The knowledge society that we now live in requires new thinking to know and understand the better ways of what constitutes effective and engaging learning, teaching sessions.
Former conception of learning and teaching no longer serve to the present educational needs and requirements of the students. And therefore the power of inquiry-based approach to learning and teaching is acknowledged.
The best thing about inquiry-based education is that it increases intellectual engagement and foster deep understanding through the development of a hands-on, minds-on and research-based processes towards teaching and learning. Inquiry honors the complex, interconnected nature of knowledge construction that provides opportunities for both teachers and students to collaboratively grow, test and reflect on their learning.
As a learning strategy it is student eccentric and is all about learners constructing their own understanding and knowledge through asking questions. Inquiry involves learners in the following ways:
— They tackle real-world questions, issues and controversies.
— Helps in developing questioning, research and communication skills.
— They eventually learn to solve problems or create solutions.
— They know what collaborating within and beyond the classroom is.
— Developing deep understanding of content knowledge is routine for them.
— Participating in the public creation and improvement of ideas and knowledge is another hobby they inherit.
Below is a list of some awesome tools that can help you with your approach to inquiry based learning.
Check it out:
1) EDpuzzle
With EDpuzzle you can now crop any YouTube, Khan Academy, Learn Zillion, Vimeo or other video, insert your own audio notes, narrate over the video, and best of all insert questions at any point in the video to create quizzes multiple choice or short answer quizzes. This can be a great way to add engagement in class, as teachers will find this tool very useful while revising concepts with kids. With hands on this you can do some quick quizzing sessions to know about their level of understanding of concepts.
This one is a student response system apt for asking questions to students. You simply ask a question and get response from your students. Research has shown that classroom response systems can boost student-learning outcomes through deep learning, not just recall. This is a great platform and can be used for K-12 and even higher education.
3) iClicker
It is a powerful formative assessment tool and intuitive student response system that allows for dynamic student-teacher interaction.
Here is how it works: Instructors ask questions through any presentation application; students answer questions with a remote or smart device; instructors display results in real-time and record responses.
A great tool to aid your teaching and know the level of concept understanding among students.
4) ThinkBinder
It is an excellent web tool for creating study and discussion groups. It allows students to collaborate on their homework, ask questions and interact in realtime, upload videos and share notes and files all in a secured group. The tool also supports text and video chat and provides a collaborative whiteboard to help students work on their problems.
5) Tricider
With this tool teachers can easily collect ideas, discuss on them and vote for the decision. That’s how Tricider works. Now you will make decisions along with your class but a lot faster and that too without meetings or calls. Innovative solutions arise because everyone can contribute ideas and vote. Taking advantage of all the opinions and ideas to find the best solution has never been easier. Taking your student’s opinion for your class activity will help you teach better to students therefore it will help students learn and perform better.
Engage, assess and personalize your class with Socrative! Educators can initiate formative assessments through quizzes, quick question polls, exit tickets and space races all with their Socrative Student app.
Socrative will instantly grade, aggregate and provide visuals of results to help you identify opportunities for further instruction. Save time and visualize student understanding when it matters”
7) MindMeister
It is a very good tool students can use to create mind maps and brainstorm complex topics. Mind maps can include a wide variety of multimedia including: text, images, icons, links, and attachments. It also supports offline editing and syncing. Mind maps can be exported to Word, PowerPoint, PDF, and in the form of an image that brings a lot of comfort to student in order to access and edit their docs. Teachers can ask students to create their own mind maps and check them to know about where student lacks. It can be a great way that will engage student into creative way of expressing what they learn.
8) EverySlide
A web tool that allows you to create interaction around your presentations. You create a presentation in PowerPoint or Keynote, upload it to EverySlide and share the generated link with your students. Using the link, students can join your slideshow from any device. You can then start asking questions, or running polls while students are going through the slides. After the presentation, you can review participants’ interactions online or download their contact details and answers as a spreadsheet.
9) Kahoot
Kahoot allows teachers to create quizzes and surreys that include a wide variety of multimedia elements such as videos, pictures and text. Each quiz you create can be accessed by students across different devices.
10) Zoho Survey
Though the tool is not designed specially for educational needs still, Zoho Survey is a great tool that teachers can use to create surveys and quizzes. This service comes with a wide variety of interesting features such as: Mix and match 21 response formats in your survey, ready made templates and themes to use with your surveys, multiple question types are available and hence you can ask your audience exactly what you want. Add logic to your surveys by skipping or adding questions. Depending on the survey taker’s previous responses, you can always make the surveys shorter and more relevant.
So what’s your take on inquiry based learning and which are the tools you use to make it happen?
Share with us in the comment box below.
