Additionally, teachers can further engage with visual learners by pushing images, videos, and text-based content from their own devices while students efficiently take notes in class and follow along with lesson plans through eye-catching graphic elements. Large vivid displays can also be used for virtual field trips anywhere in the world, creating immersive and memorable experiences for the students.
This technology also enables a more seamless experience for teachers when presenting classroom materials. Teachers can use interactive displays to take screenshots of their lessons, instantly saving them and sending them to the whole class when needed. This flexibility allows visual learners to reference course material at their own time and pace, ensuring visual students’ unique learning styles are met.
Auditory Learners
Students with auditory learning styles learn best by the transfer of information through listening: to the spoken word, of self or others, of sounds and noises. These students would much rather listen to a lecture than read written notes and often use their voices to reinforce new concepts and ideas. Teachers have the ability to record lessons to share with students once class is over. Creating audio content for auditory learners is incredibly beneficial to students, as it allows them to easily reference recordings of previous lessons to relisten and process information at their own rate.
Additionally, by focusing on Merrill’s “activation” principle, teachers can emphasize the importance of linking new information to past experiences, enhancing the meaning and relevancy of new ideas and concepts. This can be done through an active conversation that discusses how new subject matters relate to real-world examples, simulations, or by telling stories that meld the old with the new. Classroom technology provides many methods of audio engagement, with standard examples including sound from computers and TVs, or through interactive displays with built-in speakers. Additionally, teachers can better engage with auditory learners by allowing enough time after a lesson to discuss or set up smaller breakout groups, as these students tend to want to hear what others have to say and share their ideas to learn and process information.
Kinesthetic Learners
Kinesthetic learners, sometimes called tactile learners, need to perform interactive activities to understand new concepts. They thrive off of physical, hands-on experiences –– touching, feeling, holding, doing. These students learn to perform a new task by going ahead and trying it out and learning as they go. Based on Merrill’s Principles of Instruction, kinesthetic learners can be engaged through the application of skills and information they’ve learned in the form of interactive problem-solving and task performance. For example, these learners can be encouraged to carry out each step of the task or lesson plan on their own, allowing them to see the challenges and obstacles first hand. They gain the knowledge and experience they need to solve the problem in the real world.
Chalk and dry-erase markers can do the basics, but the creative tools brought on by interactive displays can garner student attention and engagement. Writing with a stylus allows for a variety of pen colors, styles and widths, allowing kinesthetic learners to feel as if they are writing on paper. But going beyond the traditional chalkboard or whiteboard, these Images can be captured, cropped and edited right on the screen. Creativity is unleashed when students can enhance visuals or create original work using a brush—just like working in watercolor or oil painting in art class, but digitally.
Online Learners
While many schools have transitioned back to entirely in-person learning, one in five schools still plan to offer remote learning as an option for students and parents. It’s good news for a new type of learner that emerged from the pandemic—the online learner who has thrived in the remote classroom. It’s just as important for educators to ensure these students feel connected and develop at the same pace as their peers. According to Merrill’s Principles of Instruction, the key with online learners is to ensure they’re playing an active role in the learning process, instead of sitting idly by while information is presented. The principle of engagement can be adopted in a myriad of ways, including working together in online groups to see things from different perspectives to participating in interactive scenarios autonomously.
A cohesive mix of displays, learning platforms and video conferencing can bridge in-person and remote learning in a seamless way where teachers feel like they’re teaching a single blended classroom. For instance, one interactive display can be placed at the front of the classroom to serve as a presentation screen and whiteboard, while a second display shows the remote learners just like another row in a classroom. Teachers have the ability to call on remote learners just like their in-person peers to answer questions as if they were physically together. A webcam can be placed on the second display to enhance the experience for remote learners, enabling them to see what’s happening in the classroom. Finally, everyone uses a single learning platform to answer questions, collaborate on assignments, take quizzes and more, emphasizing a collaborative, hybrid environment. The result is more inclusivity in a highly interactive classroom where everyone has appropriate opportunities to excel.
Looking Ahead
Understanding these different learning styles doesn’t end in the classroom. By equipping students with tools in their formative years, teachers are empowering them for their futures. Innovative edtech tools have proven instrumental in engaging students in the classroom, be it in-person or virtually. As we learn from the lessons from the past two years, it’s clear that the classroom of the future is closer than ever.
The success of online opportunities has led to new possibilities and greater reception of facilitating an enriching learning environment that accommodates students of varying learning styles. No two students learn the same way, but with the right tools, educators can address diversity in learning styles and experiences.
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