From the course: Teaching with LinkedIn Learning

Empowering students with technology - LinkedIn Learning Tutorial

From the course: Teaching with LinkedIn Learning

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Empowering students with technology

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- Let's do a really quick reflection exercise. Think about the students that are taking your class and what potential careers you might be preparing them for. Now let's make a list of what programs, technology, and skills your students need. As an educator, any opportunity we have to allow students to gain these skills and knowledge will help them as they're moving down that path towards their career. Let's also think about what technology you expect students to know as they enter your classroom. Should they be able to let's say use a world processor, lay out data on a spreadsheet, or perhaps even publish a basic blog, or record video and audio as part of their coursework? To take this one step further, do you think students entering your class are all at the exact same level when it comes to their technical skills? For most instructors, students will be spread across a range of technical ability. Now there's a few ways that you can help empower your students to be successful with the technical requirements of your course, as well as expedite their technical knowledge needed for their future careers. The first thing you can do is share with students what technical skills will be required. In your syllabus or on your LMS, I encourage you to list out the programs and technical skills you expect students to have, and even provide a link to courses on LinkedIn Learning that can help them gain those skills. This provides a valuable resource that students can utilize if they need additional supports or don't fully know the technology. Second, provide opportunities for students to gain real-life technical experience inside your class. Perhaps have students showcase knowledge by creating an executive style PowerPoint presentation, or even a website, blog, or some other digital media resource. Having students learn the technology they need for a class project ahead of time is also a great way to introduce flipped learning and to remove the burden of the teacher having to hold all the technical knowledge and deliver it to the students. One suggestion here, if you are going to incorporate digital projects into your course, is be sure to make a rubric ahead of time to clearly communicate your expectations and encourage students to make their coursework high enough quality that they could even use these projects in a portfolio that might help them land a job in the future. Finally, I also encourage you to think about the nontechnical skills that students need to be successful. LinkedIn Learning has courses on time management, note taking, presentation delivery, and a plethora of other skills students may need to be successful, both in your course, and in their careers.

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