved into the world of virtual whiteboard to create engaging and captivating distance lessons and to create collaborative learning experiences.

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The journey into the universe of technology continues with another tool designed to organise presentations, social media graphics, info graphic, flyers, posters, collages, CVs, banners and much more. Our group had plenty of time to put the theory into practice and unleash their imagination!
The following day starts with a game: the group had to test their abilities in Italian, Florence knowledge, famous monuments and animals roars! That’s right, we are talking about an application designed to create quizzes and flashcards to monitor and support student learning and to help them memorize and revise concepts. The students will not resist to the fascination of learning by playing J
We then explored an award-winning educational technology platform, which allows both students and teachers to easily enrich images, videos and virtual tours by inserting information, multimedia content and links. Our teachers did not miss the opportunity to immediately try it out and test its million possibilities.
Other day other game: it was time to test the group’s knowledge of Bologna with the perfect app for classroom engagement. Again, thanks to the time dedicated to the practice, the participants explored the many benefits and possibilities of the tool and learned how to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback.

The group was also interested in understanding how they could present a subject in a more interactive way and at the same time monitor the student learning. We could not listen to their request and we presented one of the most useful tool for education which had the power to leave everyone amazed and happy!
And then, last day arrived. Everyone loves YouTube right? But have you ever thought of transforming a simple video into an interactive and intriguing lesson? In our class we learned how to do so with two different tools which allow to personalise the lesson, making it more interactive.
Unfortunately the weeks finished: it was, again, a great experience which we will never forget. We hope that the group will be able and eager to go back to Romania with a luggage full of new skills, knowledge and of course wonderful memories of their time in Italy!

The trainer - Susanna Esposito