Author: Eric C. MacDonald, Ed.D., Benchmark School, Media, PA

Technology presents both challenges and opportunities for the struggling literacy learner. Living in the world of the Internet has increased the amount of text and reading as well as the complexity of finding the information one seeks. Yet there are a wealth of tools available to students that can be helpful to their strategic approach to literacy and learning in general.

Over the past 30 years, I have taught struggling literacy learners at Benchmark School. Benchmark is a small, private school for students who have experienced difficulty with literacy learning and other related learning issues. Our primary goal is to help students develop an understanding of their approach to learning and to approach learning in a strategic manner that will lead to increased success as they move on to other schools. As far back as the late 1980s, one might find me absconding with any computer in the building that seemed to be underutilized by its owner so that we could use it in my classroom. Back then, we used those computers mainly for word processing, though sometimes you might find us dissecting a 5” floppy disk to see what was inside. The dawn of the Internet has presented many new possibilities for teaching students to use technology tools for strategic learning. There are several key guidelines that I generally use in selecting tools to teach to my students.

Focus on strategic learning. During the course of the year, it seems helpful to focus on a few key tech tools that enable students to become more strategic, effective learners. There are many technology tools that helps teachers to scaffold student learning and enhance classroom instruction. Technology can be great for presenting information to students, but helping them to find and use tools that help them become successful learners is what is most important. For example, SmartBoards are found in many classrooms and can be excellent instructional tools. However, students cannot take the SmartBoard with them when they leave the classroom. VoiceThread is an exciting tool for engaging students in multimedia discussion of content and for many other exciting instructional opportunities, but it is not a tool that will help them to approach their own future learning strategically. Yet, if I teach a student how to use a graphic organizer tool, the student can use this for planning writing, note taking and more anywhere they go. Struggling learners, even the middle school students with whom I work, seem to need lots of practice with strategies to develop proficiency with that strategy and this seems true with strategic tech tools as well. It appears helpful for many students to focus on teaching them how to use a few, powerful tools that will help them to be more strategic learners.

The best tech tools are the easiest tech tools. A key criteria in choosing tools is to find ones that are easy to use. Often if a tool is too complex, students may not persist long enough to really learn how to use it effectively. Many struggling learners have issues remembering things. Even most adults have difficulty remembering all their usernames and passwords. Yet many great tech tools require logging in with a username and password. There can be a lot of wasted classroom time helping students with this issue. When I look for tools to use with my students, I try to limit the number of different tools that require login information, as well as work with students on strategies for keeping track of such information.

Users of the Internet browser Google Chrome, can add many great strategic tech tools through the Google Chrome store and create shortcuts to these apps on a homepage in Chrome. Some examples of great apps available in the Chrome Webstore include:

• Draw.io – a free diagramming, concept mapping tool
• Lucidcharts – another, slightly more complex diagramming, concept mapping tool
• Quizlet – a flashcard, studying app
• WeVideo – while not really a strategic learning tool, this is a great cross-platform and collaborative video editing app

There are a growing number of such technology tools available through the Google Chrome store and that can be easily accessible to students through their browser.

Even better, a growing number of schools have adopted Google Apps and many great tools now allow students to login through Google Apps or Google Drive. This keeps the amount of login information students need to keep track of to a minimum. Now Google Drive allows users to add apps that can be accessed directly through Drive. Among the useful apps that can be added to Google Drive are:

• Draw.io and Lucidcharts – diagramming tools mentioned above
• Mindmup – another mind mapping/concept mapping tool
• Todo List – a to do list and organizer app

There are a growing number of such useful apps. Beyond strategic apps, there are apps for creating better presentations and collaboration. To check out these apps, go to your Google Drive and click on the gear icon in the upper right corner. From there, go to “Manage Apps” and click on “connect more apps” where you can view the variety of different available apps.

Even better, Google now has “Add-ons” in their Google Docs word processing program that can provide even more support for students as they write. A sampling of some of the tools available include:

• Mindmeister – turns bulleted lists into a mind map/concept map
• Texthelp Study Skills – allows for highlighting information in documents and collecting them into a new document.
• PRO Writing Aid – a proofreading tool
• Kaizena – allows teachers (and others) to provide verbal feedback on documents

Again, the list of Add-ons will grow and hopefully include more powerful, strategic tools for students. To find out what Add-ons are available, in a Google Doc document, there is a menu item “Add-ons.” Click on that menu item and then click on “Get Add-ons.”

Another reason I adopted the use of Google Docs (the word processing predecessor of Google Drive) when it first became available was its ease of use for students. Not only did it present a familiar interface, somewhat similar to Microsoft Word, it was more streamlined and eliminated some of what made word processing difficult for struggling learners. For example, students no longer need to remember to save their work. If the computer crashes or they “accidently” hit the delete key, the information is still there. Even if they forget to name the document, there are ways to try to locate it.

Students must be able to utilize tools beyond my classroom. My goal is to develop effective, strategic learners who know what tools, including technology tools, can best help them to learn. When evaluating technology tools, I want to choose tools that students can use not just in my classroom, but in their other classes and when they leave Benchmark and move onto a variety of other schools for high school. This requires me to consider two other related points: choosing “device agnostic” tools and free or inexpensive tools.

Tools that Transcend Platform. Students today have access to a variety of different devices, from Windows-based, to Mac, to iOS, to Android and beyond. Students need to be able to access the tools across different devices if the tool is to be useful to them beyond my classroom. Many of the tools that I use are browser-based. Some also have iPad or other tablet apps in addition to their web-based site.

Choose free or inexpensive tools. When possible, teaching students to use tools that will be available to them for free or at low-cost will help ensure access for these tools beyond their time in your classroom or school. Most of the time when I recommend my school purchase a tech tool it is to enable teachers to better utilize it with students through teacher dashboards that allow monitoring of student work or provide other collaboration and instructional tools. However, it is important that the tool be available for free or at a very low cost to students when they leave our school so that they can continue to use the tool. Otherwise, it is important to teach students how to transfer what they have learned to do in the paid tech tool to more readily available free tools. For example, Benchmark subscribed for a number of years to Webspiration Classroom, which is an online concept mapping tool. It provides easy sharing of assignments and concept maps with students, among other teacher tools. However, we also would introduce students to other concept mapping/diagramming tools that did not require an expensive subscription. We also subscribe to a great research tool called NoodleTools. This tool helps students with the research process using an interface similar to the index cards and file box of years past. (But with that information virtual, you can’t spill and mix up or lose the cards!) While we pay for this tool, students when they move onto new schools can purchase access for an extremely low cost, currently $15/year for an individual/family subscription.

Collaboration is an important digital age skill. The final element that I consider when choosing tech tools for struggling learners is that it provide a means for collaboration. Collaboration features allow for teacher and peer scaffolding of learning. It is also a key skill for students to develop that will help them be successful in the digital age workforce. One of the things that drew me to Google Drive early on was the collaboration features that it offered. Many of the tools mentioned earlier that integrate with Google Drive allow for collaboration. There are also many other tools available with collaboration features. For example, NoodleTools, the research tool mentioned earlier, has collaboration features that allow for multiple students to work on the same research project.

Technology tools provide students with much support in developing into effective and strategic lifelong learners. Through teaching students how to use a few, powerfully strategic technology tools that provide easy access and use, work across platforms, allow for collaboration, and are easily accessible on a variety of devices, we empower students to become more successful. That is why literacy educators should be on the forefront of technology integration.

Contact information: Eric MacDonald – ericmacdonald@benchmarkschool.org